Kid Marvelman

Johnny Bates, alias Kid Marvelman was, along with Young Marvelman, one of the two sidekicks of the superhero Marvelman (the two boys were temporarily transformed from their normal selves into their super powered selves by speaking Marvelman's name aloud), and fought alongside him in the 1950s and 1960s before fading into obscurity. An eager and optimistic kid, Johnny was usually upbeat and greeted most surprises with his trademark cry of "Holy Macaroni!"

1980s revelations

Twenty years later, Marvelman — who had been living quietly as journalist Mike Moran — regained his long lost memories of his youth and was somewhat stunned to discover that his memory of a crime-fighting career as a superhero was actually a delusion implanted in his mind by the Spookshow, the secret government agency who had created him and his two young friends as part of Project Zarathustra, a weapons development project using stolen alien technology. Tracking down Johnny Bates, now a successful businessman and the owner of Sunburst Cybernetics, he also discovered that Johnny had remained in his super-powered Kid Marvelman form for the last twenty years, growing into a tremendously powerful and amoral adult super being.

Marvelman was attacked by Kid Marvelman, who considered him a threat, but defeated him, and forced him to turn back into Johnny Bates — still a child after all these years. Bates was rendered catatonic by the knowledge of what his alter ego had done, but Kid Marvelman later re-emerged and went on a murder spree, killing forty thousand people and destroying London. Marvelman and a Warpsmith managed to injure Bates badly enough for him to voluntarily switch back to his human form to escape the pain. Knowing that he was too dangerous to leave alive, Marvelman broke Johnny's neck, killing him instantly.

Kid Marvelman's deeds later inspired the anarchist group known as the Bateses.

Powers and abilities[]

Powers

Flight
Super Strength
Super Speed
Super Stamina
Enhanced Durability
Creating Thunderstorms
Abilities

Time travel; business acumen.

Strength level

Superhuman.

Paraphernalia[]

Transportation

He can fly.

Notes[]

Kid Marvelman was created by Mick Anglo in 1955 as a fairly generic superhero sidekick based loosely on the American 'Marvel Family' characters created by Fawcett Comics. The later revelations about his origins and his reinvention as a villain were the work of Alan Moore for Warrior magazine, although the story was eventually completed at the American publisher Eclipse Comics. For legal reasons, Eclipse Comics were forced to change the main character's name from Marvelman to 'Miracleman' in order to avoid legal action from Marvel Comics, so Kid Marvelman became 'Kid Miracleman'. Since Marvel now own the rights to the characters, this is no longer a consideration, however.

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