I still can't believe there's new Miracleman

It was the second new issue that really surprised me. When they said they were finally going to publish new issues of Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham, I naturally assumed it was just another sick joke, just like all the other times. But then the first new issue came out just before the end of the year, and that was shocking enough, but the fact that they have got out another issue since was the real kicker.

I knew the third chapter in the Silver Age had been written and drawn many years ago, so figured it was the idea of a fourth that was more unlikely. Marvel had, after all, royally screwed the hound with their Miracleman publishing schedule - nobody really gives a fuck about the old reprint stuff -  and there was always the chance that, I dunno, Dez Skinn's cousin would step in with some kind of righteous claim and it would all fade away again.

But here we are, in 2023, and Miracleman is finally carrying on. There have been long waits for the next issue of many, many beloved comics - and most of them never come to any kind of next issue - but 30 years for the next chapter of something is really pushing it.

I don't even know what I expected, but this is close to it - the issues are more dense in a way I wish more comics were, super-heavy with information and theme. In less than 50 pages of the new chapters, there are doubts about how great this Age of Miracles really is, with both ordinary men and giant space gods expressing their doubts. It's all very cosmic and all very internal, and they're all right to be doubtful, and we've also clearly moved on from the Golden Age. 

The second new issue is already resorting to "here's some more of the 1950s comics which literally nobody cares about" reprints, but the story is finally moving forward, in that direction promised by dusty future timelines concocted over long, stoned nights in the 1980s.

The world only ever had 22 real issues - plus some apocrypha - and felt just as stuffed as a 60-year-old Marvel universe. Any new issue can only add to it, and maybe we'll even get more than two.