The V.C.s (2000AD #140-143, #145-165, #168-169, #171-175)

"Suck it in, Smith" - Jupe

Once upon a time, before trade paperbacks became a thing, the publishers of 2000AD exploited their rich back catalogue with a monthly compilation of a series from the early days of the comic.  This was the way I discoved things like The Ballad of Halo Jones, early Slaine, Strontium Dog and Nemesis The Warlock, and The V.C.s.  The V.C.s was an epic tale of future war that saw the well worn trope of a rag tag band of military misfits buck authority and win a war against their galactic enemies, the insect like "G'egeekajee" or "Geeks" for short.  Set in the early 26th century all the human colony worlds were dragged into the conflict between Geeks and Human, and the V.C.s are made up a various colonists who tend to resent Earth born humans.  And it is one of the Earth born humans, an everyman called "Steve Smith" who is assigned to the V.C.s fresh out of military training school whose eyes we see the conflict through.  The V.C.s name is short for "Vacuum Cleaners" which they gained for their ability to score clean kills with little to no debris.  Nicknamed "earthworm" by the rest of the crew, Steve Smith narrates the story as he struggles to prove himself and gain acceptance from the rest of the crew.  It's magnificently grubby space opera with sterling early work from artists such as Mike McMahon, Cam Kennedy, Garry Leach and John Richardson. The script is by Gerry Finley-Day and Steve MacManus.  There has been a trade paperback of the strip released in 2008 called "You're Hit, You're Dead" but is infuriatingly out of print.  Luckily I own all three Best Of 2000ADs the story was serialised in (#30-32 if you're looking for a cheaper way to get a hold of the story) and this is where I am getting my scans from.  With that intro out of the way, lets dive in.

The original gang.

A brief history lesson, Earth had been at peace for a long time and it looked like the day of the professional soldier was over, when suddenly the Geeks appeared.  A Global Combat Corp was formed on Earth and sent out ships with squads of six aboard them to patrol and kill any Geeks they came across.  Steve Smith joined up and on the day of his graduation an old soldier says to him, "this is where you forget your training and start learning from experience!"
Steve then gets a harsh lesson in how the V.C.s operate.  His supply ship rendezvous with his new posting and the sergeant, Jupe flies out in his space suit to guide Smith to the ship as the coffin of Smith predecessor is ejected into space.  But then then the Geeks appear.  The V.C.s take them out, but the supply ship is destroyed in the process.  Smith protests that some survivors could have been saved but Jupe says, "Ain't no such thing as wounded in this war kid.  You're hit, you're dead - all clean and quick."

The whole sick crew.

Smith comes aboard and is surprised to see the rest of the crew are all half castes born on the colony worlds.  Jupe the sergeant, Ringer the ship's pilot, Dwarf Star the ship's gunner, Hen-Sho the missile man and Loon the second gunner.   Smith asks them what the nickname the V.C.s means.  Jupe says it's because they keep the system free from Geeks, "secure and clean".  Smith ponders the old general's advice and realise he has a lot to learn if he doesn't want to leave in a coffin as well.

We then cut to the V.C.s ship chasing down a Geek ship.  It manages to hide out in a field of wrecked spaceships.  Jupe and Smith suit up to go and smoke the Geeks out.  Smith is excited but Jupe wants him to stay "hard guard" in the airlock much to Smith's annoyance.  But a large Geek attacks him and Smith shoots it, and thousands of eggs pour out of its dead body.

Ringer hits the airlock button and the Geek and the egss are sucked out into space.  Smith is then chewed out for killing a "Kamikaze Geek".  Then the Geek ship is wracked by an explosion thanks to Jupe, and the gunners onboard the V.C.s ship blast it to pieces.  Smith thinks to himself he still has a lot to do to prove himself a V.C.

The V.C.s ship.

Next we find them passing Pluto the last post before deep space.  Then a Geek ship appears. Smith gets a head start and runs to the ships laser cannons, he hopes he can prove himself worthy by shooting down the Geek ship.  But his shots just spark off the Geek ship's hull, Dwarf Star yanks him out of his seat and cripples the Geek ship then angrily yells at Smith for not allowing him to get a clean kill.

The Geek ship ablaze drifts into Pluto's orbit and two life pods eject.  Jupe and Hen-Sho suit up to go kill them.  Smith wonders why they are bothering as the Geek'll die on Pluto within a couple of days.

Jupe: "Listen, Smith letting Geeks die in their own time may suit other troopers. But not the V.C.s!  We like to keep things clean, so we gotta follow them down and fight it out!"

Ringer is left as acting Captain and when Smith notices another two Geek lifepods eject, Ringer and Dwarf Star brush it off as more debris.  But Smith decides to suit up and go down to Pluto and watch Jupe and Hen-Sho's backs.

Off to hoover up the last bits of rubbish.

He lands and finds Jupe and Hen-sho easily disposing of the Geeks with a Blitz-cannon.  Then he spots the other Geeks sneaking up behind them.  And he realises he made a rookie mistake and didn't get the radio frequency to warn Jupe via his helmet comms.  So he steps out into the open and engages the Geeks.

Jupe finds the frequency and tells Smith to run over to them, he'll cover him and Smith can use his Hades grenade to deal with them which Smith does so. Jupe and Hen-Sho thank Smith for saving them and Smith is pleased to finally feel "my first bit of comradeship with these vacuum cleaners."

Geeks.

We next find the V.C.s ship under heavy attack and we're introduced to "Brother" the ship's sentient computer represented by a jester puppet.  He fritzes out and Jupe switches the ship to manual.  Then Dwarf Star calls up the bridge and says Loon has freaked out and is "hunting Geeks" again. Jupe and Smith go look for him while Dwarf Star fends off the attacking Geek ships.

Loon, armed with a knife and smeared in camoflage paint, leaps on Smith and tries to kill him. Jupe appears and knocks him out, he says he's gone too far this time and they'll dump him at the next planet they call at.  Then Brother comes back online but with a whole new personality.  He's now a sterotypical sixties hippie and refuses to countenance combat operations.  Smith has an idea and introduces Loon to him.   Loon as a "fellow hippie" convinces Brother to come around to the idea of war.  Brother thinks about it for a couple of hours then agrees, and this allows Loon to stay aboard as well.

