Hello fellow Questers!!!
Welcome back to another episode of...TEX'S Variants, Autographs, and Oddities!! I hope that your weekend is looking swell! Mine is looking to be really busy - but you know what they say: " Better busy than broke." LOL!
Now, I know that you can dig that.
Today, I hit you with a bit of that much beloved Todd McFarlane creation...SPAWN!!!
Spawn #150 (sketch variant) front cover
Spawn #150 (sketch variant) back cover
Isn't she lovely? It's my copy of the sketch variant of Spawn #150! It's one of the rarer covers, all done up by Jim Lee. But besides the cool cover, it's also the third part of an insanely cool story called "Random Patterns," penned by Brian Holguin and Todd McFarlane, in which we see Spawn defeated by Heaven's champion, The Disciple, and from a piece of his shredded carcass arises a child-Spawn. This new Spawn is taken under the wing of an enigmatic, universally powerful being who wishes to use him for his own plans.
All that's nice, but why do I REALLY love this book? Simple. It's the first full appearance of...The Man of Miracles!! YEAH!!!
Man of Miracles (M.o.M.) is basically the Mother of Existence. Bear with me here. You see, M.o.M. is the genderless, omniscient, omnipotent parent of both god and the devil, both of whom were given the Earth and wrestle for kingship over the planet. It seems the god created man (with M.o.M.'s energies), but the devil gave man free will, so they both believe they have the right to claim man as their own. Their plans were thwarted, however, when M.o.M. fell in love with mankind, seeing it as a new, unique thing in the universe. To save mankind, M.o.M. banished both god and the devil to the far reaches of the unknown universe, and then took a human form (let's just call this form, J.C.) to come down to mankind and preach a gospel of love and peace...Which mankind, of course, corrupted, leading M.o.M. train this new Spawn for his role in the coming Armageddon. The souls of M.o.M.'s 12 earthy followers became Heaven's mightiest warriors, The Disciples (the most powerful of these is the one who defeated Spawn).
Does that name sound familiar? Man of Miracles? It should because Man of Miracles = Miracleman/Marvelman!! At least, it was supposed to anyway. You see, when Todd McFarlane purchased Eclipse Comics' creative assets back in 1996, he thought he bought the rights to Miracleman, which the previous writer and (owner of the rights), Neil Gaiman, disputed. McFarlane went ahead and introduced Mike Moran, the alter-ego of Miracleman/Marvelman, into Spawn's universe, and eventually even finished a Miracleman statue and M.o.M. action figures - some of which I own (of course):
Coolness, right?
The action figures are sweet, and the story is a nutty, wild, fascinating thrill-ride of an adventure. You should check it out!
On to the FUN FACTS!
FUN FACT 1 - Man of Miracles' appearance changes according to who is perceiving her.
FUN FACT 2 - Since Alan Moore first penned the first true superhero deconstruction story starring Miracleman in the pages of Warrior, Marvelman/Miracleman has garnered a hardcore fanbase, Yours truly being one of them.
FUN FACT 3 - In 2009, it was revealed that Mick Anglo, the creator of Marvelman, still owned the rights to the character...And Marvel Comics promptly bought the rights to the character from him. Sadly, Mick passed away in 2011.
I hope you all enjoy reading these articles as much as I do writing them! I'm not a professional writer, just a guy who really loves comics. You are always welcome to let me know what you think in the comments, positive or negative. I appreciate your readership!
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