Billion-Dollar Bates

BILLION-DOLLAR BATES

Real Name: Bates (first name unrevealed)

Class: Human

Occupation: Billionaire, businessman

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: Forever People I #8(May-April, 1972)

Powers: Bates possessed the anti-life equation, which could sap the will of others and force people to obey his every whim. Bates had nearly unlimited funds and a troop of militia at his disposal.

History: (Forever People #8) - Bates was born possessing the anti-life equation, but he didn’t understand it, and thought his unparalleled success as a businessman and ability to make others follow his commands were due to his skill as a wheeler-dealer. Bates got in trouble with the law, and lit out, finding company with the Satan worshipping Sect. They explained to Bates that he had “The Power,” and fostered his abilities. Bates took over a town in the wastelands, removing every citizen present because he didn’t want company. He then hired a militia to patrol the town and protect his Sect. Congress appointed a national panel to investigate Bates, but once they found him they fell under his power. Bates tormented them at a dinner, constantly reminding them that he had the power of life and death over them. The Forever People arrived in Bates’ town, but were captured by his militia. He offered them to the Sect as sacrifices as he prepared to don the Stimulus Hat, which would broadcast his power worldwide. Bates, consumed by anti-life, had decided that free men and free will was an atrocity, and the world would only have direction once he commanded it. Unbeknownst to him, Darkseid and Desaad, who sought the secrets of the anti-life equation, had infiltrated the Sect, and used the Stimulus Hat to put his body into shock. The Forever People escaped their shackles, and in the ensuing fight with Bates’ militia, one of the soldiers accidentally fatally shot his employer. Darkseid mourned the loss of power that was within Bates mind, and that he was denied it while a yipping self-important man had it his entire life and didn’t know how to wield it.

(Forever People I #7) - Sonny found himself in Japan hundreds of years in the past. He found peace in the simpler time he’d drempt of as a farmer and wise man, and cared for the poor. He founded an order of monks to care for others, and guard over the Forever People’s Mother Box. Highfather returned the Forever People to the present, and sent Serifan to Japan to retrieve the Mother Box. Serifan was sad that his new friend had lived and died in the past, but was proud that despite his power over Anti-Life he had chosen to dedicate his life to helping others, a fitting victory over Darkseid.

Comments: Created by Jack Kirby