Miracle Man spoofed in this week’s Beano

By John Freeman on March 13, 2014

Miracle Banana features in this week's Beano. Story by Kev F. Sutherland, art by Wayne Thompson.

Miracle Banana features in this week’s “Bananaman” story in The Beano. Story by Kev F. Sutherland, art by Wayne Thompson.

This week’s “Bananaman” story in The Beano is definitely one for the comics fans out there. “Miracle Banana” , written by Kev F. Sutherland and drawn by Wayne Thompson, is a lightly satirical strip in which Bananaman meets a character who he thinks has ripped him off.

Miracle Banana is, as any comics fan will recognise, based on Miracle Man, formerly known as Marvel Man, who was created in Britain in the 1960s to replace the reprints of US strip Captain Marvel and who closely followed that strip’s characters (Billy Batson/Micky Moran says the word Shazam / “Atomic” backwards and becomes a superhero).

Captain Marvel himself had been sued by the publishers of Superman who considered him to be rip-off of their character in the first place.

Miracle Man is, of course, now being re-published by Marvel Comics, who now own the character, with new stories one their way from Neil gaiman and Mark Buckingham in due course.

And who appears at the end of this week’s Bananaman episode? “Well, I won’t spoil the surprise,” says Kev, ” but I can tell you its the first part of a two-parter and next week’s strip is a three way battle between Miracle Banana, Bananaman and a character created in the 1940s who’s brought a team of lawyers with him…”

• Beano official web site: www.beano.com

• Kev F. Sutherland’s Blog: http://kevfcomicart.blogspot.co.uk

• Wayne Thompson is on Twitter

About the Author
Latest Posts

John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.