The Mick Anglo years

In 1953, the American company Fawcett Comics, which was the U.S. publisher of Captain Marvel, discontinued the title because of a lawsuit from DC Comics. Len Miller and his company L. Miller & Son, Ltd. had been publishing black and white reprints of the series, along with other Fawcett titles, in the UK. Rather than stopping, he turned to comic packager Mick Anglo for help continuing or replacing the comic. They transformed Captain Marvel into Marvelman while Miller continued his other Fawcett reprint titles and used logos and trademarks that looked significantly like Fawcett's. This added to the appearance that the Fawcett line was continuing, and that Marvelman was still Captain Marvel, in order to retain the audience.

Marvelman was similar to Captain Marvel: a young reporter named Micky Moran encounters an astrophysicist, instead of a wizard, who gives him superpowers based on atomic energy instead of magic. To transform into Marvelman, he speaks the word "Kimota", which is phonetically "atomic" backwards, rather than "Shazam". Instead of Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel, Marvelman was joined by Dicky Dauntless, a teenage messenger boy who became Young Marvelman, and young Johnny Bates, who became Kid Marvelman; both of their magic words were "Marvelman".

Captain Marvel #19 and Captain Marvel, Jr. #19 announced the forthcoming replacement of these heroes, and with issue number 25 of each title, both cover-dated 3 February 1954, they were retitled as Marvelman and Young Marvelman. Marvelman Family was added to the lineup two years later. Among the studio artists Anglo assembled to produce the comics were Denis Gifford and Don Lawrence. Marvelman and Young Marvelman each had 346 issues (#25–370), published weekly, except for the final 36 issues, which were monthly, reprinting old stories. Marvelman Family was a monthly that usually featured Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman together, from October 1956 to November 1959. A variety of Marvelman and Young Marvelman albums were printed annually from 1954 to 1963.

Mick Anglo's association with Len Miller ended in 1960. A disgruntled Anglo then recycled some of his Marvelman stories as Captain Miracle, published under his Anglo Comics imprint, which folded in 1961. Anglo always claimed ownership of Marvelman and although creator's rights were almost unheard of in the British comics industry of the 1950s and 1960s, at least some of Anglo's Marvelman stories do have a tiny "© Mick Anglo" in the margins, lending a measure of credibility to Anglo's claim.

At the height of their success, the British "Marvels" saw a series of Italian reprints. Gordon and Gotch, one of Australia's largest comics publishers, also published reprint editions. In Brazil, British Marvelman stories were reprinted in the same titles as Fawcett's original Captain Marvel. However, in Brazil, Marvelman became Jack Marvel.

Though the Marvelman titles were successful for a considerable time, this changed abruptly in 1959 when changes in British law allowed comics to be imported from the United States. The black-and-white Marvelman books were unable to compete with the full color imports, forcing Miller to cancel Marvelman Family, downgrade the other two titles to monthly status, and use reprinted adventures for their content. The two series survived until 1963, when Miller ceased publication and filed for bankruptcy.

The Alan Moore years

Marvelman (in Warrior)

In March 1982, a new British monthly black-and-white anthology comic was launched, called Warrior. Editor/publisher Dez Skinn had decided from the beginning to revive Marvelman as one of these features, explaining, "It was always going to be Marvelman. I knew the character’s history: I’d had a few Annuals as a kid and those cheap and nasty little comics. Wasn’t particularly thrilled with them, outside of occasional stunning art, but I’d always had a soft spot for Mick Anglo ... So, given the difference between a brand-new character who would sell no more copies, or a somewhat forgotten character who might sell about a dozen more, I opted to follow the similar relaunch I’d done with Captain Britain—tease at first, then, as a bonus, surprise those who actually cared. If it failed, it was only six pages out of 52—the beauty of the anthology approach." Skinn's first two choices to write Marvelman were Steve Parkhouse and Steve Moore. Both expressed a lack of interest, and when Moore told Skinn that his friend Alan Moore (no relation to Steve) would "give his eye teeth" to write Marvelman, Skinn agreed to let him submit a pitch for the series. Skinn's first picks for artist were Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland, but again both declined, leaving Skinn to reluctantly give the assignment to Garry Leach, the one artist he could find with interest in the project. Leach used actor Paul Newman as the model for his rendition of Miracleman.

