Moore's revival of the 1950s Captain Marvel rip-off has long been considered a lost part of comics history; Moore's first deconstruction of the superhero genre, Marvelman - renamed Miracleman for its American publication and conclusion, ironically after legal threats from Marvel Comics - launched in the pages of British anthology Warrior in 1982, and offered ideas that Moore would later re-address (and, in the case of Promethea and some of his later America's Best Comics line, refute) in more famous books like Watchmen.

The rights to Moore's run are split between Moore himself and the various artists that worked on the series; it was unknown whether Moore, who has had a difficult relationship with Marvel Comics in the past, would allow the publisher to reprint his work, but a recent interview with Mania.com apparently settled the issue:

After being initially informed by Neil's lawyer, I had to think about it for a couple of days. I decided that while I'm very happy for this book to get published-because that means money will finally go to Marvelman's creator, Mick Anglo, and to his wife. Mick is very, very old, and his wife, I believe, is suffering from Alzheimer's. The actual Marvelman story is such a grim and ugly one that I would probably rather that the work was published without my name on it, and that all of the money went to Mick. The decision about my name was largely based upon my history with Marvel-my desire to really have nothing to do with them, and my increasing desire to have nothing to do with the American comics industry. I mean, they're probably are enough books out there with my name on them to keep the comics industry afloat for a little bit longer. I left a message to that effect with Neil. I've since heard back from the lawyer upon another issue, and he said that he was certain that would be the case-that Marvel would accede to my request. That looks like the way it will be emerging.

Moore also hinted that his successor on the series, Neil Gaiman, would be working with Marvel to complete the story he was unable to finish due to the previous publisher, Eclipse, going bankrupt in the early 1990s.

Alan Moore Reflects on Marvelman [Mania]

The rights to the series have been in dispute since the collapse of publisher Eclipse in 1994, in part because rights were believed to be shared between all creators, Eclipse - whose intellectual property was bought by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane shortly after Eclipse declared bankruptcy - and original creator Mick Anglo. As the first major superhero work by Watchmen's Moore, with later writing from Sandman's Gaiman and Fables artist Mark Buckingham, the series had a good reputation even before it fell out of print for more than 15 years.

This isn't the first announcement of a return for the character; Todd McFarlane brought the hero's alter-ego Mike Moran back in a 2001 issue of Hellspawn, but copyright challenges caused that storyline to be truncated prematurely.

It's unclear from Marvel's announcement whether their new ownership includes the Moore/Gaiman work. Marvel's announcement talks about Anglo's involvement in the purchase, but it's possible that the new agreement only covers new stories done with the character, as the rights to the classic Moore and Gaiman runs were previously believed to be at least partially held by the creators themselves. Most tellingly, Marvel are reviving the character under his original name, Marvelman, which was previously changed in 1985 due to - ironically - concern over legal action from Marvel Comics; the famous Moore and Gaiman stories appeared under the Miracleman title. Marvel promise more information on the deal soon, but we can't help but wonder if they're not explaining all right now because the specifics may make the announcement less exciting. Time will tell; here's hoping we won't have to wait another fifteen years to see Miracle - or Marvel - man again.

Many thanks to Carla Hoffman.

Miracleman started life as Marvelman, a hastily-created character that allowed British publisher L. Miller & Son to cash in on Captain Marvel's popularity even after they'd lost the publication rights to the character in the 1950s. When Alan Moore revived the character for the seminal Warrior comic in the early 1980s, it was the first time a formerly "innocent" superhero was revised in "realistic" terms, heralding in a storytelling style that would appear again and again, from books like The Dark Knight Returns to The Ultimates and beyond (The Marvelman/Miracleman name change came when the strip made its American debut, to avoid a potential lawsuit from Marvel Comics). Moore stayed with the character until the early 1990s, when he passed both the writing of the series and what he believed to be his part in the ownership of the character to Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, who went on to produce another eight issues of the series before the publisher, Eclipse, went bankrupt.

Here's where things get confusing.

Spawn creator Todd McFarlane bought the intellectual property of Eclipse, which he believed to include Miracleman. As part of a deal to regain complete copyright of two Spawn characters created and co-owned by Gaiman, McFarlane promised the return of his share of Miracleman copyright to Gaiman but then changed his mind, and Gaiman (with the assistance of Marvel Comics) sued McFarlane to force him to comply with this agreement. Gaiman won, but that was only the start of the problems; it turned out that McFarlane may never have owned any of Miracleman in the first place.

The current state of the legal ownership of Miracleman is, at best, somewhat uncertain. There are multiple versions of who may own the character: Eclipse's ownership may have been voided when the company went bankrupt, according to former Warrior publisher Dez Skinn. Skinn, Moore and artist Gary Leach may have been accidentally illegally using the character in the first place, claims the character's creator, Mick Anglo, because he owns Marvelman 100% and always has done. Alternatively, L. Miller & Son may have owned the copyright and so, whoever owns their intellectual property owns the character or, finally, the character may be - and always has been - public domain and the only legal ownership that matters is for the stories themselves and not the character at all.

All of which means that the series, one of the most important in Western mainstream comics, has been out of print for years and doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon. Which brings us, at last, to Australia and performers Bruce Woolley and Bernard Caleo.

The duo have taken the story from Moore's run on the series and adapted it for a two-man show currently running in Melbourne's Croft Institute. A show that is, apparently, surprisingly good:

Any fears of a pair of “comic book geeks” making fools of themselves on stage should be immediately dispelled. This production is a deeply performative affair that combines many layers and techniques of open theatricality that renders the piece almost more like a work of experimental theatre or performance art than a conventional play... Woolley and Caleo are equally talented performers, and totally in their element. As both the actors and adaptors, their command of and commitment to the material is evident, and they have a terrific chemistry, pulling off this complex show with astonishing slickness.

Quite how they managed to get the rights to the character/material is open to question, but in a strange way, it's nice to see that Moore's groundbreaking story is getting out there somehow. Here's hoping the show will find someway to come to the States sometime soon.

Miracleman [Australian Stage]