[1] Anglo modified Captain Marvel, changing his human identity from newsboy Billy Batson to copyboy Micky Moran.

[4] Anglo took the opportunity to simplify the character's costume, eliminating Captain Marvel's cape and switching his lightning bolt to a simpler "MM" chest logo.

Anglo considered giving the character a gravity belt but eventually decided to retain flight as an inherent ability of the superhero.

Anglo initially wrote and drew the strips himself; later other Gower Studio artists would work on the character, including James Bleach, Norman Light and Don Lawrence.

However by 1961 sales were declining as imported American comics began to arrive on the British market, featuring full-colour strips rather than the black-and-white adventures of Marvelman.

Vintage Gower Street material would also be reprinted in the one-off Marvelman Special, with the conceit it presented imaginary adventures of the character.

To avoid legal attention from Marvel Comics the series and its leads were renamed Miracleman; Moore had previously suggested this as an alternate title in his original proposal as a substitute name should the editor decide against reviving Marvelman,[11] and had also used it in print for the name of a proxy version of the character that had featured briefly in his parallel work on Marvel UK's Captain Britain strip.

Gaiman and new artist Mark Buckingham planned three six-issue storylines for the character, and opted for an anthology approach for the initial arc.

Meanwhile Gaiman found that numerous other creators were interested in working on the character; to harness this and expand their revenue, Eclipse produced the three-issue limited series Miracleman: Apocrypha, featuring contributions by the likes of Alex Ross, Kurt Busiek, Matt Wagner, James Robinson and Darick Robertson.

However, after only two issues of the storyline had been published Eclipse went bankrupt; this also prevented the publication of another spin-off mini-series called Miracleman Triumphant, written by Fred Burke and drawn by Mike Deodato and taking place between Gaiman's first two arcs.

[13] Gaiman mistakenly believed at the time he owned a one-third share of the rights to the Miracleman characters, with the other two-thirds residing with Eclipse.

A reimagined Mike Moran, now a principled journalist at the New York Daily Times, was added to the supporting cast of Hellspawn, a dark spin-off title of Spawn, in February 2001.

[23] Having discovered the keyword to the universe through his experiments, Mississippi-based astro-scientist Guntag Barghelt travels the world searching for a worthy recipient of this power.

[24] Micky works for the Daily Bugle newspaper as a copyboy and keeps his superhero identity secret from the world while using his power to protect the innocent.

[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Other escapades Marvelman was involved in included preventing Boromanian attempts to sabotage Professor Jowik's new megabathysphere;[45] stopping the ice cream-crazed Abominable Snowman and his Snowman minions;[46] defeating super-computer the Electronic Brain,;[47] foiling a Boromanian plot to use scientist Doctor Ramado's miniaturised hydrogen bomb to blow up a table tennis tournament;[48] saving oblivious astronaut Professor Swivelhead from his own oblivious behaviour;[49] clearing his name after circus strongman the Great Anvello framed him as a criminal;[50] defeating scientist Cuprini's evil mirror image version of himself;[51] preventing destruction of a United States Navy squadron by a two-headed kraken;[52] dealing with an epidemic of insomnia brought on by the King of the Land of Nod sulking;[53] using a demonstration of his formidable powers to cause Martian War Lords to abort a planned invasion of Earth;[54] stopping jealous electrical genius Austin Amps and his attempts to sabotage rival Oswald Ohms' all-electric town Wattingham;[55] travelling back to 1588 and helping Royal Navy Captain Farnaby warn England about the Spanish Armada;[56] ending the crime spree of Professor Coisson's Marvelman II, a robot double of the hero;[57] foiling the attempt of unlicensed dentist Mr. Nook to use misery gas in revenge for being exposed as a quack by Moran;[58] putting an end to Nazi Otto Gruber's attempt to create a Fourth Reich;[59] beating wizard Wizzo the Wizard and his mirror-henchman namlevraM;[60] capturing embezzler Charles Crank despite his attempts to hide out on the Moon[61]}; thwarting the attempts of Menzari driver Heinz Vifter to beat rival Nevady driver Micky Desmond to the Golden Wheel via sabotage;[62] exposing pickpocketing clowns from a travelling circus;[63] forestalling an invasion from underground hat-wearing giant ants;[64] undoing disgruntled prop manager Eddie Gay's attempts to sabotage a documentary made by Peakpoint Films;[65] uncovering cargo cult-leading machine Klashna;[66] and halting elderly bad-luck projecting nuisance Irwin M. Trouble[67] He would also team up with Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman as the Marvelman Family to face threats such as Garrer and his army of time-travelling renegades;[68] a combined alliance of Marvelman's arch-enemy Doctor Gargunza and his nephew, Young Marvelman rogue Young Gargunza;[69] the King of Vegetableland;[70] invaders from the planet Vardica;[71] would-be dictator Professor Batts and his speech-scramber;[72] a crime boss intent on sinking Pacific City below the ocean;[73] the cruel, slave-driving King Snop of Atlantis (which the story revealed would eventually become Australia);[74] an attempt by Gargunza to declare himself King of the Universe;[75] cruel 14th century knight Simon de Carton (clearing the name of Amadis of Gaul in the process);[76] a monster accidentally collected from the planet Droon;[77] and Professor Wosmine's shrinking ray[78] Two decades later, Mike Moran is a middle-aged man working as a freelance journalist and happily married to Liz, but he is suffering from mid-life crisis and is plagued by headaches.

