It has been a bit, but Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham: The Silver Age comes back this week with a big issue, and the creative team unleashes quite a revelation for Young Miracleman. In the last issue, we saw Young Miracleman, Dickie Dauntless, travel back to the youth home he grew up in, which caused Dickie to collapse. That cliffhanger ending was quite the shock and helped build up hype for the next part of the story; the real-world release of the comic has caused that hype to turn into suspense or frustration among fans. Wherever you stand, Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, and Jordie Bellaire have delivered a hell of an issue.
Neil Gaiman crafts quite the script for the authentic details of Dickie Dauntless’ youth. I’m sure this would have been a shock had it initially been released in the ’90s – even by today’s standards, it’s pretty heavy material. I was taken on a journey and felt sad for Dickie as his story played out. This presentation is where the creative team comes together to get Gaiman’s words and showcase them as a beautiful, sad story. Gaiman takes the lonely Dauntless as a young lad and places him in Hell. We witness some atrocious horrors, which are not played to present shock to the eye but delivered in a lighter manner that you might miss what was happening. That helps to keep the story dramatic instead of gory.
Mark Buckingham shows this young boy’s early life in earnest and displays a set of caretakers you want to avoid. Buckingham’s renderings of Mr. and Mrs. Maul perfectly capture the spite and hatred these two have for children. The panel where Dauntless says his name is a facial rendering that shows his fear and courage while he faces Mrs. Maul. The creative team shows who Mrs. Maul is in her first panel, as she wants Dauntless to be placed with other orphans in their location, a clever way to show how little her compassion is for those she serves. Buckingham shines by showing the youths’ body language and facial expressions and how they are just going about the orphanage. The moment with the ice cream is a fantastic set of panels as they will look one way, and when you catch on to what is happening, they will look completely different.
Jordie Bellaire’s colors complement the story wonderfully. The color helps keep us in Miracleman’s wild world, but they seem a shade darker, which fits the somber mood. The muted colors in the flashback help to capture the wickedness of the past but are still in alignment with the established issues in this series. Using blues in the present as Dauntless wakes from his recovery sets an ideal tone. Blue, which is synonymous with sincerity and sensitivity, is an excellent choice for the moments after memory recovery and the dialogue between Dauntless and Meta-Maid. This emotional build of an issue keeps me in suspense for the next meeting between Miracleman and Dauntless, and I hope it ships on time.
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