Creation Story
Marvelman was invented to keep a comic going. L. Miller & Son, a London publisher, had been filling a weekly comic with reprints of Captain Marvel, the American hero published by Fawcett. Then it lost the right to keep reprinting him. The publisher still had a weekly schedule to fill, so in 1954 Mick Anglo created a new hero to take Captain Marvel’s place.
Anglo didn’t stray far from the hero he was replacing. Marvelman was a young man, Micky Moran, who became a superhero by saying a magic word. Anglo gave him an atomic theme, down to that word: Kimota, roughly “atomic” spelled backwards.
First Appearance and First Cover: Marvelman #25
Marvelman #25 is the first appearance of Miracleman, under his original name. L. Miller & Son published it in London in 1954, near the end of the Golden Age. The year is certain, but the exact on-sale day isn’t known. It was a weekly comic with a color cover and black-and-white pages inside, and the series ran until 1963.
The series starts at #25 because Marvelman took over the numbering of the Captain Marvel reprint comic, which had reached #24. In those last Captain Marvel issues, the cover titles had already started to include the new name, while the stories inside were still Captain Marvel’s. L. Miller’s Captain Marvel Jr. reprint weekly made the same switch, continuing as Young Marvelman from #25, the issue with that hero’s own first appearance.
Mick Anglo wrote and drew both stories inside, and he is credited with the cover, Marvelman’s first. The lead story, “Marvelman and the Atomic Bomber,” runs six pages and introduces Micky Moran as Marvelman, the Mightiest Man in the Universe, up against an atomic bomb. The second, “Marvelman and the Stolen Radium,” runs ten.
His second appearance, Marvelman #26, turned out to be so hard to find that Marvel couldn’t get a copy. In June 2010, Marvel asked fans publicly for one so it could include the issue in a reprint hardcover. The book, Marvelman Classic Vol. 1, came out with #25 and #27 through #34 instead. A copy of #26 finally surfaced on eBay in 2014.
First Alan Moore Revival: Warrior #1
Warrior #1 brought Marvelman back in a new British magazine. Quality Communications launched Warrior as an anthology edited by Dez Skinn, and the first issue, cover-dated March 1982, carried a new Marvelman strip by writer Alan Moore and artist Garry Leach.
The eight-page story, ”…A Dream of Flying,” finds Mike Moran, now a freelance reporter, troubled by nightmares. He remembers his magic word, Kimota, and is transformed into Marvelman. The civilian name changed slightly along the way: Micky Moran in 1954, Mike or Michael Moran from Warrior on. The story is dedicated to Mick Anglo and the original Marvelman team, and Skinn ran an article about the 1950s character in the same issue.
Marvelman wasn’t the cover star. Steve Dillon drew the cover for another of the magazine’s strips, and Marvelman appears only as a silhouette in a small inset by Leach. Warrior #2 made him the cover star, drawn by Leach. By Warrior #6, Alan Davis was penciling the strip, with Leach inking.
For collectors, Warrior #1 is Marvelman’s revival, not his debut: his first appearance since 1963, and also the debut of V for Vendetta.
First as Miracleman: Miracleman #1
Miracleman #1 is the first comic to call the character Miracleman. When the American publisher Eclipse began reprinting the Warrior stories in 1985, it changed his name because of legal complications with Marvel Comics. The rest of the Marvelman family changed too, so Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman became Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman.
The issue carries an August 1985 cover date. Inside, the Warrior chapters are reprinted in color, and Mike Moran now becomes Miracleman. Alan Davis penciled the cover and Garry Leach inked it.
Eclipse also made signed copies for the 1985 San Diego comic convention. The first 400 copies printed became the Gold edition, signed and numbered by Alan Moore. Another 600 became the Blue edition, signed by Eclipse editor Cat Yronwode and Eclipse founder Dean Mullaney but not numbered.
First David Colton as Miracleman: Avengers: Armageddon #4
Avengers: Armageddon #4 is the first comic in which David Colton, the 21st-century Captain America introduced in Chip Zdarsky’s 2025 Captain America series, becomes Miracleman. It also brings the name into Marvel’s main superhero universe.
Marvel announced that it owned the character at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 24, 2009, where Marvel’s Joe Quesada declared that “Marvelman belongs to Marvel.” Marvel went on to reprint the Moore-era stories as Miracleman from 2014, and in 2022 it restarted The Silver Age, a Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham story first begun at Eclipse. That same year, variant covers put Miracleman beside Spider-Man, Wolverine, Moon Knight and Black Panther.
Avengers: Armageddon #4 went on sale September 16, 2026. The fourth of five issues in an event series by Chip Zdarsky, Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar, it reveals that the Origin Box that gave Colton his powers came from Miracleman. Colton takes the name and says the magic word, Kimota. Editor Wil Moss called him “a fascinating, complicated character, now much more so as he takes on the mantle of Miracleman.” Marvel has announced that Miracleman joins the Avengers in Avengers #1 by Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto, on sale November 4, 2026.
Colton is a new bearer of the name. Mike Moran is still the original Miracleman, and Marvelman #25 is still the character’s first appearance.