Brother gets a new look.

The ship is at rest for a while, Jupe, Dwarf Star and Hen-Sho are starting to accept Smith but Ringer is still surly towards him and still calls him "earthworm".  Dwarf Star is happy because they are going to meet up with the ship his brother Midge is on. He has the same eerie appearance as Dwarf Star.  Early hyperspace travel did strange things to the people on board and "freaks" like him and his twin brother were the result.

Smith: "So you're like a couple of binary dwarf stars, huh?"

Dwarf Star: "I've heard it a million times Smith!  But I don't mind - you're gonna make out OK."

The reach Midge's ship and find it's been in recent combat.  Midge communicates to them over the comms, while Dwarf Star suits up and starts to fly over.  Midge repeats a phrase in his message to them to "Get Everything on an Even Keel".  Realising this is a message that the Geeks have Midge's ship captive they call Dwarf Star back to their ship saying he needs his weapon checked so as not to arouse suspicion, also three Geek ships are about to "back jump them" informs Brother.

Midge pleads for a mercy kill.

The V.C.s don't like traps and hit the incoming ships viciously, "let's put out the mat and start cleaning!" shouts Jupe. They take out the Geek attack ships, but Midge's ship is being readied to leave, Midge begs them not to let the Geeks take him alive.  The decision is left in Smith's hands.  Midge says to do it for Dwarf Star's sake.  So Smith takes the shot and destroys Midge's ship.  Even Ringer agrees it was the right thing to do, but Dwarf Star tells him he can't but hate Smith and to stay out of his way from now on.

Smith: "I did the right thing - the only thing.  I saved Dwarf Star's brother from a fate worse than death, but I blew any chance of being his buddy.   Yeah... I'm beginning to learn it's a dirty job keeping space clean."

We next encounter the V.C.s dealing with a swarm of tiny Geeks.  They are part of a Geek tactic called "Hiving".  They drop their eggs into nearby space and when they hatch they have a ready made army in enemy territory.  They atack the ship and although some of the V.C.s "vape" loads of them, they still start to overwhelm them and begin to breach the ship.

Armed and looking badass with swords and shield the V.C.s aboard the ship start fighting the Swarm. They fight until the are exhausted and on the verge of collapse.  But Ringer has managed to rig a sound that inteferes with the Geeks sonar and jamming it leaves the Geeks milling about in confusion. They deal with the leftover Geeks and blow up the asteroid they were hiving from.  Smith says they have some tidying to do.  "Cleaning Smith - cleaning" corrects Jupe.

Phobos Harbour.

Next they arrive  Phobos Harbour, the biggest spaceport in the system orbiting Mars colony. Jupe is concerned as to why so many troopers have been called there.  Hen-Sho proudly tells them of the city of New Peking built on the planet, Ringer just wants to hit the nightclubs and bars.

They dock and disembark and the V.C.s meet familiar faces apart from Steve who feels left out. We then meet the General who is a cyborg, they snap to attention "more out of respect to his war record than discipline."  He tells them there is a member of the Diplomatic Workforce, nicknamed "Dishwashers" by the soldiers, who is there to speak to them.

Smith: "We hated him and he knew it.  As soon as he walked in everyone sat down without waiting for the word."

He gives them the bad news.  They are making peace overtures to the Geeks and have withdrawn the bulk of the fleet leaving only a skeleton force in place.  Loon's friend Quicksilver freaks out at this and starts screaming abuse at the Dishwasher.  Before he gets killed, Smith knocks him out with a chair.

A "Dishwasher."

The Dishwasher comes up to Smith and thanks him and notes he is one of the few Earthborn humans there.  Smith doesn't want the attention from him, it's making him look bad. The men have a "Liberty Capsule" which means they can travel down to the Mars colony for some R&R. Jupe decides to stay on Phobos though.

Hen-Sho shows off New Peking a colony of forty thousand people.  Ringer says they want "bars, not culture."  But they are greeted by guards who say they don't like how Hen-sho is part of the decadent group known as the V.C.s.  Ringer aims a racial slur at them, the guard says they have to hand over their weapons before they can enter.  Reluctantly they do so.

Inside Hen-sho says drinking is forbidden but he knows of a bar they can go to.  Smith doesn't want to go get drunk so goes to the library computers and starts doing research on what is known about the Geeks which is not much.  He looks down and sees some guards closing in on the V.C.s. A big brawl ensues as more guards and troopers join in. Even Smith gets some shots in, he finds "I was beginning to enjoy it."

But then the Geeks launch a suprise attack many of them landing on the planet from the ships above. Hen-sho shows them a secret way out of the city and they get suited up in Mars colony space suits. They manage to vape some Geeks but soon realise they are trapped on the Mars surface and New Peking goes up in a massive explosion.  Mars and Phobos are dead and they would be soon if not for a miracle.

The Geeks surprise attack.

They are backed into a canyon and Geeks bear down on them, then a miracle does happen.  Jupe survived and sweeps down in their ship and picks them up.   He explains he and Brother moved the ship just before the Geek attack.  Mars has been destroyed and much of the fleet all because of a misguided peace initiative.

The Geeks have regrouped and are heading for the next planet, Earth!   Ringer picks a fight with Smith about why they should care and Smith loses his temper but Jupe keeps a lid on things.

Smith: "We returned to our controls and you could see each man was taut with the strain of worrying if his home would go the same way as Hen-sho's"

Later Smith is waxing lyrical about the Earth and Ringer mocks him for it saying it it's so great why doesn't he go back if he likes it so much and leave space to the guys who can take it.  Smith balls his fists in anger.  But before they can fight again a call comes through that they have to head for Earth, which renders Smith triumphant.

Earth, Transatlantic City.

He sees Transatlantic City sitting on the vidscreen, it's a city that floats between America and Europe and where his parents live.  He calls them up and his father is pleased to hear from him but also casually insults Jupe much to Smith's embarrasment.  Smith's dad says he knows with soldiers like him they know they have nothing to worry about and Ringer sneers at this sentiment.  Smith grabs him by the collar, but Jupe breaks them up again.

They discover a platoon of Geeks hiding out on the moon's darkside.  Helped by the soldiers from Lunar base they wipe most of them out, but some Geek ships reach Earth and completely destroy Transatlantic City, with at least 80 percent casualties.

