Mark Buckingham Redraws Miracleman Apocrypha For Miracleman #0

Picking up Miracleman #0 today, I had a massive sense of deja vu when reading it, even though this was a brand-new comic. The last time this happened to me was reading a Warren Ellis Marvel comic reworking a rejected comic, the script he has previously posted online.

Miracleman #0 is meant to be a new Miracleman comic book from Marvel, featuring new stories from various comic book creators, ahead of the republishing and continuance of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham‘s run on the character from thirty years ago.

But the Miracleman content by Gaiman and Buckingham in this issue are the opening and closing pages of Miracleman Apocrypha #1, which had stories from Kelley Jones, Norm Breyfogle, Stan Woch and Matt Wagner as published by Eclipse Comics, redrawn and re-edited for the new stories. Here’s how the changes look:

Mark Buckingham has completely reframed the page but removes the note about Miracleman having a little BDSM with Miraclewoman. Might it help to keep the T+ classification?

Miracleman then heads out to find things to read. Spread out into a two-page spread. A few other minor changes will come.

Here’s the original version from Miracleman Apocrypha #1.

Some of the details of the comics have now changed. True Miracleman Romances, Miracle Tales: The Marvel Of Science, Black Johnny Stories have become Kimota’s Miracle: The Man Whose Dreams Were Miracles: The Marvels Of The Metaverse, New Millenia Magazine and Miracle Funnies, which suit the new stories chosen to fill this comic.

Sadly, because they chopped the original first line of this sequence, the final line no longer echoes the sex games Miracleman was playing with Miraclewoman the previous night; the link between sex, comics and confinement, is removed.

Then we get several stories from Ryan Stegman, Ty Templeton, Mike Carey, Paul Davidson, Peach Momoko, Zack Davisson, Jason Aaron and Leinil Francis Yu. We will probably get into that later.

The details of the comics listed have also changed. Did Neil Gaiman rewrite those himself? Or Mark Buckingham? Or Marvel editorial? The credits don’t make this clear, nor that this is a republication of a thirty-year-old story.

No mention of Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor anymore, either. And then, it returns to the original narrative.

Will we see more of the Miracleman Apocrypha bookends by Gaiman and Buckingham recreated and repeated in other Miracleman issues?

MIRACLEMAN #0
MARVEL COMICS
AUG220743
(W) Neil Gaiman, Various (A) Mark Buckingham, Various (CA) Alan Davis
Forty years ago, Miracleman’s modern era began and changed the world of comics as we know it. Now, on the cusp of a new era of Miracleman, we celebrate all things Kimota with a who’s who of the best talent in the industry! Plus, Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham set up this issue and their return to MIRACLEMAN: THE SILVER AGE! Rated T+In Shops: Oct 05, 2022 SRP: $5.99