Miracleman Status

There have been a few stories flying around about the current status of Miracleman. Newsarama posted a story saying that Todd McFarlane had handed over all rights and films (not movies, but the films used to create the plates that run on a printing press) for Miracleman and all the comics to Neil as payment for the Angela character he created (for the Spawn comic).

In this posting this news is clarified as something that is not new at all, but was the start of the current stalemate going on with the character.

It seems, though, that Todd McFarlane has introduced the Matt Morgan character in his Hellspawn comic and has plans to fully reintroduce Miracleman in upcoming issues. This despite the fact that Neil has a written agreement from Mr. McFarlane that he was handing over the Miracleman rights to him.

Image Comics was started so that creators could retain their rights to the characters they created. Todd McFarlane was at the forefront of this creator-based movement, but to me it seems that he is only for creator rights if that creator is Todd McFarlane. Way to go, Todd. You’ve cut off a monster’s head and put your own in its place.