Miracle Man

Real Name: John Chapman

Identity/Class: Human transformed by magic

Occupation: Assistant to Inspector Stewart, a bumbling policeman

Affiliations: Inspector Stewart (police officer), Supercoat

Enemies: The John James gang

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Super Hombre (Spanish name); Mirakel Man (Dutch name), Mirakelmanden (Danish name)

Base of Operations: U.K.

First Appearance: Miracle Man #1 (Top Sellers, 1965)

Powers/Abilities: Superstrength, flight, invulnerability, x-ray vision

History: Miracle Man is "The Super Man of unlimited power" who can transform from young Johnny Chapman into his hero persona by saying the magic words "sun disc." His similarly powered teenage sidekick is known as Supercoat, whose powers come from the swallow-tailed coat he wears - Supercoat sometimes wears a version of Miracle Man's costume under the coat, but not always.

Comments: Created by Mick Anglo. Apparently when Mick Anglo was asked to create a new hero for the Spanish market, he adapted and re-drew some of his old Marvelman strips, and created Super Hombre. Then, never one to waste any ideas, he re-sold the modified strips back to the U.K., now under the title Miracle Man! Ironically, Marvelman would later adopt the name Miracleman when copyright issues arose with Marvel Comics.

Very likely a homage (e.g. rip-off) of the American Captain Marvel, down to the similarity of how he activates his powers, and not dissimilar to Marvelman (who of course would later pinch his name) in that respect.

Note that the picture above shows his costume as being blue with bare legs. This is what comes from having a black and white strip, so that cover colourists have to guess what the costume is meant to look like. Another copy of his comic I have shows his costume as being mainly red, complete with red leggings (much like the Dutch comic covers below). Speaking of which, thanks to Johan de Neef who sent me four examples of the Dutch printing of this character. At least they can keep the colour scheme on his costume mostly consistant. Johan mentions that "The series was published in the Netherlands from 1965 to 1968."

Thanks to Andrew Williams for supplying much of the above information on this character, and to Chris Adams, who told me about him in the first place. Thanks also to Per Sanderhage, who provided his Danish name and informed me "A single issue of Anglo´s Miracleman was published in Denmark by I.K. in 1967 (36 pages)"

Miracle Man was one of many heroes who turned up in Grant Morrison's Zenith strip in 2000 A.D., and was one of the few who survived the whole way through.


Miracle Man in Zenith

Supercoat
Supercoat

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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