Nuklo — The Invader That Time Forgot

The Avengers respond to an alarm in their headquarters. Racing to where they have been storing a mysterious time capsule, they find a strange man has knocked out their butler — Jarvis — to get to it. When they try attacking the intruder, he strips off his overcoat and hat revealing and begins running about the room at super-speed. This elderly speedster introduces himself as the Whizzer.[1] During the ensuing battle, this Whizzer can’t believe that Captain America doesn’t recognize him.[2] He runs rings around the other Avengers until he rams into the diamond-hard body of the Vision. Captain America wonders if this man has anything to do with the “other” Steve Rogers he from the 1950s he recently encountered as this man resembles the Whizzer from the 1940s.[3] The Whizzer figures successors to Captain America explains why this Cap doesn’t remember him, as he is the crime fighter from the 1940s.[4]

Clearly winded from the battle, the Whizzer tells them his story. Although he is laboured and in pain, he ignores the Avengers suggestions that he rest until he finishes telling them everything.

He starts by telling the Avengers that he served on the All-Winners Squad a superhero team that consisted of the successors of Captain America and Bucky,[5], the android Human Torch and his partner Toro, as well as the Sub-Mariner and Miss America. He recounts how the team was first drawn together to battle the evil scientist named Isbisa, and later the Future Man from the year One Million.[6] Not long after that, the Human Torch disappeared in 1949 only to resurface again the 50s before vanishing for good.[7], Soon after that, the Sub-Mariner also disappeared,[8] and the All-Winners Squad were nothing more than a memory. However, the Whizzer found love in his teammate Miss America and the two were eventually married. They retired from their costumed identities and, as Robert Frank and Madeline Joyce, they worked as government agents for a time. While working on the Manhattan Project in 1949, there was a dangerous explosion, and both he and Miss America were exposed to a great deal of radiation rescuing the scientists from the blast.

Growing faint, the Whizzer realizes that time is running out and he jumps ahead in history to a week earlier. He had heard a report that the Avengers were on site after an old building partially collapsed, revealing a strange time capsul. Unaware of what it contained or its purpose, the Avengers took it back to their mansion until technicians from Stark Industries could open it up to see what’s inside. The Whizzer tries to warn them that the capsule cannot be opened as it contains a great threat. However, at that moment the capsule is shattered from the inside, revealing a massive being name Nuklo. Nuklo is crackling with deadly radiation. At the sight of the monster, the Whizzer suffers a heart attack and collapses to the ground. As the Scarlet Witch and Mantis rush to his side, the male Avengers try battling the creature but it overpowers them all before smashing through a wall to escape.

With Nuklo on the loose, the Avengers use their equipment to track the creature by its radioactive energies. Surprisingly, they pick up three powerful signals and decide to split up to investigate each one. While the Vision, Thor, Mantis, Captain America, and Iron Man head off to investigate the energy readings, the Scarlet Witch remains behind to get the Whizzer medical attention. What each of the scouting parties discovers is that the Nuklo has split into three different entities that have gone on rampages in different parts of the city. While they battle each copy, they discover that the radioactive brute has a child-like intellect.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet Witch has gotten the Whizzer to the hospital where he reveals that Nuklo is his son. Frank explains that the radiation they were exposed in 1949 mutated their unborn child, as Madeline was pregnant at the time. Nuklo was born deformed and giving off radiation. He was locked away in the time capsule and it was believed that he would be cured within a number of decades. In more recent times, Madeline became pregnant again and they sought out the High Evolutionary at his Citadel of Science on Wundagore Mountain. There, Madeline died giving birth to two twin children. When he was handed the children by Bova, the humanoid cow, he was told their names are Wanda and Pietro. This startling discovery makes Wanda realize that the Whizzer is her father.[9]

While the Avegers force the three Nuklo’s together, Wanda tells the Whizzer had become of herself and Pietro after he abandoned them in grief over his dead wife. The pair had roamed the European country chased after those who persecuted them for being mutants.[10] They were saved from an angry mob by Magneto, who forced them into joining his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.[11] This led to a number of clashes with the X-Men a team of heroic mutants who also had past dealings with the Avengers in the past.[12] Eventually, the twins managed to be free of the Brotherhood and joined the ranks of the Avengers to make up for their past misdeeds.[13] Fearing that Nuklo will destroy the world, the Whizzer races himself and the Scarlet Witch out to the scene of the battle. There, the Avengers have just finished forcing the three Nuklos to merge into a single form. Wanda then uses her hex power against Nuklo weakening her alleged older brother until he can be contained again.[14]

