Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Holy moley! Marvelman has a Wikia page!

Never having officially appeared in a Marvel comic, Marvelman is in a bit of limbo until Marvel actually does something with him. Still, I was surprised to see that Micky Moran has an entry on the Marvel Wikia.

Among the interesting notes along the bottom (which I've copied in case the notes get edited away):

  • Marvelman was created as a 'replacement' for the original Captain Marvel when publishers Len Miller & Sons, who held the rights to reprint Fawcett Publications' Captain Marvel stories in the UK, were denied any further stories to reprint by National Comics' (DC Comics) legal action against Fawcett. The characters of Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman are effectively new versions of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel (poor Mary having undergone an unexpected sex change to become 'Johnny Bates') created by Mick Anglo. In place of the original Captain Marvel's trademark cry of Shazam, Marvelman used the code word Kimota to effect his transformations, while the wizard Shazam himself was replaced by 'astrophysicist' Guntag Bargholm and Station Whiz News by the Daily Bugle. The character was later revived in an updated form by Quality Communications in 1982 in the anthology magazine Warrior and these stories were later reprinted, and subsequently continued, by Eclipse Comics, though for the US market he was renamed 'Miracleman'. The ownership of these later stories has been the subject of a lengthy and controversial legal battle, though Marvel now own the rights to the original version of the character. The series ran from 1954-1963.
  • Analogues of Marvelman and Young Marvelman (Miracleman and Rick) existed on Earth-238, but were seemingly slaughtered by the Fury.
  • The version of Marvelman's origin given here is the original, from 1954. Later accounts contradict or revise it to a significant degree. Many of the powers listed above were also not apparent in the character's original incarnation, Marvelman then being restricted to basically super strength, super speed and flight.
Note the links to Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel on the DC Wikia. Also note the link to the Fury, which was a major storyline in the Captain Britain book.

Oh, heck. While we're doing this, here's the entry for Marvelman's history:
Micky Moran was a young orphan working as a copy boy for the Daily Bugle (no relation to the other Daily Bugle) who was apparently given the power to tap into the 'key harmonic of the universe' by an Astrophysicist by the unlikely name of Guntag Barghelt (sometimes spelled Barghelm or Bargholm), although it was never made clear what an astrophysicist was doing with this information to begin with. Simply saying the word 'Kimota' (which is very nearly but not quite 'Atomic' spelled backwards) would transform the adolescent Micky into the adult, and superhuman, Marvelman! This gift, the dying Barghelt bestowed upon Micky because he was honest, studious and good, and would therefore use his powers only in the cause of justice. Later, Marvelman would obtain two kid sidekicks: Dicky Dauntless, AKA Young Marvelman, and Johnny Bates, AKA Kid Marvelman, collectively known as the Marvelman Family.
And here's a listing of his powers and abilities:

Powers

Superhuman strength,Invulnerability,Superhuman stamina,Superhuman speed,Flight,Superhuman senses,longevity,Force-fields and concussive energy blasts with the potential to gain greater energy manipulation powers,telepathy and telekinesis. Marvelman over time will steadily increase in power.

Abilities

Scientific Genius-Level Intellect

Strength level

Class 100+; Michael can lift well over 100 tons

Weaknesses

unknown
I don't imagine doing this sort of thing with all of the characters covered in this blog. I just thought that this entry will end up changing once Marvel reveals their secret plans with lots of fanfare and hype for Marvelman.

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