Warrior featured a new, darker version of Marvelman, written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Garry Leach (soon replaced by Alan Davis when Leach's laborious and perfectionist approach threatened deadlines), and lettered by Annie Parkhouse. In the first issue of Warrior, Michael Moran is presented as married, plagued by migraines, having dreams of flying, and unable to remember a word that had such significance in his dreams. In his initial run of Marvelman stories, Moore touches on many themes of his later work, including the superhero as a source of terror, the sympathetic villain and exploring the mythology of an established fictional character.

Warrior published a Marvelman Special collecting Mick Anglo stories within a frame story by Moore. The former Atlas Comics, renamed Marvel Comics shortly before the original Marvelman was cancelled, objected to the use of the world Marvel in the series title. This was used as the publisher's official explanation for why Marvelman ended on a cliffhanger with Warrior #21 (August 1984) while the anthology itself went on for another five issues, but the actual reason was a series of bitter financial arguments between Skinn and Moore. With the series discontinued, Skinn licensed the material to American publishers, first to Pacific Comics, and after Pacific's collapse, to Eclipse Comics.

Name change to Miracleman

In August 1985, Eclipse began reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior, coloured, and re-sized. They were renamed and re-lettered throughout as Miracleman to avoid further problems with Marvel Comics. Issues 1–6 reprinted all the Warrior content, after which Eclipse began publishing new Miracleman stories from Moore and new artist Chuck Beckum (now known as Chuck Austen), soon replaced by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben. Eclipse split the rights to the character, with 2/3 going to Eclipse and 1/3 split between the current writer and artist of the series. Moore wrote the series until issue 16.

A glimpse of how Moore originally meant the story to continue is presented in Warrior issue 4 (also called the Warrior Summer Special), which features Marvelman and Aza Chorn gathering energy for the final battle with Kid Marvelman.

Miracleman: The Neil Gaiman years

Miracleman was a featured character in the mini-series Total Eclipse (1988–89). A short story by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham (titled "Screaming") appeared in Total Eclipse #4, making it Gaiman's first published Miracleman story. This story was reprinted in issue #21 and in "The Golden Age" trade paperback.

Gaiman and Buckingham picked up the series at #17, which was published in June 1990. Three volumes were planned, consisting of six issues each: "The Golden Age," "The Silver Age" and "The Dark Age."

"The Golden Age" showed the world some years later: a utopia gradually being transformed by alien technologies, and benignly ruled by Miracleman and other parahumans, though he has nagging doubts about whether he has done the right thing by taking power. Gaiman's focus in "The Golden Age" is less the heroes themselves than the people who live in this new world, including a lonely man who becomes one of Miraclewoman's lovers, a former spy (whose tale recalls J.G. Ballard's short story "War Fever"), and a robot duplicate of Andy Warhol.

Eclipse followed up "The Golden Age" by publishing the standalone, three-issue mini-series Miracleman: Apocrypha, written and illustrated by a variety of other creators, with framing pages by Gaiman and Buckingham. These stories did not form part of the main narrative, but instead further fleshed out the world of "The Golden Age".

Two issues of "The Silver Age" appeared, but Eclipse went bankrupt in 1994, ceasing publication of Miracleman with issue #24. Issue #25 was completed, but never published. Gaiman had approved a spin-off series called Miracleman: Triumphant which was written by Fred Burke, penciled by Mike Deodato Jr and inked by Jason Temujin Minor. Most of the first issue of Miracleman: Triumphant was complete and ready for printing, and the second was scripted, but like Miracleman #25 the two issues would remain in publishing limbo after Eclipse collapsed. #23 and #24 saw the resurrection of Young Miracleman and described the beginnings of trouble in Miracleman's idyllic world. A few pages of issue #25 were leaked to various websites, and appeared in George Khoury's book Kimota! The Miracleman Companion. "The Dark Age" would have seen the full return of Kid Miracleman and completed the story.

Ownership battle

In 1996, Todd McFarlane purchased Eclipse's creative assets, including the purported Miracleman rights, for a total of $25,000.

In 2001, McFarlane said that he owned all rights related to Miracleman, dismissing Neil Gaiman's claims of co-ownership, and announced that the character would appear in Hellspawn. McFarlane introduced Mike Moran (Miracleman's alter ego) in Hellspawn #6, with the alleged intention of returning Miracleman himself in Hellspawn #13. McFarlane included Miracleman in his section of what was then the long-delayed Image 10th Anniversary Book. He released a Miracleman cold-cast statue as well as a 4-inch (10 cm) scale action figure th