A public vote will determine which contestants advance to the top 10 in Stan Lee's Super Kid competition. Northern Kentucky 12-year-old Micah Wells was in ninth place at the time of WKRC's update, with voting set to close Thursday at 10 p.m.
The nationwide contest offers its champion a chance to create a superhero identity, appear in a comic book and receive $25,000, according to WKRC. The station reported Wells was close to the top-10 cutoff when it checked the standings.
For Wells and his family, simply getting this far has been its own kind of battle. He has endured both a house fire and a cancer diagnosis in the past couple of years, a combination his mother, Deanna Taylor, has spoken about publicly as the family pushes for votes.
A Fire, a Diagnosis, and a Long Road to Recovery
The family's home in Alexandria caught fire in January 2025 while everyone was asleep, WKRC reported.
Less than a year later, in November 2025, Wells was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a rare T-cell mutation, Taylor said. She described the mutation as one that causes the immune system to not function properly. Wells began chemotherapy three weeks after that diagnosis, according to the same account.
The treatment continued for months. In August of this year, he received a bone marrow transplant, and he was released from the hospital in September, the station reported. Now, weeks removed from that hospital stay, he's chasing a very different kind of milestone.
What the cancer data show
A report from the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center’s Kentucky Cancer Registry found that 2,283 children under 20 in Kentucky were diagnosed with cancer from 2011 to 2020. Leukemia, brain and nervous system tumors, lymphomas and skin cancers were among the most frequently diagnosed types. The report also found Kentucky’s childhood cancer incidence rate was about 7.2% higher than the national rate; these statewide figures do not describe Wells’s individual case. The National Cancer Institute says non-Hodgkin lymphoma accounts for about 7% of cancers in U.S. children younger than 20. For children and adolescents under 20 with the disease, the five-year relative survival rate was 90% in 2013–2019. That figure is a population statistic, not an individual prognosis, and by itself does not show how survival rates have changed over time. These general figures also do not establish Wells’s lymphoma subtype or the significance of his reported mutation.
Dreaming Up a Hero Who Grows Plants to Defend Others
Wells has imagined a superhero who can grow plants at will to help defend others, according to WKRC. He hopes the idea will become a comic book character.
The competition's top prize is tied to the legacy of comic book icon Stan Lee and includes a $25,000 payout along with a trip to Los Angeles for Comic-Con, the station reported. Taylor said the first prize is $25,000 and includes a comic starring the superhero and a trip to LA for Comic-Con. The official competition site, thesuperkid.org, states that the champion will earn four VIP passes to the 2027 L.A. Comic Con.
Accounts differ on what the runner-up receives. The station's report states that if Wells finishes second, he would also get to appear in the same comic series as a superhero, according to Taylor. The competition's official rules, however, describe the second-place opportunity differently, stating that a second contestant will be hand-selected by the Stan Lee Universe team to appear alongside the champion. Either way, Taylor said the opportunity would mean a lot for their family.
How the Voting and Rules Actually Work
Voting for the top 10 closes Thursday at 10 p.m. The competition's official rules say contestants can advance by sharing their profiles so family and friends can vote, and that public voting determines the winners.
Those rules identify Colossal Management, LLC as the operator of the contest and specify that it is not owned or operated by The Stan Lee Universe or The Stan Lee Foundation. The rules also make clear that no purchase, donation or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. Separately, the official site ties the broader event to the Stan Lee Foundation's mission of championing literacy and the narrative arts.
Wells is one of several children across North America whose health battles have drawn attention through this year's competition. Other contestants profiled by local outlets include a Florida boy named Myles managing epilepsy and a learning disability, a Regina, Saskatchewan boy with cerebral palsy, a 6-year-old in Ohio's Mahoning Valley described as a heart warrior, and a 5-year-old in eastern Idaho living with epilepsy. For now, Wells and his family are focused on the clock ticking down toward Thursday's deadline, hoping enough votes arrive to keep his superhero dream alive.