Ringer:  "Yeah that's a helluva lot of worms cut up".

Ringer and Smith finally come to blows.

Smith punches him and they get into a full on brawl.  Angrily he says he'll take them all on, but Jupe grabs him.  Ringer goes to smash him in the head with a rifle butt but Jupe stops him and gives them some more bad news.

Jupe: "The Geeks have hit some more worlds. Gannymede in my system has been novad, with two million dead. They've hit one of Saturn's moons, too... the Geeks just started something - we're gonna finish. No more patrolling the system - I reckon we're going to take the war to the Geeks now."

Jupe says they've all suffered so don't laugh at Smith.  He asks if Smith wants to go on comassionate leave?   But Smith snarls he's a V.C. now, "I'm gonna find the Geek galaxy.  Rip back the mat and wipe that filth out! You hear me? Wipe them out!"

New Dishwasher, new plan.

Six months after the Geek attack a new bunch of soldiers have been trained and readied.  The resident "Dishwasher" says their job is to go out and wipe out the Geek homeworld.  Their ship has been refitted to work as part of a team of battle escort ships requiring retraining for all of them.  Ringer has a new toy, a "powered Kill Disc" which he throws at Smith narrowly missing him.

Then the recce craft return with information on where the Geek homeworld is so the battalion moves out to take the fight to them.  But as they warp in they are met by a huge Geek battlefleet.  The nearby twin suns have them running blind.  The troopships are to be protected at all costs, so one of the escort ships sacrifices itself to block a Geek attack and the debris from it blocks some of the suns light so they can see to return fire.

They make short work of the Geek battlefleet and escort the troopships to the Geek home planet.  The Earth troops beam down, but in the words of Admiral Akbar "It's a trap!". The city is a fake and waiting inside are thousands of heavily armed Geek troops.

The Dishwasher orders the fleet to disengage to avoid further losses and the troops left behind must fend for themselves.  No one is to leave their ships to mount a rescue via airlock.  But Smith tells Jupe they could leave by missile tube and fly down and organise the troops still on the planet.  Jupe agrees and down they go, but not before Ringer warns Smith nothing better happen to Jupe or it will be his fault.

Jupe organises the troops.

Jupe and Smith take control of the troops organising a more effective set of fighting tactics.  Then they are called by the Cyborg general who says although the Dishwasher is "going spare" he's stuck his neck out and thinks he can rescue them and the rest of the surviving troops.  He tells them to get the troops to the nearby big hill and at sundown he can come pick them up.  The sun sets and the Geeks retreat. They take off their armour to leave as decoys and surruptiously make for the hill.

They make it to the hill and vape the Geeks waiting, the suns starts to rise without their glar shields they'll bein trouble, but the ship arrives in time and picks them all up.  Unfortunately Jupe, who was holding off Geek pursuers with a Blitz Cannon looked at the suns too long and has been rendered blind.  Ringer is PISSED.

Smith: "I've let them down! I-I've destroyed Jupe! We've lost out leader!"

Angry at Smith and Jupe's disobediance the Dishwasher puts the whole squad on "punishment duties."  They are to be locked up, apart from Jupe in the hospital, and let out when they reach the next system and given the dirtiest jobs possible.

The fleet runs into an asteroid belt and they are assigned the job of going outside the ship and repairing the hull damage.  Ringer lunges at Smith with a laser cutter and they start fighting. Their oxygen is cut off and they are bought inside.  The Dishwasher says the penalty for fighting on duty is death and he pulls out his gun to carry it out.

Ringer is such an arsehole.

Then the cyborg general creeps up behind him dressed as a Geek.  They've created lifelike Geek suits so someone can go on an infiltration mission.  So Ringer and Smith are "volunteered" for a test run of this idea.  As they are suited up, Jupe appears and says he wants them to shake and make up, they agree but Ringer has a razor concealed in his palm and cuts Smith as they shake.

Smith and Ringer make a drop onto a planet that has severe weather conditions and can't be scanned.  He loses Ringer in the drop.  He changes out of his armour but hears some yelling and screaming for him, Ringer has been discovered and is being tortured.  Smith shoots the Geeks responsible and cuts Ringer down.  Ringer grudgingly expresses gratitude.

He puts the top half of his Geek suit back on and they carry on with their mission.  They stumble across a giant Geek base.  They have a wander round unchallenged, they even have speech translators in the suits.  Then a Geek commander says he has found their equipment, they know someone is on the planet.

The Geek leader starts inspecting everyone, he passes by Smith, but Ringer's razor disc cut a hole in his suit and he's discovered.  He starts begging for help from Smith again, but Smith doesn't want to blow his cover.

Smith:  "I heard him.  But I kept still... You're safe Smith.  You can turn away like any other Geek. Yeah, this is the chance you wanted.. you've got rid of Ringer at last."

He watches somewhat dispassionately as Ringer is tortured again. He turns away and finds a Geek comms outpost and transmits the details and coordinates of the Geek base to the ship.  Then he returns to Ringer and takes the Geek commander hostage.  They free Ringer who is almost catatonic and the three of them get picked up as the fleet above come down and attack.

Ringer breaks under torture.

Ringer is taken away to be looked after elsewhere now his spirit and mind has been broken.  The rest of the V.C.s watch the final destruction of the Geek base, and then see the Geek commander being lead away after having the "probe" used on him.  Ringer sees him and as the Geek commander passes an airlock he opens it and the Geek is sucked out.  In a rage the Dishwasher asks who is responsible.  None of the V.C.s own up so the Dishwasher says all of them will share in the infiltration missions now.

Now a Suicide Squad, the rest are dressed as Geek too.  The jump to what looks like a dead system, but are then challenged by a Geek ship which quickly sees through their deception. They ride it out to hide by a black dwarf star but there is a secret missile base there.  Dwarf Star manages to blow it up, but is hit and the others can only watch in horror as his turret cracks and splinters and Dwarf Star is sucked into space.  Angrily Smith says the Dishwasher is a cancer and he's going to kill him before he gets the rest of them killed.

The death of Dwarf Star.

