Yeah, exactly. I've seen a good number of reports that say they are doing exactly that - getting all of the permissions and whatnot for reprinting the Moore/Gaiman stuff, but with the different artists and characters like the Warpsmiths which the rights are established for, there is a lot to get straightened out. People want to get paid for what they did.
As they should. And if Marvel were willing to pay those artists/writers fairly for that work (especially considering the likely profit of reprints would make).
I'm a little disappointed about the current rumors that they are going to revert it back to Marvelman, so that they will need to change the name in the entire 24 issue Moore/Gaiman run. I wish it would just stay as Miracleman and then let Gaiman do whatever he needs to do at the end to change it to Marvelman. I'm sure he could think of something.
Eh, I'd prefer it to stay as Miracleman too, but considering its being revived by Marvel (and God knows they love promotion), it doesn't surprise me at all, and I can understand their reasoning and motivation to do so. Also, since it was originally Marvelman and only forced to become Miracleman due to a lawsuit by Marvel back during the Moore run when reprinted in America, it's both appropriate that now that Marvel is reprinting those comics they're going to have to go to the trouble of shelling out to alter the name everywhere in the title, as well as being the definition of ironic.
As for integration...I'm sure that integrating him with the regular MU is the only thing on their minds. I just have this sinking feeling that Bendis is going to be involved.
Ugh. That'd be a nightmare. An overly talkative, out of character Miracleman for sure. I still can't believe they don't recognize the gold mine they have on their hands and instead want to integrate it into the 616 proper. That is guaranteed to absolutely ruin the character.
I still hope they figure out it'll likely be more profitable to keep the character in his own, distinct universe, and let talented writers build of that. Let Gaiman finish his original run (the Silver Age and the Dark Age), let him write new stories if he so chooses, and then let quality, fantastic writers take the ball from there.
Let Marvel test the waters (even though its unnecessary) by re-releasing the original issues, perhaps with color touch ups along with the likely rebranding to Marvelman. We all know the issues will sell like crazy. It'd be smart to release them bi-weekly, allowing for a year of reprint releases while Neil writes the remaining issues of the Silver and Dark Ages arcs. This will allow the artist plenty of lead time (hopefully Buckingham, even if he's still working on Fables that lead time will allow him to perhaps work on both titles simultaneously), a year at least if they do a biweekly re-release through issue #24. They could publish new TPB/Hardcovers during that year, each collecting the re-printed/re-colored/re-branded issues, and finally release issues #25-34 over the next year or so, also collecting those new issues in TPBs/HCs of their own.
And from there? Who knows, but hopefully they'd maintain the same level of talent (or close as possible) as Moore and Gaiman in the writing, and Totleben, Buckingham, and even Leach and Davis (while their artwork isn't on the same level as Totleben's or Buckingham's, it was the initial and quite lovely in its own right).
I keep watching to see if Mark Buckingham takes a break from Fables, hoping that he's secretly finishing the Gaiman Miracleman stories. I got my hopes up when I saw he wasn't on the last issue, but it looks like he's back on it.
Buckingham returning would be great! Other than Gaiman returning (which I think is likely since he's been trying to obtain the rights for a long time, hence using the profits from 1602 to pursue that very outcome), I think Grant Morrison may be a good choice for the title after Gaiman, based on his range and ability to create deep emotional impact and great understanding of characters.
And I absolutely think Bass should get to write back up MM stories in the issues.
