Whizzer
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- This article refers to the superhero. For the rollercoaster, see Whizzer (roller coaster)
Several fictional characters published by Marvel Comics have been known as the Whizzer. The name has been used by both superheroes and supervillains.
Bob Frank
The first Whizzer was a Golden Age superhero created for Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics. The character debuted in USA Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), in a six-page story drawn by Al Avison (penciler) and Al Gabriele (inker). Other superheroes introduced in the issue included the Defender, Jack Frost, Mr. Liberty, Rockman, and Young Avenger.Dr. Emil Frank and his teenage son Robert were on a trip to Africa, where young Bob was bitten by a deadly cobra. As the cobra turned on his father, a mongoose lunged at it from the bushes and killed it. Knowing his son would not survive if a blood transfusion were not performed soon, a desperate Dr. Frank used the blood of the mongoose. As Bob awakened, the strain proved to be too much for his father, who suffered a fatal heart attack. The mongoose blood gave Bob amazing speed. Donning a gaudy yellow outfit, complete with a fin atop his head and green cape trailing behind (later to be changed to a yellow and blue bodysuit), Bob called himself the Whizzer.
The Whizzer's origin is considered particularly improbable even by comic book standards (i.e. receiving a transfusion of animal blood is far more likely to be fatal than beneficial), and later writers revealed via retcon that the mongoose blood had simply acted as a catalyst to his already mutant physiology, which also presumably allowed him to survive the transfusion in the first place. In DC Comics's 1990s Hawk and Dove series, Captain Brian 'Sal' Arsala, noting during a date with Dove that as a youth he had often hoped to be exposed to some substance or circumstance that would grant superhuman powers, jokingly included "mongoose blood" as one such source. "It was a simpler time," Arsala added in response to Dove's bemused reaction, acknowledging the unlikelihood of such an effect. "Mongoose blood" was later used as a name for a superspeed-inducing drug in Alan Moore's Top Ten, a clear reference to the Whizzer.
The Whizzer lasted few issues on his own, appearing again as part of the All-Winners Squad in the (non-hyphenated) All Winners Comics #19 & 21 (Fall & Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). In the 1970s, he was seen in modern-day stories as an older hero who had married fellow superhero Miss America (Madeline Joyce). The Whizzer briefly served with the Avengers, and erroneously believed himself to be the father of the mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. He died in Vision and Scarlet Witch #3; the twins learned the identity of their actual father, (Magneto), in the following issue. Additionally, the Whizzer was retconned in 1976 as a member of the flashback World War II superteam the Liberty Legion, set at a time before he joined the Invaders or the post-war All-Winners Squad.
The Whizzer was also retconned into the 2004 New Invaders series, and was featured in the arc, "Six Forgotten Warriors".
Stanley Stewart
While running alone on a country road, Stanley Stewart passed through a dense, luminescent fogbank. When Stewart emerged from the fogbank, he discovered that he could alter his perception of time so that the world appeared to be in slow motion. Every day after that Stewart found that he could run faster and farther than the previous day. Six weeks after running through the fogbank, Stewart broke the sound barrier while on a 200 mile sprint. It was at that point that Stewart decided to become a costumed crimefighter.
Stewart originally wanted to call himself the Boomer, but instead decided to call himself the Whizzer at his wife Madeline's suggestion. He works with the Squadron Supreme, on Earth-712 in the Marvel. He is one of the few members of the team to be married (a wife named Maddy) and to have children (a daughter named Tina).
James Sanders
- Main article: Speed Demon
See also
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