He decides agains splattering the Dishwasher's brains out but does punch out a guard of his and is docked a years pay. The rest of the fleet fly to the black dwarf and take out the rest of the Geek forces and secret missile bases, "another victory for me!" crows the Dishwasher. Steve is about to kill him then spots a guard globe protecting him, he stops then sees Hen-sho had the same idea but hasn't seen the globe so he quietly knocks him out.

They say they'll get him next time, but don't believe there will be a next time, their Geek disguise ploy has run it's course, they'll be killed if they try it again.  Nevertheless they fly out and it looks like they hit the jackpot and found the Geek homeworld.  They are spotted and put up a valiant fight but the ship is lost and only two lifepods remain.   Hen-sho knocks Smith and Loon out and puts them inside sacrificing his life as the ship explodes around him.

Hen-Sho says farewell.

Their pods land on the moon above the Geek homeworld. Loon has retreated into a childlike state.  Smith manages to get him into a crater behind him so he  can hold off any attackers and protect him.  Down to his last powerpack things look bleak then the attacking Geeks turn back.  A Geek ship comes hovering down to look for them and Loon picks a bad time to jump back into Smith's crater and is blasted to pieces.

Gutted Smith hears a familiar voice then sees the strange sight of himself and his companions still alive.  Turns out the Geeks are doing their own bit of infiltration in diguise.  They are going to infiltrate the Flagship so they can ambush the rest of the fleet.  He has to warn them.

Loon is blown to bits.

He takes out his lookalike and takes his place.  As they make the jump back to the human fleet, he thinks about who he cares about, the Cyborg general and Jupe and Ringer stuck in sickbay. The jolt of coming out of hyperspace cuts Smith's cheek and the Geeks notice.  Smith desperately tries to warm the flagship but the Geeks shoot him, leaving him barely alive thinking, "you failed Smith, you failed."

He comes to a little later badly burned by the lazgun but still alive.  He makes his way onto the flagship which the Geeks have gained a foothold in.  He makes his way to the med bay and picks up Jupe and Ringer.  Jupe casually breaks a Geek's neck, Ringer is still terrified.

Smith collects Jupe and Ringer.

They see on a scanner screen connected to the bridge that the Dishwasher has cravenly given into the Geek's commands.  If they leave him alive he'll call the fleet and order them into a trap.  The cyborg general there calls him a coward and is clubbed to the ground.  Jupe says if they cut the power they can stop the comm signal, so head for the power room rather than the more heavily guarded bridge.

Smith hands Ringer a Kill disc, he receives it ungratefully. They shatter the ships power crystal and everything goes dark. Then they storm the bridge, Ringer gets his killing mojo back and Jupe takes out a couple close range as well.  With all the Geeks dead the Dishwasher turns on them saying he can't have evidence of his cowardice come out and he draws a gun on them.  Ringer throws his kill disc at him but takes a blast from the gun that was meant for Smith.  He dies stating that in the end Smith was a V.C.

Ringer goes out a hero.

The cyborg general is the new ships commander.  The flagship takes off and the rest of the fleet follow.  It jumps into hyperspace and Smith feels unwell as hyperspace is proving hard on his wounds.  The Geeks still think Smith is one of theirs. Smith starts to pass out, but visions of the dead V.C.s keep him going and they get right up close to the Geek flagship thanks to his deception of them.  Then they let go at it with everything they've got and destroy it taking out the whole of the Geek high command.

Then the rest of the human fleet arrive and a huge space battle occurs, though the loss of their flagship has demoralised the Geeks totally.  As the human troops drop down onto the Geek homeworld, Smith finally passes out and wakes up in sickbay  six days later to the news the Geeks have surrendered.

Cue epic space battle.

There is a reception commitee as more Dishwasher's arrive and take a ring off the finger of the traitorous one who Ringer killed.  It has a holographic message conerning Smith.  But before the Dishwasher can damn him after death, Jupe "accidentally" hoovers up the ring and destroys it.  The cyborg General says the Dishwasher was going to reward Smith for his gallant actions and should therefore be promoted.  Which he is, to second leiutenant.  Shaking hands with the General, Smith thinks:

Smith: "At last a bit of dirt, but the general and Jupe put their heads on the block to clean it up for me. Yeah, now I've got a new crew to form, maybe new wars to fight... but I'm never going to wipe away the memory of those first V.C.s... the Vacuum Cleaners."

Smith is finally rewarded for his heroism. The end?

And that brings this first V.C.s saga to an end.  A well remembered and well loved strip from the first few years of the comic, it inspired one young reader at the time, Dan Abnett to beg for and be allowed to write new V.C.s strips picking up the adventures of Steve Smith fifty years after the end of the first Geek War.  And I shall be coverning those in future UK comic months.  For now though this is a brilliant story, full of twists and turns, vivid characters, some clever wordplay around the concept of "cleaning" the Geeks up and a well established future world military.  Our bunch of misfits and Smith's quest for acceptance are fantastic plot drivers as the raw recruit just out of military school is forged into a man who would go on to save all of humanity, but only with the help of his friends and colleagues and their sacrifices to get him into that position to do so. All the artists turn in exceptional work, I have a liking for Cam Kennedy's episodes the best, but they are all good.  The writing takes all the cliches of the genre and runs with it gleefully and is a lot of fun to read.  This is not a subtle story, these are not subtle characters, the script is not at all subtle. This is a good, solid space bound military adventure and I hope the TPB comes back into print one day so more people can enjoy it.

Miracleman: Book 1 - A Dream Of Flying (#1-4) PART TWO

"Out of the dark he is coming..." - Narration

The story so far:  It's the early 80's, shabby middle aged bloke Mike Moran has been haunted by dreams of flying towards a grey shape that explodes and consumes him in fire.  After being taken hostage by terrorists while covering a protest at a nuclear plant he sees the word "Atomic" backwards through a window.  He says the word "Kimota" and turns into the superhuman Miracleman.  He returns to his/Mikes wife Liz and after filling her in on his rather silly history they sleep together. Next day he is called up by Johnny Bates who was Kid Miracleman, now the owner of a large multinational company. Back as Mike, he and Liz go to meet Johnny.  Turns out Johnny hasn't lost his powers and is also completely corrupted and evil.  He and Miracleman fight, but Johnny is stronger, before he can finish Miracleman off, he accidentally says Miracleman's name, which is the magic word that triggers his transformation.  He turns back into sixteen year old Johnny Bates and seems to have lost his power to return back into his superpowered self.  Miracleman and Liz leave him virtually catatonic, while elsehwere in London, the authorities have unleashed the ultimate sanction to deal with Miracleman, a black man with sapphires for teeth called Evelyn Cream.  And now, back to the story.

