New Miracleman Material Coming From Marvel

Marvel Announces New "Miracleman" from Morrison, Quesada, Milligan & Allred
With the release of an annual in December, Marvel will debut the first all-new "Miracleman" stories in two decades.

Announced by Vulture, "Miracleman Annual" #1 is set to arrive on New Years Eve, and will feature a "long-lost" story written in the mid-'80s by Grant Morrison, to be drawn by Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada.

The story was brought to Quesada's attention several years ago through an interview with Morrison on The Beat. "I didn't want to do it without [Alan] Moore's permission, and I wrote to him and said, 'They've asked me to do this, but obviously I really respect you work, and I wouldn't want to mess anything up. But I don't want anyone else to do it and mess it up,'" Morrison recalled of the story, written for "Warrior" magazine. "And he sent me back this really weird letter, and I remember the opening of it, it said, 'I don't want this to sound like the softly hissed tones of a mafia hitman, but back off.'"

Quesada approached Morrison about the story, a tale about Johnny Bates, aka Kid Miracleman. The acclaimed writer agreed to allow Marvel to publish it on the condition that the CCO illustrate it, terms to which Quesada readily agreed.

The second story in the annual reunites the "X-Statix" team of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred. Their collaboration makes use of the artist's retro-style, telling a story that appears to be set in the 1950s, when the character's creator, Mick Anglo, was writing and drawing his adventures.

"There's a scintilla of self-awareness, with Marvelman being — I don't want to give too much away, but the story is not without some awareness that it's all going to change very quickly," Milligan told Vulture. "It's an homage. All the guys are there, all the craziness."

The annual, featuring covers by Gabriele Dell'Otto and Jeff Smith, arrives in stores December 31.

MajorHoy wrote: Morrison recalled of the story