Warrior #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWarrior #1 (March 1982) is one of the most consequential single issues in British comics history, containing the simultaneous debut of two properties that would reshape the medium: Alan Moore and Garry Leach's radical reinvention of Marvelman — the dormant 1950s British superhero who would eventually be retitled Miracleman by Eclipse Comics in 1985 — and the first chapter of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, the dystopian political vigilante serial that DC Comics would later reprint, complete, and adapt into a 2006 film. The Marvelman strip in particular established a blueprint that revisionist superhero storytelling would draw on for decades: a hero who has forgotten his past, whose remembered adventures turn out to be fabricated dreams, and whose return to power is treated with real-world weight rather than genre innocence. Beyond those two anchors, the issue also launched Laser Eraser & Pressbutton (Steve Moore as 'Pedro Henry,' art by Steve Dillon) and Father Shandor, Demon Stalker (Steve Moore and John Bolton), making this a remarkable concentration of first appearances in a single British anthology launch.
In the gritty, dreamlike opening of Warrior #1, Alan Moore and Garry Leach launch a story that redefines the superhero mythos with "...A Dream of Flying". As Steve and Trevor make a desperate heist for plutonium, a man named Michael Moran confronts a haunting nightmare—only to awaken with a forgotten word, Kimota, and the sudden, shocking transformation into Marvelman. The cover, a collaborative effort by Steve Dillon, David Lloyd, and John Bolton with inks by Dillon and Lloyd, captures the surreal tension of a world where reality bends at the edge of a dream.
In a gritty 1982 tale from Warrior #1, a desperate heist involving plutonium sets the stage for a collision of fate and power. When Steve and Trevor steal the dangerous material, Michael Moran’s nightmare takes a surreal turn—his forgotten magic word, Kimota, awakens a transformation that redefines his destiny.
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Warrior was conceived and edited by Dez Skinn, the former editorial director of Marvel UK, who founded Quality Communications in 1982 specifically to publish an anthology that offered creators greater freedom and a share of ownership in their work — a model unusual in British comics at the time. Skinn's preferred writers for the Marvelman revival turned him down, but Steve Moore suggested his friend Alan Moore, who had already expressed a desire to write the character in fanzines; Skinn commissioned a proposal, was impressed, and the strip debuted in this inaugural issue with Garry Leach — who also served as the magazine's art director — handling the art. For V for Vendetta, Skinn approached David Lloyd to create a mystery serial in the vein of Night Raven, and Lloyd independently brought in Alan Moore as writer, the pair devising their near-future fascist-Britain scenario together. Skinn also envisioned Warrior's strips as occupying a shared fictional universe, with an ambitious 'Challenger Force' super-team crossover planned — a concept that never fully materialized before the magazine folded with issue 26 in January 1985.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Alan Moore and Garry Leach's Marvelman (Mike Moran / Micky Moran), in the story 'A Dream of Flying' — the character had been dormant since 1963 and would later be retitled Miracleman when Eclipse Comics reprinted the strip in the US starting in August 1985.
- First appearance of V and Evey Hammond in the first chapter of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta; when Warrior was cancelled, DC Comics reprinted and completed the series in colour (1988–1989).
- First appearances of supporting Marvelman cast introduced in this issue: Liz Moran (Mike's wife), Paul Duncan, and Steve Cambridge (antagonist), alongside dream-flashback appearances of Kid Marvelman (Johnny Bates) and Young Marvelman (Dicky Dauntless).
- First appearance of Laser Eraser (Mysta Mystralis) and Axel Pressbutton in the strip 'Laser Eraser & Pressbutton,' written by Steve Moore under the pseudonym Pedro Henry and drawn by Steve Dillon; Pressbutton had roots in earlier underground strips by Steve and Alan Moore, while Mysta was a new creation added at Dez Skinn's request.
- First appearance of Father Shandor, Demon Stalker, written by Steve Moore with art by John Bolton, one of several Warrior strips in the supernatural-adventure mode.
- The issue was edited by Dez Skinn and published by his company Quality Communications; the 52-page black-and-white magazine launched in March 1982 and ran for 26 issues total, ending January 1985.
- Warrior operated on a creator-ownership/profit-sharing model unusual for British comics of the era — creators received lower page rates but retained shares in their characters, opening the door to overseas reprint royalties.
- The Marvelman story from this issue has been reprinted multiple times: in Eclipse's Miracleman #1 (August 1985, with colour added), in the 1988 Eclipse trade paperback 'A Dream of Flying,' and in Marvel's Miracleman #1 (March 2014) and the 2022 Miracleman Omnibus, following Marvel's licensing of the rights from original creator Mick Anglo.
Cast · 19 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints The House of Hammer #8 (1977)
Reprinted in Comic Spiegel #1 (1983), Comic Spiegel #2 (1983), Axel Pressbutton #1 (1984), Axel Pressbutton #2 (1984), Miracleman #1 (1985), The Spiral Path #1 (1986), V for Vendetta #1 (1988), V for Vendetta #[nn] (1990), V jak vendetta #1 (2003), Miracleman #1 (2014)
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