We next find Mike and Liz out on an excursion to the moors to do some tests on his powers.  It seems Liz initiated this idea making her an early example of one of Moore's proactive females.  Mike seems a little uncertain about all this but changes into Miracleman nontheless. It seems two months have passed since his battle with Kid Miracleman, his face is still burned but has healed substantionally. Liz grabs some comics from the car boot.

Miracleman: "Comics?"

Liz: "Mmm, Amercian comics.  I thought if we wer going to investigate your power, I'd better do some research work."
She lists off some of the powers she's compiled.  Flight, super-strength and near invulnerability get an affirmative.  When she starts listing things like superbreath though, Miracleman looks adorably confused.

Kid Miracleman trapped in Johnny's head

Back with Johnny Bates, he's in some sort of fugue state being examined by doctors and inside his head he's being yelled at by Kid Miracleman, who swears revenge on Miracleman.

Kid Miracleman: "He just better hope I never get out of here.  He better hope I stay in here forever."

Liz and Miracleman are still on the moors. Miracleman picks up  huge boulder and lets it smash down onto his head.  Liz posits the idea that he has a forcefield that stops him being driven into the ground by the weight.  She thinks his power might be all in his mind.

We then move onto Evelyn Cream and I am not going to lie, I do find him a somewhat worrying character.  Not because he is black, but because he is black and so comprehensively "othered" by his sapphire teeth, white suit and dark glasses.  It feels like making him black as well was to increase his "exoticism" and that makes me uncomfortable.  But also, he is kind of a bad ass character too.  He's charming, intelligent and fiercely cultured, he quickly discovers Mike is Miracleman.  He has him at his mercy but decides to betray his governmental masters to help Miracleman find out the secrets of his past.  So he's a fascinating character even as he is also an contradictory one.

Evelyn Cream

Anyway, he's already narrowed down the list of possible Miracleman suspects to pressmen at the Larksmere terrorist incident.  He visits the hospital where one of the terrorists is being treated after mulling over the fact that the transformation might be accompanied by extreme heat and light.  So as only one of the terrorists had burns, he's the one to go and interview.  Once inside the hospital he shows fake ID and goes to see him.

Back with Mike and Liz, Liz thinks Mike and Miracleman are two different people.  The switch takes place when the magic word is said, which is why Miracleman didn't age and Kid Miracleman did.  Mike isn't sure as they share the same mind, although Miracleman is cleverer than him.  As they drive off, Liz drops a bombshell.

Mike's inferiority complex on display

Liz: "I've missed my last two periods and I'm going to have a baby and it isn't yours, it's Miracleman's."

Mike: ".............what did you just say?"

Poor Mike, this really starts the beginning of his disillusionment with how his "normal" self can't measure up to Miracleman's perfection.  Miracleman being so potent he got Liz pregnant after one night together, when he's never been able to give Liz kids.

Back with Cream, he is in with Steve, who is still deafened so Cream interviews him via written questions on a pad.  Steve describes Mike and Cream marks him on his list of possible suspects then he shows Steve the following message:

Cream's Pad: "Oh.. and remember how I promised not to kill you?"

Steve: "Yeah?"

Cream's Pad: "I was lying Steve."

It's an Arnie quip, before Arnie quipped it!  Anyway, Cream suffocates Steve and then leaves.

Alas poor Steve...

We return to the Moran's house over breakfast after Miracleman has been out enjoying the freedom of flight.  Mike is sulky and uncommunicative and has been since Liz told him about the baby two months ago (which does beg the question what Cream has been up to in the four months he was called in as the "ultimate sanction"). He apologises saying Miracleman is just so much better than he is.

Mike: "His emotions are so pure. When he loves you it's so gigantic. His love is so strong and direct and clean."

He apologises to Liz saying he'll sort it out then heads to the paper he works freelance for to try and hustle up some work.  His editor is complaining that the government has slapped a "D-Notice" (a gagging order) on stories about the battle between Miracleman and Johnny back in february. The editor then says he has no work for Mike and a somewhat sad Mike leaves the office.

In the lift he gets in is a woman with a baby and Cream hid behind a newspaper.  The woman hands Mike her baby while she gets something out of her bag, then Cream whispers in his ear:

Cream: "How are you going to change to Miracleman without roasting that innocent little baby the way you roasted that terrorist."

His trap sprung, Cream shoots Mike at point blank range and everything for Mike goes dark.

Cream takes down Mike with ease.

The next chapter has an interesting structure.  Each page has a strip running across the middle in with silhouetted figures talking about current events, this being the government "Spookshow" behind Miracleman's creation. The chapter begins with Miracleman transformed and being attacked ineffectively by soldiers, then flashes back to Mike and Cream. So I'll discuss that bit first.

Cream has Mike tied up and gagged.  He only shot him with tranquiliser bullets.  Cream then lays some facts upon him.  First that he was created in 1954 as part of a project  called Zarathustra, carried out by the Spookshow.  In 1963 they decided to terminate the experminent with an A-bomb and they have also hired Cream to kill him.  Mike thinks it can't be true about his origins, but doubt starts to creep into his mind.  Cream says they should work together so that Mike can find the truth and Cream can gain some valuable information.  He unties Mike and removes his gag.  Mike transforms and Cream can only say "remarkable."

Keeps his cool in the presence of an angel.

The Spookshow realise that Cream has sold them out, "he must know what the Zarathustra secret is worth".  One man wonders why the Zarathustra bunker is still operational.  Dennis Archer admits he kept the project open, hoping to recoup some of the massive cost. He also  admits that the last line of defence protecting the bunker is another super-powered individual.

Finally the chapter shows Miracleman walking slowly and deliberately towards the bunker's front door, swatting away every attempt to stop him like you would swat a fly.  He finally makes it to the entrance only to be confronted with a muscular man in a tight suit and tie, wearing a bowler hat and wielding an umbrella.  He calls Miracleman "a bolshevik blighter" and in voice over Sir Dennis Archer says his name is "Big Ben".

