The Whizzer is the name of several unrelated
fictional
comic-book
characters in the Marvel
Comics multiverse.
Publication history
Golden Age
The original Whizzer (Robert Frank) debuted in USA Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), published by Timely Comics. Roy Thomas reintroduced the Golden Age Whizzer in Giant-Size Avengers #1 (Aug. 1974).Modern-day
The first "modern-day" appearance of a character named the Whizzer (though unrelated to the original), was a debut in the final panel of The Avengers #69 (Oct. 1969), the first part of a three-issue story by writer Roy Thomas and penciller Sal Buscema. The story arc introduced the supervillain team the Squadron Sinister, whose four members were loosely based on heroes in DC Comics' Justice League of America. DC's super-speedster Flash found its analog in the new Whizzer.Thomas and penciller John Buscema
then created an alternate-universe
team of heroes called the Squadron
Supreme in The Avengers #85 (Feb. 1971), using characters that
shared names with those of the Squadron Sinister. This caused
confusion in Marvel's production department, as the covers of The
Avengers #85 and #141 (Nov. 1975) cover-blurbed appearances by the
Squadron Sinister, when in fact the Squadron Supreme appeared in
both issues. This Squadron Supreme starred in an eponymous,
12-issue miniseries
(Sept. 1985 - Aug. 1986) by writer Mark
Gruenwald and successive pencillers Bob Hall, Buscema, and Paul
Ryan. Squadron Supreme focused on the exploits of the team in its
home reality. Gruenwald, Ryan, and inker Al
Williamson returned to the characters in the graphic-novel
sequel Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe (1989). The team later
featured in a two-part story across Avengers/Squadron Supreme
Annual '98 and the one-shot
Squadron Supreme: New World Order (both Sept. 1998).
Five years later, under the mature-audience
Marvel
MAX imprint, the 18-issue series
Supreme Power (Oct. 2003 - Oct. 2005), set in a different
alternate universe, incorporated a character based on the Whizzer,
but called the Blur.
Fictional character biographies
James Sanders
The villainous version of the Whizzer first appears as a member of the Squadron Sinister, a supervillain team assembled by the Grandmaster to battle the champions selected by Kang - the superhero team the Avengers. It was revealed years later that the Grandmaster created the Squadron Sinister based on the already existing Squadron Supreme, resulting in The Avengers meeting the "copies" first. Later, the Whizzer assists the original members of the Squadron Sinister and the alien Nebulon in an attempt to flood the Earth. This and a second plot are thwarted by the Defenders.The Whizzer later has another brief encounter
with several members of the Avengers, who are seeking a way to
separate the Power Prism of Doctor
Spectrum from the Wasp. The
entire Squadron Sinister then disappear into obscurity for many
years, although the Whizzer eventually decides to return to crime.
Wishing to cut ties with his old team, he first adopts a new
costume and the alias Speed
Demon.
Stanley Stewart
see also Squadron SupremeIn a
universe parallel to the mainstream Marvel
universe, Stanley Stewart passes through a luminescent fog
while jogging. Over the following weeks he discovers that he can
run fast enough to break the sound
barrier. Later, as part of the team called the Squadron
Supreme, he encounters four members of the Avengers who have
accidentally crossed over into his universe. At first he and his
teammates treat the Avengers as enemies. Realizing this mistake,
the teams put aside their differences to combat a threat concerning
the whole of Stewart's Earth before the Avengers return to their
own universe.
Some time later the Serpent
Crown, an ancient artifact that exists in multiple realities,
exerts its influence to take over his world. He and his team are
used as pawns to oppose the Avengers when they again cross over
from their home reality. As in their previous encounter, his team
eventually teams with the dimensional travelers to thwart the
global threat. He and his team are left to clean up their world as
the Avengers return to theirs, taking the aspect of the Crown that
is native to the Stewart's world with them.
Stewart remains one of the core members of the
Squadron Supreme, having remained with the team through many
adventures, both in his home reality and others.
See also
Footnotes
References
whizzer in Italian: Trottola (Marvel
Comics)