After the war and a stint in the All-Winners Squad, the Whizzer and Miss America slowed down (no pun intended). They retired from the hero game and became guards at a nuclear power plant. One night, one of their old enemies, Isbisa, sabotaged the plant. The Whizzer and Miss America stopped a nuclear meltdown, but were poisoned by the radiation. Miss America was pregnant at the time, and it caused their son Bob Jr. to be born with high levels of radiation. The government put the Frank's son in a cryogenic sleep and buried him in a preservation chamber beneath a government facility. Bob and Madeline Frank were given a handsome pension and travelled the world. While in Bavaria, at Wundagore Mountain, Madeline died giving birth to a second, stillborn child. Bova, a mutated cow that served as Madeline's midwife, tried to console Bob by offering him two twins she had been placed in charge of. She told Bob the twins were his children, but the Whizzer was too grief-stricken and fled. He lived for years as a derelict until he learned that his first son had escaped his cryogenic chamber. He had developed nuclear powers and dubbed himself Nuklo. The Whizzer came out of retirement and helped the Avengers battle his son. But the strain gave him a heart attack and put him in the hospital. Once released, he began a lengthy court case against the government to attain custody of his son. During this time, he came to believe that the Avengers Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were his children--the twins Bova said were his. Ultimately, while visiting Nuklo at a government hospital, Bob Frank learned that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were in fact not his children (turns out they were the mutant tyrant Magneto's kids~yikes!--eric). Also during this visit, Isbisa came out of hiding to battle his old enemy. The strain on the aging men became fatal, and they both died. Nuklo was eventually cured of his radiation poisoning and went to work as a groundskeeper at the Avengers' compound.
Golden Age Appearances: USA COMICS #1-2, 4, 6, 8-12; ALL-WINNERS COMICS #2-5, 7-11, 13-21; ALL-SELECT COMICS #3-5, 7; AMAZING/COMPLETE COMICS #1-2; KID COMICS #7,10
First Modern Appearance: GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #1
Other Appearances: INVADERS #6,35-41; INVADERS (Limited Series) #1-4; MARVEL UNIVERSE #1-3; MARVEL PREMIERE #29-30; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #20 (1976); WHAT IF? #4 (1977)
Final Appearance: VISION AND THE SCARLET WITCH (Limited Series, vol. 1) #2
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The Whizzer can lay claim to one of the most unusual and far-fetched origins in the Marvel Universe. Bob Frank's father was the noted surgeon Emil Frank. One night, a gangster named Granno and his lacky Spike burst into Dr. Frank's office with an injured man. Granno asked Dr. Frank to save the man, who had been shot. While Dr. Frank was operating, Granno bumped into him and caused him to accidentally kill the man with his scalpel. The man was a detective, and Granno wanted him out of the picture. Framed for the murder by Granno, Dr. Frank and his sickly son Bob had to leave the country. They went on an expidition deep in the African jungle, where Bob was bitten by a cobra. Shortly afterwards, the cobra was attacked and killed by a mongoose. Unfortunately, the mongoose itself was mortally wounded by the cobra. Desperate to save his son' s life, the elder Frank assumed that the blood of the mongoose, the cobra's natural enemy, might save his son. Not only did the mongoose blood save Bob, it had an unusual reaction with his blood and gave him the ability to run at superhuman speeds (hey, it was the 40s...a little pseudoscience could explain anything--eric)! Sadly, Emil suffered a heart attack from the ordeal and died. Bob then returned to the United States to gain his revenge on Granno. He defeated the thug and turned him over to the authorities. Bob decided to use his powers for good and became the Whizzer (see his original costume above right)!