The somewhat lame, Big Ben

The next chapter starts with Evelyn Cream talking to himself, he has a lot to say so here is a truncated quote that gives you a flavour of what he's driving at:

Cream: "Educated at Rugby, trained at Sandhurst.  You read the untranslated novels of Colette and own an original Hockney. Good God sir you are practically white.... and yet you follow this white Loa.  This Miracleman who leaves a trail of dead and fish-eyed fellows in his wake. Can it be that you have gone native Cream? Mr. Cream do you at last believe in Ju-ju? Great Grandfather, pass me down the gris-gris and the pointing bone, for I have at this late stage opted to become another crazy n*****"

Now I can tell you that final word was not censored in the original comics, and while I understand Marvel's reasons for doing so it's still a shame.  Miracleman is so heavenly and Godlike that even a man as cultured as Cream feels primitive by comparison.  His self lacerating monologue speaks to a man who fears that under the surface of his "practically white" identity lurks a confused idea of a tribal past that Miracleman is forcing him to confront by his very perfection.  The use of the word "nigger" at the end is like a verbal gunshot, pulling us up short and making realise just how disconcerting being around Miracleman can be if it can reduce a proud black man to someone who'll use racial epithets about himself.

Back to Big Ben, and I do believe he was another Warrior character whose use in Miracleman was forced on Moore by the editor.  Which probably explains why he is so laughable and pathetic.  To Moore's credit he ties him into Project Zarathustra seamlessly so you'd never know he was an unwanted element.  He attacks Miracleman over and over, under the mental impression Miracleman is a Russian agent, while Miracleman just stands there.

Miracleman: "I wish I knew who he was.  I wish he'd stop hitting me."

"Foolish human."

Finally Miracleman gets bored and with a contemptous slap sends Big Ben crashing through the trees into the ground.  Evelyn Cream then puts some dynamite on the door to blow it open, but, in a gorgeously drawn panel, Miracleman looks at him with a mixture of amusement and pity and rips the door right off with one hand.  They enter the bunker.

The penultimate chapter - "Zarathustra" - is absolutely jammed packed with text so some serious summarising is going on here.  In another interesting structural move, this chapter is mostly narrated after the fact by Sir Dennis Archer.  He found the carnage outside the bunker "horrifying" and that Big Ben was still alive though somewhat frozen up.

Digital recorders showed that Miracleman and Cream entered the bunker and looked around, where they would have noticed the skeletons of the "superhuman" (it's two skeletons fused together, obviously Young Miracleman) and the "visitor" which is a non-human skeleton, as well as part of the Visitor's ship.  They then started studying the tapes and spent forty-five minutes watching them until at 03:56 Miraclemen went suddenly berserk.

Miracleman SMASH!

The tapes show doctors using information gleaned from the Visitor's ship to create a superhuman from a single cell.  Two identical "infra-spatial" trigger devices are implanted so that when the "replicate" is displaced into "infra-space" it remains connected to the human subject.  When the trigger is activated the human and the replicate switch places, the trigger being a keyword.

The tape goes onto say that the superhumans were the UK's attempt to make nuclear bombs obsolete and it shows Kid Miracleman performing some feats of power and speed. The three test subjects were chosen because they were children of deceased airforce personel.  Dennis then reports that they overwound the tape and came onto the creation of Big Ben. He was not as powerful as the Miraclemen as Project Zarathustra's originator had disappeared taking his findings with him, so they were working with incomplete data.  Hence Big Ben's instability which came about due to their limited understanding of the para-reality programming.

The Miraclemen's REAL origins.

Miracleman and Cream then rewound the tape to the section all about para-reality programming. The Miraclemen were fed their Silver Age adventures via a virtual reality style computer set-up.

Tape: "...and the creatures have lain dreaming for the past eight years.  Their entire existence a computer designed fantasy.  In order to explain the finer details of this all-important mind programming, here is the controller and originator of the Zarathustra Project Doctor Emil Gargunza."

Gargunza: "... we have completely programmed the minds of these near-divine creatures. Providing them in the process with an utterly manufactured identity which is ours to manipulate at will. To whit:  the identity of a children's comic book character."

This revelation does not go down well.

It was at this point that Miracleman went berserk, Gargunza being his repeated nemesis in the the adventures he had that he thought were for real. It seems Cream managed to calm him down and they both left, leaving a clean-up crew to move in.  This includes to psychiatrists who gently take away Big Ben who has had a complete breakdown and is lost in his fantasy world. The story ends with the same lines it started with about some trucks being empty and some not.

There is a short epilogue chapter which shows two working class men cleaning up in the bunker.  I believe there has been some censorship here as well, when they put a tape on originally it showed an insulting Chinese "Fu Manchu" sterotype, but has been changed to show Steed of the Avengers and the word balloon altered accordingly.  Again I understand why it was done, it's just I believe work that was of it's time should be presented warts and all.  There is also a short story which shows Miracleman in the future working with Warpsmith an alien who was given a couple of stories in Warrior also included in this book but never caught on by himself.  He goes on to play a much bigger role in Book 3 though.  I assume "The Yesterday Gambit" as it's called is non-canon now as I think it contradicts the later Miracleman strips, but I could be wrong.

Warpsmith and Miracleman.

The main event of this book though are the ten chapters from the first - "A Dream Of Flying" to the last "Zarathustra".  It's no exaggeration to say they went off in the comic culture like a bomb.  Warrior had a pretty small circulation, I believe roughly twenty-thousand copies on average were sold per issue, with a quarter of that in the USA.  In the same way that it was said only one hundred people saw The Velvet Underground live but they all went on to form bands, so too did it seem Marvelman as it was then known had an influence that far outstripped the low sales of the comic it was in.  Realistic treatments of "silly" superheroes became fashionable, and in a more direct sense, Marvelman led to Swamp Thing which led to Watchmen which of course was even more influential. Book One ends with the character and his history revamped and totally deconstructed.  What was now interesting would be how Moore would go about reconstructing the character he'd so lovingly pulled apart...

