Miracleman Book 1: A Dream of Flying Review
The majority of superhero magnum opuses should be put into historical context. Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s formative Wolverine miniseries in 1982 owes much of its success to coining tropes and ideas that hadn’t existed for the character before, but are defining hallmarks today. Similarly, the darker, brooding elements of Batman wouldn’t have found their contemporary voice without ground-breakers like 1987’s Year One and 1988’s The Killing Joke. Take then, with appropriate context, how ground-breaking Miracleman was. Confronting most of the popular superhero storytelling tools – dual identities, gifting of powers, kid sidekicks – and brutally deconstructing the rosier, apple-cheeked paradigm of the Golden Age is something we’re fairly familiar with in a post-Watchmen world. In 1982, four years before a big blue god made a smiley-face on Mars, they had no clue what was about to hit them. I don’t want to reveal too much about this digitally-remastered classic for those who...