I know, it's been a while since we had this little chat. What can I say? September waits for no man. Anyway, several months ago I managed to aquire (through digital means) a copy of the now long out of print Alan Moore/Neil Gaiman comic book series Miracleman. It was called Marvelman when it was originally published in the UK, but due to the potential for a cluster-fuck of legal issues, they decided to just g'head and change the name.
(In brief, Marvelman and the Marvelman Family were a blatent rip-off of Captain Marvel. Given the shakey legal history of Captain Marvel, this would seem to be enough of a reason to be a bit antsy about the name Marvelman, but add to that the use of the name "Marvel" in a comicbook that was not owned by Marvel Comics, and you can see where I'm going with the aforementioned cluster-fuck. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle, right?)
There's a dump-truck full of wacko stuff going on in Miracleman, but a thought that struck me today (largely as a result of reading about the possible facistic overtones of certain characters in Watchmen) is the degree of moral ambivalence in the book. On the one hand, Miracleman himself becomes the most benevolent of all bonevolent god-kings of the Earth, by the end of the series. He rules with compassion, love, wisdom, and infinite kindness.
On the other hand, the word "benevolent" should clue you in that he's actually a benevolent dictator. He doesn't take over the world as much as the world offers itself to him. To employ Moore's own sexual metaphors, Miracleman's rulership is not a rape, it's willing and extatic copulation between him and the rest of the world. Miracleman even has his frozen semen freely dispenced to any woman in the world who wants to have her very own miracle baby, who will, of course, grow up to be beautiful, powerful, and wise. Not to mention they hump like bunnies.
But then there's a problem, isn't there? Moore himself admits that part of the attraction he had to the character as a kid (Moore's version is a relaunch) was his Teutonic appearance: 6'5" at least, blonde-haired, blue-eyed. We can easily see him as the Nazi version of Nietzsche's ubermensch, the perfect man who will lead the rest of humanity into a perfect world. Miracleman actually creates more ubermensch, so in theory they could replace the whole human race. Homo Miraculous. What seems just as likely though, counter to Nietzsche (though not necessarily Moore!) is that the normal people, the undermen to Nietzsche's "overman," would become simply second-class people and stay that way. Class- and race-based oppresion has always been the tyranny of the powerful few over the weekened many. Why grant the masses power when you can concentrate it in your own hands?
Moore's depiction of the miracle children doesn't make them look like active participants in the running of the world. Instead they play at doing battle with each other in the skies above London, or having grand orgies (it's implied). Aren't these the children of the rich and powerful as we know them right now? Nothing better to do, so they just spend their time a-fuckin' and a-fightin'? I can't help but walk away from Miracleman wondering, is this a distopia or a utopia? How much would I want to live in a world where other people get to be miraculous, and I don't?
Posted by orion at October 4, 2004 9:48 PM