Miracleman: Book 1 - A Dream Of Flying (#1-4) PART ONE

"Eighteen years.  Eighteen years trapped in that old, tired body." - Miracleman

Miracleman, Marvelman, Marvelman, Miracleman.  A few years ago I would have classed this as an Alan Moore Obscurity, because although this collection does not bear his name, the Northamptonshire Eeyore is "The Original Writer" of credit.  A couple of decades of rights hell had rendered his famous updating of the Silver Age UK creation "Marvelman" difficult to find and expensive to collect.  Even during it's original publication, first as an eight page black and white strip in early 80's UK comic Warrior, to it's continuation as a full length colour comic published by Eclipse in the late 80's, it had become in the words of second artist on the strip Alan Davis "a snake pit of egos".  It's ironic that Marvel is responsible for the recent reprints once a deal with Moore had been finally hammered out with Moore (and all the other people who felt they owned a stake in the character over the years), as threatened legal action from them in the 80's over the original name "Marvelman" (even though Marvelman predated the name Marvel being taken on as a corporate identity) forced a change to Miracleman, and it was fallout from this that led to Moore blocking reprints of his Captain Britain work for so long and likely one of the main reasons he has refused to allow this reprint material to go out with his name on, also meaning Marvel can't exploit his name for publicity.  Considering the shabby treatment Moore had suffered in the early part of his career from Marvel, it's a decision I am totally in his corner for, while being glad that he agreed to allow his most famous unread work back into mainstream circulation, just not credited "officially" to him.

Unused Warrior cover art.

Before I look at the actual Moore penned Miracleman story, let's look at this package as a whole.  A very nice package it is too. I was a little wary when I saw that it was going to be recoloured, I'd seen the somewhat haphazard recolouring of the Eclipse reprints in excerpts online and not been too impressed.  But this colouring job is beautiful, the original artists Garry Leach and Alan Davis couldn't have asked for better.  Because "Book One" of Miracleman only filled the equivalent of four normal length US comics when collected, this volume has been bulked out with some great extras. 

There is the non-canon special story Moore penned early on that was designed to give first artist Garry Leach more time to finish his episodes, and three "Warpsmith" stories that flesh out the titular alien race. One of whom appears in the non-canon special, but who goes on to have a greater role in later books.  There are also a covers gallery and pages from Leach's design notebooks, all very welcome and lovely to look at.  And then there is the story that kicks off the collection, a reprint of an old Marvelman story from the fifties.

Hmmm.

For the two people who might not be aware of the fact, Marvelman was created in the fifties when the US series Captain Marvel fell into publishing limbo.  The characters are virtually identical.  Everyday human says a magic word (in Marvelman's case it's "Kimota!" - Atomik backwards) and transforms into a being with the power of Superman.  As well as Marvelman himself, there was Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman and together they fought monsters and colourful villians and so on.  Now perhaps part of my issue with starting the book with this "flashback" is my real problem with Silver Age comic book stuff.

Silver Age Miracleman, Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman.

Oh, I love the concepts, the characters, the inspiration the ideas have given to writers and artists who came later... but in practice, time and again I am repelled by the art and writing (what can I say?  I'm a child of the Bronze and Dark Ages).  So while I'll enjoy Neo-Silver Age stuff like Grant Morrison's All Star Superman or deconstructions of it, like, well Alan Moore's Miracleman, I'll leave the rest of it in the past.  It's not for me.  That said, it does at least show quite spectacularly just how much Alan Moore pulled the concept to pieces before rebuilding it in quite a different way.

As the Alan Moore storyline gets underway you'll notice two things.  Firstly the artwork is astounding.  Garry Leach's work is almost photorealistic and sadly couldn't last as it was taking him all month simply to pencil and ink one six to eight page strip.  Alan Davis takes over about halfway through, with Leach inking Davis on two chapters to smooth the transition.  Davis is a fine replacement, but the art gets noticably more cartoony as a trade-off.  The other thing you'll notice is how ridiculously cramped the narration and speech bubbles are.  Moore was at his most verbose during this period, and it's not helped by the fact that  the page size has been reduced from the "2000AD sized" original Warrior comics to the standard US comic size.  Break out your magnifying glasses people, but at least you feel like you've got your money's worth of plot and dialogue compared to todays decompressed age.

Narration: "In the sodium lit hours before dawn, the great trucks roll north. Some carry breakfast cereal, and some carry ball bearings. Some are empty.  And some are not."

Immediately grounding the story in the real world, we are introduced to a couple of domestic terrorists planning to steal some plutonium, before cutting to our main protagonist Mike Moran who is having a familiar dream.  He dreams he is flying with two other people towards "a vast grey ship".  The "sky catches fire" and he briefly sees one of his friends "flickering like a doppler image" before he is consumed by light and thunder.

Mike and Liz Moran.

He wakes screaming, waking his wife Liz as well.  He groans that he has a migraine and Liz offers to call his work at get him out of the Larksmere assignment.  He grouchily says they need the money from his journalism and he doesn't like his wife being the main breadwinner, showing how emasculated he feels.  He catches the train to Larksmere nuclear power station to cover a protest.  Once there though the terrorists appear and herd the journalists inside to record their advertisement for people who will want to buy plutonium off them. 

Mike's migraine gets worse, he is almost crippled by pain.  One of the terrorists takes him away down a corridor.  Mike sees the word "atomic" reflected backwards through a window.  He mumbles the suddenly familiar word "Kimota". And...

Narration: "The whisper is drowned by thunder. The screams of the man called Steve are lost in the sudden flood of light.  His face is scarred and blistered, his eardrums have burst.  His eyes have seen glory."

The other terrorists appear and shoot at Miracleman, but the bullets bounce off him.  He claps his hands together and disables them before flying out of the building and into space where he punches the air in a meta moment shouting "I'm Miracleman. I'm back!!"

A hero returns.

Later Miracleman goes and sees Liz.  At first she doesn't recognise him, but then she does and hugs him tight.

Narration: "He holds her and his touch is as frictionless as mercury. The restrained power in his arms makes her feel like glass."

Miracleman: "Sit down.  I'll make some coffee".

Narration: "'I'll make some coffee'.  The words sound so mundane...  Yet he looks like a god."

Over coffee he begins to tell her his story.  He was a copy boy for a newspaper called the Daily Bugle.  One day he was granted power by an astro-physicist called Guntag Borghelm. He gives him the word "Kimota" the "keyword of the universe" which allows his transformation into Miracleman.  He realises Liz is laughing:

Liz: "I'm sorry Mike, but that's such a bloody stupid story."

