The stage magician known as the Miracle Man becomes obsessed with obtaining power. He studies under the Silent Ones, the immortal Cheemuzwa tribe who control the forces of nature, and learns their mystical ways. Though he betrays them and with his powers, becomes intent on taking over the world.
Magician to Miracle Man
While the source of his seeming mystical powers are unrevealed, Joshua Ayers begins using his psionic abilities as a stage magician, utilizing the name Miracle Man. During one performance, he recognizes the then-newly formed Fantastic Four in the audience and mocks their powers as inferior to his. He goads Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing, into an on-stage contest, which the hero seemingly fails, leaving Miracle Man to gloat after the FF departed. Resting from the performance, Miracle Man notices a several-stories-high statue of the Monster from Mars, a creature featured in a film set to premiere that night. To prove his mastery over the rest of humanity, Miracle Man animates the statue, giving it pseudo-life and sending it on a rampage through Manhattan, using it to steal a high-powered experimental “atomic train” military vehicle. The FF intervenes, but Miracle Man gets the better of Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, leaving him stunned. Meanwhile, Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch, sets the Monster from Mars on fire, reducing it to burnt plaster and wood. Sue Storm, AKA Invisible Girl, follows Miracle Man, but his pet dog alerts him to her presence. Hypnotizing her, Miracle Man forces Invisible Girl to summon the other FF members. Confronting the group, Miracle Man holds his ground for a brief time but tries to flee again with Sue, whose angered brother, Torch, creates a massive flash of light that blinds Miracle Man, negating his hypnotic abilities. Defeated, Miracle Man removes his control over Sue’s mind and is turned over to the authorities.
Psionic Powers
Miracle Man’s powers are psionic in nature. He can hypnotize audiences and possibly telekinetically affect some objects. With his Cheemuzwa teachings, Miracle Man increases his abilities greatly and can create entire cities and seemingly even whole stars from nothing, though this was likely, at least in part, an illusion. At his most powerful, he possessed superhuman strength (lifting 85 tons). During this period, he could teleport massive objects, grow to enormous size, emit concussive energy blasts and rearrange matter with minimal effort, although many of Miracle Man’s abilities required eye contact as a conduit, but not always. Miracle Man is an accomplished stage magician.
Tenuous Allies and Enemies
Miracle Man owes a great deal to the Indigenous Cheemuzwa people, who teach him their ways in mysticism. Though he repays their generosity by slaying their tribe and then uses their spirits to his own nefarious ends. The Cheemuzwa spirits sometimes get the upper hand and attempt to reteach him in their ways. He later allies with the Son of Satan Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstorm, but turns against him as well.
Seeing the Fantastic Four as inferior to himself, he mocks them and goes up against the team on numerous occasions, typically when he puts humanity in harm’s way. He also faces Scourge of the Underworld and gets fatally wounded by him.
A History of Miracles
In prison, Miracle Man’s eyesight returned, but not his abilities. He spent his time studying metaphysical tomes and shamanism and learned of the Cheemuzwa (“Silent Ones”), a little-known Indigenous tribe in North America that practiced mysticism. Released from prison, Miracle Man found the Cheemuzwa and convinced them to teach him their ways. They did so, only for Miracle Man to turn on them afterward, burying the entire tribe under an avalanche. He began to test his new powers against the local Keewazi tribe, which attracted the attention of Wyatt Wingfoot and his allies the FF. His powers now truly formidable, Miracle Man overpowered the team, and then created a huge, futuristic city complete with living residents, before the FF recovered and confronted him. To combat them, Miracle Man absorbed a massive amount of nuclear energy from around the world, but before he could make good this threat, the spirits of the Cheemuzwa intervened, teleporting Miracle Man away and vowing to reteach him their ways.
Miracle Man remained with them on a quasi-spirit plane for some time, patiently waiting for a time to strike. Regaining his full power, he attacked the Cheemuzwa spirits and took control of them. Returning to Earth, he transformed the Keewazi village into a duplicate of Bethlehem and—believing himself to be a god—set about creating a new Messiah on Christmas Eve. Within this “town,” he trapped three of the Cheemuzwa in the forms of wise men and transformed a fourth into an infant. Using his immense powers, Miracle Man created what appeared to be a new star in the heavens above the village. This drew the attention of not only the Thing but also Johnny Blaze, AKA Ghost Rider, both of whom confronted the insane villain. During the battle, Miracle Man’s confidence was shaken when Ghost Rider withstood his assault unharmed (likely due to interference by the Hell-lord Mephisto), allowing the Thing to once again blind Miracle Man by throwing sand in his eyes. Unable to withstand the Thing’s physical assault while temporarily powerless, Miracle Man was rendered unconscious and his creations returned to normal—with the exception of the infant. The Cheemuzwa “wise men” reverted to their true spirit forms and again escorted Miracle Man away.
