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Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Avengers: Armageddon #4!
Marvel has spent months teasing the idea that Avengers: Armageddon will radically reshape the Avengers franchise and the Marvel Universe as a whole. With the penultimate chapter of Armageddon now on the stands, we now have a better idea of what that entails. This issue introduces a huge new character to the playing field, one fans have been waiting years to see. That's right, Miracleman has finally joined the Marvel Universe.
Who is Miracleman, and why is his debut such a big deal? Here's everything you need to know about the character and why he promises to profoundly shake things up heading into 2027.
Who Is Miracleman?
Miracleman was originally known as Marvelman. He was created by writer/artist Mick Anglo in 1954, appearing in comics published by the British company L. Miller & Son. L. Miller & Son had previously found success republishing Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel comics, but after losing the rights to that franchise, they commissioned Marvelman as a replacement character.
Conceptually, Marvelman is very similar to Captain Marvel/Shazam. When an ordinary but morally upright young man named Mickey Moran utters the word "Kimota," he transforms into a powerful superhero. Also like Captain Marvel, Marvelman had younger sidekicks aiding him in his battles against evil, in this case Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman.
Marvelman fell into obscurity and vanished from the stands in the mid-'60s. It wasn't until Warrior Magazine revived the property in the early '80s that Marvelman reached a new audience and a much larger level of critical acclaim. Warrior tasked a young Alan Moore with reimagining Marvelman. This new version, which came to be known as Miracleman, dramatically revamped the character to become a much darker, more mature figure heavily influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Under Moore and artists like Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Chuck Austen, and Rick Veitch, Miracleman became a hot property and one of the vanguards of a more literary approach to superhero comics in the '80s. After Moore wrapped up his 16-issue run, the series was taken over by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. Unfortunately, the collapse of publisher Eclipse Comics in the early '90s cut their planned story short.
Following Eclipse's bankruptcy, Marvelman/Miracleman remained trapped in limbo for decades, sparking a prolonged legal battle between Gaiman and Todd McFarlane Productions. It wasn't until 2009 that Marvel discovered the original ownership rights actually still resided with Anglo. They purchased the character from Anglo and began reprinting the classic stories in 2010. In 2022, they also launched Miracleman: The Silver Age, allowing Gaiman and Buckingham to continue their long-dormant collaboration. However, in light of the sexual assualt allegations against Gaiman, it doesn't appear that Marvel has any current plans to finish off that trilogy by publishing Miracleman: The Dark Age.
Since 2009, Miracleman fans have been dying to know what Marvel's long-term plans for the character are. While they slowly reprinted the classic books and continued Gaiman and Buckingham's Miracleman saga, it was also understood that some version of the character would be integrated into the larger Marvel Universe. But apart from one brief tease in 2021's Timeless #1, no hint of Miracleman has been seen in the Marvel U. At least, until now.
Miracleman in the Marvel Universe
Avengers: Armageddon #4 reveals that Miracleman has been hiding in plain sight for the past couple of years. His atomic power now resides within the body of David Colton, a character who was recently introduced in Chip Zdarsky's Captain America run as the forgotten post-9/11 Captain America.
Originally, Colton had powers similar to those of Steve Rogers. But when he was mortally wounded in the miniseries Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon, Wolverine chose to save his life by activating an Origin Box (artifacts containing the stolen powers of various heroes and villains from the new Ultimate Universe). It was never clear just which Origin Box Colton bonded with, but it saved his life and bestowed Superman-esque powers on him.
Armageddon has explored the chaos that unfolds when the newly empowered David Colton chooses to use his powers to forcibly make the world a safer place. With help from Bucky Barnes, Colton destroyed the world's nuclear weapon stockpiles in issue #3. We learn in issue #4 that Colton was honoring the memory of his mother, an anti-war activist who never approved of him joining the military.
Naturally, the world hasn't responded well to forcible disarmament, with Russia unleashing its secret, off-the-books stockpile of warheads on the US and dispatching Red Hulk and the Winter Guard to bring down Colton and Bucky. Colton is again severaly injured in the ensuing battle. Plagued by visions of his mother, Colton finally understands the true nature of his powers and utters the secret word to unlock his final form.
Colton then transforms into Miracleman, emerging rejuvenated and achieving his true power at last. There's still one issue of Avengers: Armageddon left, so we'll see exactly how the revitalized Miracleman manages to pull the world back from the brink of total war. But we do know that the series ends with the Avengers being disgraced and going underground, paving the way for a very different team in Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto's relaunched Avengers comic. Meanwhile, Storm is set to spearhead a new team of X-Men to fill the void left by Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Marvel has now confirmed that Miracleman is the sixth, previously unrevealed member of the underground Avengers team. They've also released the final version of Checchetto's cover art for the first issue:
Miracleman's presence will certainly give the team a major power boost in a time when they could clearly use it. But Marvel is also teasing that this debut is part of a much bigger and very long-term story Zdarsky is telling. The new description for The Avengers #1 reads:
One thing is clear - Miracleman is a character with an important legacy and a certain expectation of storytelling quality. The Moore run in particular is still widely regarded as one of the best superhero comics ever published. After all these years of waiting for Miracleman to appear in the Marvel Universe, we'd hope that Marvel has a clear plan for how to use the character and how to live up to that lofty standard.
What do you think of Miracleman's long-awaited Marvel Comics debut? Vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
For more, check out IGN's review of Miracleman: Book 1 and our review of Miracleman: The Golden Age - Book 1.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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