MANIKIN
Real Name: Whitman Knapp
Group Affiliation: Former member of Beta Flight
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #43
Creator: Bill Mantlo, David Ross & June Brigman

      Whitman Knapp first became known to Alpha Flight while he was working as an intern with Lionel Jeffries. Knapp stated at the time that he had decided to work with Jeffries because of admiration for Jeffries' capabilities, despite the fact that Jeffries had lost his medical license years before.
      When Jeffries' sanity finally snapped for good, he turned on Knapp, transforming him with his abilities. He revealed that the only reason he had allowed Knapp to be around was because Knapp had potential super-human abilites; as these abilities had never manifested Scramble gave up on the young man and left him to die.
      The stress of these events caused Knapp's abilities to manifest themselves. He split into four beings: a blob of protoplasm, an early speciman of humanity, a form identical to his own and a highly-evolved humanoid. Each of the four had an individual personality, with Knapp's consciousness inhabiting his "base" form. (It should be noted that the transformation removed all signs of Scramble's transmutation from Knapp.)
      Knapp went on to aid Alpha in their final battle with Scramble, who had changed into the composite creature known as Omega. After the battle he joined the Purple Girl (with whom he shared a mutual attraction) in the newly reformed (at that time) Beta Flight.
      When Alpha rejected funding from the Canadian government and disbanded for the second time, Knapp went back to medicine, severing his relationship with Kara at that time. He had one more encounter with Alpha before the events leading to the reformation of Department H. At that time Knapp joined H as a resident physician.
      Knapp continued to stay away from superhuman activity until the return of Kilgrave, Laura Dean, Witchfire and Goblyn from a distant dimension. While out for a night on the town with the above-mentioned ladies, the group encountered the Master and his new Omega Flight. After the battle Knapp and his companions (including the injured Alphan Talisman) formed the new Beta Flight, which acted as a "secondary" team of adventurers.
      While on Beta's first mission, Knapp was injured by the poisoned claws of the second Jackal. [Compiler's note: I'll bet the creative teams over in Spidey's corner of the MU are trying REAL hard to ignore this Jackal... and hoping most people never heard of him.] As a result, his body spontaneously developed a protective cocoon.
      While in the cocoon Knapp entered telepathic communication with his "evolutionary counterparts" for the first time. When the cocoon was damaged by super-human hating zealots, the counterparts sacrificed themselves to heal Knapp (reasoning that if he died, they all died anyways.)
      Knapp believed his super-human abilities to be completely gone until a battle with his team-mate, Witchfire, in which his new abilities manifested themselves. Knapp served with Beta until the team's dissolution following AF v1 #130; his current whereabouts and activities are unknown.
      Whitman Knapp was originally able to manifest three "evolutionary counterparts" of himself: a blob of protoplasm, a primitive human, and a highly-evolved humanoid. Beyond manifesting the counterparts, Knapp himself had no super-human powers. It should be noted however that Knapp was seemingly able to heal himself by the "release" of the counterparts. Each counterpart had its own personality, although all would follow Knapp's spoken orders.
      The blob of protoplasm, nicknamed "Proto", could "eat" through most substances. "Ape-Man" was quite a bit stronger and more agile than a normal human. "Highbrow" possessed numerous mental abilities, including telepathy and teleportation. It is possible that the full range of Highbrow's abilities have yet to be seen.
      Knapp is now able to transform himself into any of his counterparts. He has lost the ability to have them manifest separate from himself. It should be noted that Knapp does NOT retain his normal intelligence when he transforms, although each counterpart seems to maintain a general idea of what he intended to do when he transformed. Once the task is accomplished Knapp then spontaneously transforms back to his base form.
      The source of Knapp's abilities appears to be natural (aka a mutant), since Scramble apparently noticed the potential for such abilities before they manifested themselves.