Way back in the 50’s, Mick Anglo created the United Kingdom’s answer to DC’s Captain Marvel for Fawcett Comics and called him Marvelman. Though the two characters were very similar in the beginning, the alter ego of Micky Moran veered off in a very different and much darker direction when Alan Moore resurrected him in the 80’s. Finally, in the late 80’s into the 90’s, due to copyright issues, the character’s name was changed to Miracleman and featured the talents of Neil Gaiman. After that, however, the whole history of Marvelman/Miracleman entered into an epic period of limbo where the ownership rights to the character were greatly disputed by many parties. The beloved comic book character was forced into obscurity.
Fast forward to 2009. At that year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced that they had acquired the rights to Marvelman and he would be joining the House of Ideas’ stable of characters. But, aside from an image drawn by Joe Quesada and some reprints, there have been no signs of the vintage hero in the Marvel Universe. Apparently, that’s all going to change very soon.
In an interview with Newsarama, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso revealed that there are plans on the books for Marvelman to join his new family. While speaking about the addition of Angela, another fan favorite character from the Spawn universe being added to Marvel courtesy of Gaiman and his return to the company in the pages of ‘Age of Ultron’ later this summer, Alonso shared this tidbit about Marvelman:
“There has been progress. Considerable progress. And we’ll be making an announcement soon. I’m a huge fan of Marvelman. I’m very excited about seeing him being published by Marvel.”
One can’t help but wonder what sort of progress has been made. Marvelman joining the Marvel Universe is a huge deal, so the company is likely to bring him into the fray in a big way. Some are saying that he’ll be brought in with Angela somehow, but I feel as though he’d be flying solo in his debut. Well, he’d probably have Kid Marvelman and Young Marvelman with him somehow, but either way, ‘Age of Ultron’ is Angela’s debut. Marvelman will come about in something else. And with Gaiman on board with Marvel again, I’d say that he’d have a hand in bringing this character that he contributed to back into the spotlight after all these years.
No matter how it’s happening, it’s definitely certain that Marvelman will be making his debut in the pages of Marvel Comics at some point soon. How do you think they’ll do it? Do you think Neil Gaiman will have something to do with it? What about 95-year-old creator Mick Anglo? Since Axel Alonso didn’t give us much to work with, go ahead and share your ideas about this debut in the comments below.
