Part of the government-sponsored operation dubbed Project Zarathustra, Dicky Dauntless becomes Young Miracleman, the boy who has the miraculous powers of a superhuman. Though his adventures with the Miracleman Family are cut short in the early 1960s, he returns with a new body to a changed world in the 21st Century, one shaped by his former pal Michael “Mike” Moran, AKA Miracleman.
From Orphan to Adventurer
Richard “Dicky” William Dauntless is born to a Polish flight lieutenant Michael Robert Dauntless, who flies with the R.A.F. Squadron in 1940. When his father returns from a mission, he finds Dicky’s mother in bed with his best friend, and kills both of them before turning the gun on himself.
At the age of eight, Dicky is dropped off at Doctor Barnardo’s Boys’ Home for orphans. His only possessions were taken from him and he lived a strict life, praying every night that it was all a bad dream. As he grew older, he discovered the awful truth of the orphanage’s side business—sex trafficking—and Dicky was one of many young orphans subjected to horrors. Years pass and in 1954 Dicky meets Dr. Emil Gargunza, a scientist working for the British Government, for an intelligence department called The Spookshow. Gargunza runs medical tests on him and asks him questions about his parents. Shortly thereafter, Dicky gets sent to get fish and chips. While out, he’s kidnapped and experimented upon by Gargunza. Gargunza exploits technology from a crashed interstellar spaceship from the Qys race, and using it, he clones Dicky’s body, making him the superhuman known as Young Miracleman. He keeps Dicky’s body and other orphans, Mike Moran and Johnny Bates, AKA Kid Miracleman, in a sleep-state for eight years during which time they live in a dreamscape where they share adventures.
Gargunza then wakes them up in 1963 and they are sent to their deaths, slain by an atomic air strike launched by the government, who thought them too dangerous to live. Dicky perishes while Miracleman survives as Michael “Mike” Moran with no memory of his alter-ego and Johnny escapes, but corrupted by his powers.
Forty years go by and it is 2003. Mors, from the race of the Qys, brings Young Miracleman from the dead into a new world, one fashioned by his old friend, Miracleman. Though he doesn’t remember his life at the orphanage before becoming the intrepid hero.
A Super-Powered Replicate
Dicky can exchange his place in space and time with a superpowered cellular replicate, Young Miracleman. The body occupying infra-space has no consciousness and does not age. Though the two bodies are separate, all thoughts and memories are shared through the use of an infra-spacial trigger device, activated by the “magic” word, Miracleman.
He has the power of flight, superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and senses. He can produce energy blasts and has some telepathy and telekinesis abilities.
All in the Family
Though close with his Miracleman Family while they adventure inside Gargunza’s dreamspace, Dicky loses faith in Miracleman when he recreates the world. Determined to be Miracleman’s adversary, he makes moves to be his opposition. He has help from Meta-Maid, an enhanced human, and former enhanced human Tom Caxton, AKA Mister Master.
Unlike Mike Moran/Miracleman and Johnny Bates/Kid Miracleman, Dicky Dauntless/Young Miracleman does not struggle with balancing his alter-ego as the pair seem more closely aligned versus two separate people.
A Whole New World
Upon waking up in Olympus after spending the previous 40 years dead, Young Miracleman was greeted by his old pal Miracleman, who helped him acclimate to the new world. YM came to understand that he was in a new body since the last one was destroyed in the bomb. He soon met Winter, Miracleman’s daughter, and was introduced to several of Olympus’ residents including Avril Lear, AKA Miraclewoman, MM’s consort, British Bulldog, formerly Big Ben, Huey Moon, AKA Firedrake, Kana Blur and Phon Mooda, Warpsmiths—envoys from the Gulf Worlds—and Mors. YM remained confused so MM went on to explain in private that after his death, Johnny attempted to destroy London and in the process killed many people. MM killed him and then with help from his allies, rebuilt the new world and made it free from famine and war. MM and the others lived in a tower in London called Olympus as their homebase. He further explained that YM’s new body was created from YM’s original body, which was in stasis in Underspace. From still-living cells, MM and his allies grew two new bodies, one human and the one YM exists in.
He started accepting this new life and rejoined society. He made a couple public appearances, one in London and one in New York, where he was met with welcome and applause. He learned from Winter who was there by his side, albeit invisible, that MM had fathered 5,000 children. Upon his return to Olympus, MM visited and told him that he knew about his real feelings for him. Confused, Dicky didn’t know what he meant. MM kissed him, but Dicky thought his advances disgusting and punched him through a wall, and appalled, Dicky flew off.
Dicky ended up landing in the Himalayas and while either unconscious from the landing or sleeping, he dreamt of Johnny. He was soon awoken by a mountain climber, Jason Oakey, who was on his way to meet Tom Caxton, AKA Mister Master, the first human volunteer to receive Miracleman’s body enhancements. Dicky gave Jason a false name to protect his identity. They soon received a ride to a place where they could get food and shelter by Meta-Maid and Deadlock the Demolisher, who were both enhanced. After a one night stay, and dreaming of Johnny again, Dicky joined Jason to find Caxton up the mountain, and Meta-Maid ended up joining them. Once the trio found Caxton, he welcomed them inside for a cup of tea. Caxton told his tale of how he became the first enhanced but eventually grew tired of it and gave it up. They all soon slumbered, and Dicky again dreamt of Johnny, but Dicky wasn’t having it and forced him to get out of his head.
After a conversation with Caxton, Dicky soon felt compelled to return to England and rediscover his roots. Meta-Maid joined him, which he welcomed as exploring this strange new world alone felt daunting to him. Deadlock gave them a ride and on their journey, Dicky saw terrible things, people living on garbage piles and on waiting lists to receive cancer. When they got to London, Dicky and Meta-Maid researched orphanages and memorial museums for answers to his past, and Meta-Maid seemed pleased to help. When it came to uncovering research in a museum located in Olympus, Meta-Maid went alone as Dicky was afraid of being seen there. Meta-Maid found that there were files moved out of the Zarathustra bunker in the Cotswold Hills and subsequently lost, most likely destroyed by Bates before he hit London. But she did find a file located in an archive in Yorkshire, so they headed there by train. On the train, Dicky questioned whether any of his memories were real, and remembered a place called Joyful House.
They arrived at a small village where they met with archivist Professor Porter who shared microfilm with them that revealed a derelict orphanage called Joyful House. Dicky and Meta-Maid took a couple trains to get there. Once inside, Dicky started seeing phantoms from his past that ultimately put him in a catatonic state, and in his mind, he re-lived his time at the orphanage from 1949-1954, and how he became Young Miracleman. Waking up from his fever dream of memories, Dicky remembered everything, which was a shock but the sound of Meta-Maid’s voice and the comfort of her embrace reassured him that he was okay. Dicky thanked Meta-Maid for taking care of him and she asked if she could kiss him. He agreed, having never been asked before and having never kissed a girl, which he appreciated. He decided then that he was resolved to speak to Miracleman.
With Meta-Maid and a camera in tow, Dicky arranged a live, public meeting with Miracleman, to ensure his and Meta-Maid’s safety from any retaliation. Dicky asked MM what his plans were for him, and MM revealed a few options, to accept the world he made and join him, to take Caxton’s path and remain human, to die as a mercy killing, or to re-enter the Gargunza fiction, living his life out in an imaginary past. But Dicky proposed another option, to be his adversary one day and oppose him and his world. Dicky then sat silent under a tree in Australia and gained many followers, all the while the nightmare Johnny was inside his head begging to be let out.
