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.
