From an orphan to a superhuman, Kid Miracleman is one part of the heroic Miracleman Family. Though an attempt on his life leads him to change course and become a corrupt businessman, one who seeks money and power.
Test Subject
Jonathan James "Johnny" Bates is the orphaned child of deceased Air Force personnel, and like Mike Moran, AKA Miracleman, he’s used by The Spookshow as a test subject in Project Zarathustra, led by Dr. Emil Gargunza and sponsored by the British government. During the year 1954, he undergoes experimentation that endows him with super-powers, accessible by saying the word, “Miracleman.” Johnny spends eight years in a dreamstate where his reactions are monitored.
When the government terminates the project in 1963 by using an atomic bomb, fellow orphan-turned-superhuman Dicky Dauntless, AKA Young Miracleman, perishes while Miracleman survives as does Kid Miracleman, though separated and both injured. Kid Miracleman wakes up in a hospital, suffering from a concussion and burns, with his memory intact but allegedly no powers. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Johnny, Miracleman wakes up in a hospital not knowing who he had been.
Keyword Miracleman
Johnny is given the ability to change places in space and time with a superpowered cellular replicate, Kid Miracleman, through the use of the “magic” word, Miracleman. All of Johnny/Kid Miracleman’s thoughts and memories are shared between two bodies, while the body occupying infra-space has no consciousness and does not age.
He boasts superhuman strength, speed and stamina as well as psionic capabilities. He can also survive an atomic explosion, suggesting a level of invulnerability, he can fly, and produce energy blasts from his hands and eyes.
Family and Foes Alike
he 13-year-old Johnny Bates is a young, scared teenager while his alter-ego Kid Miracleman ages to adulthood and acts more dominating, controlling and as his young counterpart’s bully.
Johnny’s allies include his fellow orphans and Miracleman Family, Miracleman and Young Miracleman. Though they spend eight years together adventuring, it is all a fiction, one concocted by Gargunza in an experiential test. Once Young Miracleman is slain by the government’s actions against the family, with Miracleman also seemingly dead, Johnny remains a loner, intent on amassing a fortune and power. When Miracleman returns, Kid Miracleman sees him as a threat and attempts to take him off the board, only for him to mistakenly say his keyword, which eventually puts him in a comatose state along with Johnny. Johnny struggles to keep Kid Miracleman at bay inside his mind and eventually succumbs to letting him loose.
Once Kid Miracleman is free, he sacks London and the destruction and deaths he causes leads Miracleman and his allies, Avril Lear, AKA Miraclewoman, the Firedrake Huey Moon, and Aza Chorn and Phon Mooda of the Warpsmiths race, to fight him to the death.
Fooling Everyone
For 19 years, Kid Miracleman aged and established a large trans-global electronics firm, Sunburst Cybernetics, amassing money and power along the way. When Miracleman returned, Johnny presented himself as a successful businessman and attempted to enter Mike’s mind to convince him, but Mike saw through the facade. Mike pushed Kid Miracleman off a skyscraper’s balcony, but Kid Miracleman floated in the air, more sinister than before. Emitting energy from his body, he floated and broke the building’s windows to get back inside where Mike and his wife Liz, who was nearby, ran to safety. Kid Miracleman ran into his secretary, Stephanie, whom he killed for dropping coffee. Seeing Mike as a threat to his position, Kid Miracleman tried to kill him by blasting him with energy from his eyes. With Mike out of the way, Kid Miracleman followed Liz and forced her to crash her car. Pulling her from it, he then crumpled the car with his hands as he informed her how he found that pretending to be human was degrading. Before he could kill her with the car, Miracleman returned in full form. In the ensuing battle, Kid Miracleman accidentally spoke his magic word, changing him back to the 13-year-old Johnny Bates. He continued to speak his magic word but for an unknown reason, no transfer occurred.
Johnny ended up in the care of a nursing home where he was catatonic for a time. Though in his mind his two personalities fought with KM abusing the younger Johnny Bates as he couldn’t manage being trapped. After the Qys race discovered their technology was used to create superhumans, they attempted to enter KM’s mind to determine if he was a threat. Due to his catatonic state, they did not see him as a threat, but shortly thereafter, Johnny spoke his magic keyword during an attempted sexual assault. Kid Miracleman returned and killed the assailants and turned on the nurse who cared for him, killing her as well. Leaving the nursing home, he attacked London, laying waste to the city and killed 40,000 people. Miracleman and his allies, Huey Moon, Miraclewoman, and the hyper-fast Warpsmiths, Phon Mooda and Aza Chorn, interrupted his wanton destruction. Despite seemingly defeating them all, Chorn teleported debris into his body, forcing him to switch back into his child form. Miracleman then killed his old friend so he could never become Kid Miracleman again.
When Young Miracleman was resurrected, Johnny appeared in his dreams as Nightmare Johnny, encouraging the boy towards a darker path. Though Young Miracleman seemed to reject him despite his persistent presence.
