COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Dragons And Gods Go To War in Miracleman #2!

Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Gary Leach
Colors: Steve Oliff

“For being human isn’t enough, when gods go to war.”

- Alan Moore

Yes, when godlike beings and superhumans clash, no one gets affected directly, but us. That is demonstrated perfectly in this tightly packed issue of Miracleman. Unlike the first one, it compiles two issues in one sitting: Warrior #2 and 3, depicting both the “Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “Dragons” chapters, with a bonus inclusion of the previously unpublished arc “Yesterday’s Gambit.” 

After discovering what he really is and the abilities that come with his true identity, fragments of his past start to haunt Michael Moran. Moreover, a phone call from the former Kid Miracleman Johnny Bates further confuses him, and a strange chain of events soon lead to a clash of cataclysmic proportions.

Nothing can be said further about how the remastering was handled. Seeing just how Steve Oliff’s colors blend in nicely with Gary Leach’s pencils/inks gives me a sense of jubilation. It was truly the remastered edition we were looking for. Every panel seems as if they were just penciled, inked and submitted days ago. The expressions are also spot on. We can see natural human emotions coming out of the characters. We see them anguish, we see them get scared, we see them smile grimly. This shows just how Gary Leach understands the script and the outputs needed to match them. Furthermore, the sequence art isn’t that confusing to follow. We see movements flow smoothly from one panel to the next, which in turn, gives us a scale of what the plot wants to imply.

The weak link, on the other hand, lies with the prose. We understand how Alan Moore tends to be overly descriptive and wordy often. However, the amount of similes and adjectives is too much that it doesn’t help in telling us what transpires inside a panel. That can be attributed to the fact that his writing style wasn’t refined yet as it is today the year he first wrote his Miracleman run.  But it does not really impede the story at all. It’s a slight flaw that can be fixed.

Another nice bonus that the readers would surely enjoy is the inclusion of the unreleased Miracleman arc Yesterday’s Gambit. It centers around Miracleman and Warpsmith as they travel in time to gather the power needed to fight the now-corrupted Kid Miracleman. However, a crisis in time ensues, and the war escalates further than they’ve imagined.

Yesterday’s Gambit might confuse newcomers, as its timeline is set sometime after the events of Book 1. But as someone who has read the arc before, I can say that adding its first segment in this issue isn’t bad at all. The said arc is meant not to be read in just one sitting, and definitely not something you should read if you haven’t seen vital Miracleman chapters yet. It should be divided in segments, in order to provide a foreboding sense of the events that await to come, as well as to give us further understanding of the entire deconstructive run’s foundation.

In conclusion, Issue #2 is a must buy. If you think that you saw the best of this run already, think again.

The ride’s just getting started. And we’re not yet done dreaming of flying.

8.5/10

Check our previous review of Miracleman #1 here!

We would like to thank Comic Odyssey The Fort for this copy. They are located at the fourth floor of Fully Booked near Bonifacio High Street, BGC.