Stripping Miracle Man of his powers and memory, the Cheemuzwa returned him to Earth an amnesiac. He found sanctuary in a Massachusetts monastery and was nursed back to health. Only barely remembering his first name, he became known as Brother Joshua and remained there for a time, studying under Father Raymond Gossett. When Hellstorm arrived seeking solace and his former mentor Gossett, he met and befriended Joshua, even keeping secret his witnessing a brief flare-up of Joshua’s powers. While taking his final vows, Joshua’s memory suddenly returned, possibly—as he theorized—due to being in a setting that espoused the power of miracles, and he transformed his robe into a new Miracle Man outfit. Insane once again, Miracle Man used his powers to lash out against the monks before managing to steal Hellstrom’s darksoul (the demonic energies and persona inherited from his Hell-lord collective father). Transforming Hellstrom and Gossett into statues and entrancing the other monks, Miracle Man began to mentally stabilize somewhat. No longer wishing to conquer the world through force, he intended to rule it through humanitarian acts. When Hellstrom’s Defenders teammates arrived to aid Daimon, Miracle Man welcomed them, freed Hellstrom and Gossett and teleported all of them to the island Java. Miracle Man transformed a poverty-stricken village there into a city of riches and offered to cure all the locals of their physical ailments. When a blind man, believing his loss of sight was a gift bestowed by God, refused this offer, an incredulous Miracle Man attacked him, attempting to force him to accept a cure. The Defenders intervened but were struck down one by one until Hellstrom offered himself fully to the darksoul. When the power source attempted to return to its former bearer, the Defenders Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, and Chorus, AKA Over-Mind, psychically struck at the darksoul in transit, causing it to inhabit a nearby snake instead. Defeated, Miracle Man’s mind reverted to Brother Joshua, and he and the Defenders found themselves back in Massachusetts, where Joshua remained with the monastery for a time.
Eventually, his original personality and powers began to return, and Joshua fled the monastery. Learning the criminal Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA Rhino, was being transported to the research facility Project: PEGASUS, Miracle Man bought a ticket for a bus traveling the same route. The Thing—not recognizing Miracle Man due to a low-level hypnotic suggestion—was on the same bus. As the PEGASUS transport neared, Miracle Man forced the driver to collide the bus with the transport, freeing the Rhino. Forcing the bus to stop, Miracle Man tried to take mental control of the Rhino and engage him against the Thing, but Rhino—desperately wishing to have the rhino suit he was bonded with removed—shook off Miracle Man’s control. Unbeknownst to everyone, a young hippie on the bus was actually a disguised Scourge of the Underworld agent, who confronted Miracle Man during the chaos and shot him, apparently fatally. Mysterious Corporation agent Mr. Miracle later emulated Miracle Man in appearance and name for unrevealed reasons.
Years later, Parker Robbins, AKA the Hood, recovered Miracle Man’s corpse, along with those of 17 other Scourge victims. Resurrecting them with his Dormammu-connected powers, the Hood told the group the Scourge was actually Frank Castle, AKA Punisher, a then-recent thorn in the Hood’s operations. The Hood further stated their resurrections were only temporary unless they eliminated the Punisher. Miracle Man attempted to use his powers to subjugate the Hood to his will, but the Hood overpowered him and forced him to comply. Miracle Man was among a group of these agents that disguised themselves as Avengers—with Miracle Man possibly posing as Anthony Druid, AKA Doctor Druid—but during a confrontation with the Punisher, he opted to flee.
When the Future Foundation’s temporary leader Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, struck the Miracle Man, he filed a lawsuit against her. He soon desired the Fantastic Four’s valuable technology and put the whole team through a gauntlet of complex illusions to distract them. But The Thing escaped and with the help of his pooch, defeated Mister Miracle yet again.