In the throes of a migraine - he sees the ‘magic word’ (that has eluded him for decades but haunts his dreams) written on a glass door: ‘Kimota’.

As a result of their single night together, Liz becomes pregnant with Miracleman’s child, an event that fuels Mike Moran’s feelings of inadequacy in comparison to his superhuman alter-ego.

This leads them to a hidden bunker in the countryside where Miracleman encounters various ineffectual traps and a deranged superhuman called Big Ben, who he subdues effortlessly.

Once inside the bunker, Miracleman is confronted with the true nature of his past: he is the result of an experimental program by the British government to create superhumans as an escalation of the Cold War arms race.

The program is derived from alien technology discovered in the 1950s and adapted and overseen by Dr Emil Gargunza, an ex-Nazi scientist given shelter by the British government.

It is revealed that his entire past has been a virtual reality fiction created to subdue him and the rest of the Miracleman Family and make them pliable as super-weapons.

Whilst she is held captive Gargunza relates to her his life story, telling of how he worked on the Zarathustra Project, adapting the technology of a crashed spaceship and creating the Miracleman Family.

Upon learning of Winter’s existence, they turn their attention to Liz but are thwarted by the mystery woman, who reveals herself to be Avril Lear - Miraclewoman - and tells the story of her past as another of Gargunza’s experiments.

Mike Moran, his life turned upside down, commits a form of suicide by trekking into the wilderness and leaving a small memorial for himself to find when he transforms for a last time into Miracleman.

Kid Miracleman is only eventually defeated by a dying Aza Chorn and, mortally wounded, transforms back to Johnny Bates.

Landing in the Himalaya mountains, a bewildered Dauntless ends up meeting Bill Caxton (Mister Master), the first superhuman created by Miracleman and also the only to ever give up his powers.

Inspired by this experience, and accompanied by the somewhat directionless but enhanced Meta-Maid, Dauntless finds the orphanage where he grew up prior to being abducted by Gargunza.

[80] He is able to tear open a bunker door without apparent effort,[81] push his finger through a human chest without any sort of run-up,[82] and clapping his hands together causes a concussive blast that deafens those within range.

[83] Miracleman survives being in the range of the Operation Dragonslayer nuclear bomb unscathed, only being forced into dormancy by the physical and mental damage done to Mike Moran, and is impervious to bullets,[83] blades, rocket launchers and conventional explosives.

[101] An alternate version of Miracleman is one of the heroes of Earth-238 that appears in the Captain Britain stories written by Moore and Alan Davis around the time of their work together on Marvelman for Warrior.