365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…
January 30th - The Whizzer
The World War II era hero known as The Whizzer was Robert Frank. As a child on holiday with his parents, young Robert was bitten by a cobra. Just then a mongoose appeared and killed the snake, yet the mongoose was bitten as well and succumbed to its wounds. Robert had an allergic reaction to the cobra venom and was on the verge of death.
Fearing for his son’s life, Robert’s father recalled an old fable regarding a mongoose’s tolerance to venom. As such he injected the mongoose's blood into his son's veins. Robert’s father died of a heart attack brought upon by the shock and exertion, but Robert himself recovered, and found that he now possessed superhuman speed. Robert initially believe his speed was derived from the mongoose blood coursing through him. Later he surmised that he was likely a Mutant and the whole ordeal of being bitten by the cobra acted to trigger his latent X-gene into bloom.
As a young adult, Frank volunteered his super speed to act as The Whizzer and a member of The Liberty Legion, a group of heroes who defended the home-front during the Second World War. Following the war, The Whizzer remained semi active as a member of The All Winners Squad. He additionally married his longtime sweetheart and Liberty Legion teammate, Madeline Joyce (who operated under the superhero alias of Miss America).
One mission saw The Whizzer and Miss America encounter the super villain known as Isbisa. The villain set a trap that exposed the couple to a high level of nuclear radiation. Thanks to The Whizzer’s great speed, they were able to escape yet Joyce was pregnant at the time and the radiation would lead to a terrible mutation in their unborn son. Month later, Joyce gave birth to a radioactive mutant son, Robert, Jr., later called "Nuklo". Because the baby emitted dangerous levels of radiation, the United States government took custody of him and placed him in an experimental chrono-module. There he would be kept in suspended animation until he ceased to emit dangerous levels of radiation.
Leaving the research facility with a generous government pension, the Franks decided to travel the world. Madeline Frank became pregnant again, and was in the tiny Balkan country of Transia when the pregnancy came to term. The Franks had found refuge in the scientific citadel atop Wundagore Mountain at the recommendation of nearby villagers who believed it to have modern medical facilities.
With the evolved anthropomorphic cow called Bova as midwife, Madeline gave birth to a stillborn child, even more radioactive and mutated than her first. Sadly she died moments later due to the rigors of childbirth. Bova attempted to pass off twins who had been born days before at Wundagore as Robert Frank's children, in order to give the children a good home and to assuage Frank's grief over his wife's death.
This led Frank to believe that Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) were his children.
This ruse maintained for many years until truth was finally revealed. Quicksilver, The Scarlet Witch and her then husband The Vision were able to cure Frank’s firstborn son Nuklo of his condition, allowing him to live a normal life. Sadly the toll of the whole affair was too much for the aged Frank and he passed away from heart failure.
A very different iteration of The Whizzer featured briefly in the Netflix series Jessica Jones portrayed by actor Jay Klaitz.
The Whizzer first appeared in the pages of U.S.A. Comics #1 (1941).
