The Marvelman/Miracleman story is a tortuous one. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, Steve Dillon, Paul Neary. The quality and originality of the strip when it appeared in Warrior was fantastic enough to leave a lasting impression on a generation of comic fans. Warrior stopped printing Marvelman, then Eclipse reprinted and allowed Moore to finish his story. Gaiman took over, and Eclipse went out of business. Understandably, there was always a clamour for more original material, for resolution of the plot threads left dangling.
When Marvel announced it had sorted the complicated rights issue, provided a lump sum for the frail Mick Anglo, and would be allowing Neil Gaiman to finally finish his own story, it seemed long overdue, and maybe went some way to make restoration for causing the problems to start in the first place. All they have managed so far is to make money from more reprints, and allow Joe Quesada to get his own Miracleman story into print. Solicitations cancelled and no explanations, it has all gone very quiet.
Is this strip destined never to be finished? Is there a secret Marvel agenda to suppress the end of the story? Will it be more of an anti-climax than the Stone Roses second album?
Maybe we are destined never to find out what happens next. Perhaps we need these areas of uncertainty in our lives.
But there are finished pages out there somewhere. Couldn't we just have a little peek? Please?
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