Miracleman's origin.

Miracleman uncertainly goes on, saying he was joined by a man called Dicky Dauntless (much to Liz's further merriment) who became Young Miracleman.  Then in 1956 they were joined by Johnny Bates who bccame Kid Miracleman, who changed whenever he said "Miracleman". They fought villains like Firebug, Young Nastyman and a freakish, dwarf genius called  Doctor Gargunza.  They thwarted his plans time and again, but it he never did anything really evil.  It was like they were "playing some a game."

Liz is still amused by all this.  She asked why she never heard of their exploits and Miracleman says it might have been covered up after what happened in 1963.

Liz: "Don't tell me. A couple more Miraclemen turned up and you formed a football team"

Miracleman: "Dammit Liz, you're laughing at my life!!"

And he clenches his fist, crushing the wood underneath it.  Anyway in 1963 he and the other two Miraclemen were blown up by a bomb.  He was found in the Suffolk marshes, badly burned with most of his bones broken.  He had forgotten his life as Miracleman until today. The action then cuts to a new character watching the news footage of Miracleman flying out of the powerplant.  He smashes his desk yelling "Miracleman. He's back. Back to spoil everything!"

The morning after...

The next day Liz awakes next to a sleeping Miracleman, she is naked and the implication is she slept with Miracleman not Mike.  She wanders round the room, touching things, trying to reconnect with normality.  Then the phone rings.  It's for Mike, so Miracleman changes back into him and takes the call.  It's Johnny Bates, Kid Miracleman, the desk smasher of the previous chapter.  He wants to meet up, so Mike and Liz go to his place of work, which is a company called Sunburst Cybernetics that Johnny owns.

They chat and Johnny says when they found the bomb, he flew as high as he could to outrun the blast and was caught on the edge of it.  He awoke in hospital and although he could remember his life as Kid Miracleman, he had lost his powers.

Johnny: "For seven years I had been something more than human. Then all of a sudden the magic went away."

Mike and Johnny reunited.

After chatting some more about how Johnny built his company up from scratch, he and Mike go out onto the balcony to talk privately.  Mike says he wanted to believe Johnny he really did but couldn't help but think, what if he hadn't lost his powers?

Mike: "I tried to think what it would be like to be sixteen years old and the most powerful creature on the face of the planet, and be answerable to no one.  You could do anything.  You'd never have to change into dull, weak, human Johnny Bates again".

Johnny tells him he is being paranoid.  Mike then realises Johnny is trying to do something to his mind. When Liz comes out on to the the balcony to tell them they have to go, Mike pushes Johnny off it.  And Johnny just hangs in the air, grinning, light crackling off him.

Yep, he's a psycho, proto-yuppie, Thatcherite scumbag.

Mike tells Liz to run, Johnny says he kill her after he kills her husband. His secretary arrives with more coffee and Johnny brutally murders her.

Narration: "Her name is Stephanie. She likes Adam and the Ants. Her boyfriend's name is Brian.  She collects Wedgewood.  Her insides have turned to water.  She is only human."

Cleverly, Alan Moore humanises Johnny's first victim with a thumbail sketch of her life, making his actions even more horrifying. Mike asks why he did that, Johnny answers that he enjoyed it.  Sadly Mike says "Kimota".  The pair of them go flying out into the street battling each other.  A small child comes up to Johnny calling him Superman.  Johnny asks if he would like to fly like Superman and picks up and hurls the child.  Miracleman manages to catch him, though the kid breaks a couple of ribs due to how fast he was going.  His mother snatches him back calling Miracleman a "bloody monster".

It's like the third Matrix film's climax, only good.

Johnny then smashes Miracleman high into the sky.  As he flies upwards, Miracleman wonders how Johnny got so strong, and why he aged as Kid Miracleman while Miracleman didn't.  Johnny builds a thunderbolt and blasts him with it, then smashes Miracleman into the ground causing a huge crater.  He thinks Miracleman dead;

Narration: "After a while he turns away to look at the city spread behind him. London huddled against the stinging rain.  He wonders what to do next."

He finds Liz and tells her he's quite relieved now he's out in the open, that it was "degrading" pretending to be human.  He crunches her car into a ball and goes to kill her when Miracleman appears and attacks him. They begin an epic beatdown on each other, with Johnny getting the upper hand quickly.  The narration describes them as having an almost "sexual hatred" for each other.

The authorities respond.

While their fight goes on we are shown various members of the authorities on the phone about them.  One is called Sir Dennis Archer, who goes "Oh God... the monsters are back."  The final person in the chain says he wants the "ultimate sanction. I want you to send for Mr. Cream".  Meanwhile Johnny has beaten Miracleman into near unconciousness.  Over Miracleman's prone body he throws his hands up in triumph:

Johnny: "I beat him!! ...And now I'm going to finish him off! Me!  His adoring junior protege! Me, Kid Miraclem.........an"

He has time for one look of horror at his mistake in saying "Miracleman" the word that changes him, before he turns back into sixteen year old Johnny Bates. Miracleman goes to kill him, but can't bring himself to do it.  Johnny stutters that it wasn't his fault.  He says Miracleman again, but doesn't change.  Miracleman theorises that the battle burnt his powers out somehow, and he and Liz leave Johnny Bates snivelling in the wreckage and fly away.

Poor pathetic Johnny Bates.

We are then introduced to a "black man, in a white suit" called Evelyn Cream, who has sapphires for teeth.  Later we also meet Sir Dennis Archer who reflects that he never should have let that "treacherous little freak build his monsters." He remembers back to when he oversaw the use of an atom bomb to take out the Miraclemen in 1963, then he thinks:

Narration: "Evelyn Cream will sanction the monster.  The dragon will be dealt with."

Introducing Evelyn Cream.

And that marks the halfway point of Book One.  So much crammed into so few chapters.  It's interesting that Moore places what would in other stories be the climatic battle against a super-powered nemesis in the middle of the story rather than the end.  With Johnny/Kid Miracleman out of the way, and having demonstrated the rather dysfunctional relationship the Miraclemen share with their human sides, while also grounding the story fully in the real world of early 80's Britain, the story is free to get on with the business of deconstructing the character in earnest in the second half of the story which I'll be looking at in a couple of days time.