Having collapsed from the strain of running for the second time in a day, the Whizzer is raced back to the hospital. Before he goes, he tells Wanda to take good care of her brother. Hearing this brings Wanda to tears.[15]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Mantis), Whizzer, Nuklo, Edwin Jarvis, (in flashback) Miss America, High Evolutionary, Bova, Quicksilver

Continuity Notes

1. At first, Iron Man thinks he is facing the member of the Whizzer of the Squadron Sinister, who the team fought in Avengers #70. A footnote here reminds readers that this foe last appeared in Defenders #13-14. That Whizzer, aka James Saunders, took his name from old comic books about the heroic crime fighting Whizzer seen here.

2. In reality, Steve Rogers had met the Whizzer during World War II. The earliest chronological encounter occurred circa 1942, when the Whizzer assisted the Invaders in defeating Iron Cross in Invaders #36. There were many other encounters, but an explanation for why Steve doesn’t remember meeting the Whizzer can be infered from Captain America #253, which states that he didn’t remember some facts about his past because of memory implants.

3. The “other Steve Rogers” is a man named William Burnside who took over the mantle of Captain America in the 1950s from Young Men #24 until Captain America Comics #78. Steve just recently encountered Burnside who, at the time of this story, was recently revived from suspended animation himself. See Captain America #153-156. However, this is not the Captain America that the Whizzer worked with in the All-Winners Squad. That man was Jeff Mace, who started his career as the Patriot in Human Torch Comics #4. He took over the Captain America mantle in 1945, as seen in What If? #4. He later retired from the role in 1950, per Captain America: Patriot #4.

4. The Whizzer’s profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #13, states that as a result of his powers, the Whizzer ages at a slower rate than normal humans. As such, this is how he can still be alive and vital enough to participate in this story even though he is incredibly old.

5. Everyone believes the original Bucky — James Barnes — seemingly died in 1945 in Avengers #4. However, he survived and became a Russian assassin called the Winter Soldier as revealed in Captain America (vol. 5) #12. The Bucky that fought alongside Jeff Mace in the late 40s was Fred Davis, Jr. Davis adopted this role in What If? #4 as well. He also retired by 1950, part Captain America: Patriot #4.

6. These battles took place in All-Winners Comics #19 and 21 (there was no issue #20 of that series)

7. The Whizzer is talking about the Human Torch’s brief disappearance in 1949 and return in 1950. The Torch was buried alive by mobsters in Young Men #24 and only freed from a nuclear bomb test. What the Whizzer doesn’t know is that later on in that decade the radiation that brought the Torch back to life caused him to burn out and he went back into the desert to die. There he was found by the Mad Thinker in the Modern Age to use against the Fantastic Four and later, his body was used by Ultron to create the Vision. See Fantastic Four Annual #4 and Avengers #134-135.

8. The Sub-Mariner vanished in the 1950s as well, as his memories were wiped blocked out by Destiny, as revealed in Sub-Mariner #1. Namor would wander New York as a homeless derelict until his memory was restored by the modern-day Human Torch (Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four) in Fantastic Four #4.

9. Actually, they aren’t the children of Robert Frank and Madeline Joyce. As revealed in Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3 and 12, they were actually the parents of Natalya Maximoff and her unidentified husband who was a Scarlet Warlock. Per Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #5, the children were kidnapped and experimented upon by the twins and made it appear as though they were mutants to cover up his work. Their parentage has been thrown into question on a number of occasions, notably in this very issue and later in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 when it is claimed that the twins were actually the children of Magneto and his late wife Magda.

10. This is not entirely accurate. The pair were actually first left in the care of Django and Maya Maximoff, per Avengers #185. Unaware that they were actually their aunt and uncle, both Wanda and Pietro saw them as adopted parents.

11. Magneto’s recruitment of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch was first depicted in Avengers #47. They were members of the Brotherhood from X-Men #4 through 11.

12. For some reason (that even writer Roy Thomas couldn’t understand either) artist Rich Buckler drew a scene from the Avengers clash with the X-Men circa X-Men #9. I guess he mixed up the X-Men with the Brotherhood for some reason?

13. Pietro and Wanda joined the Avengers in Avengers #16.

14. Wanda states here that she was able to defeat Nuklo with her “mutant” powers because they were blood relatives. I think this is a supposition on her part since facts have later revealed they are not actually related. Since Wanda’s powers are actually magical in nature, it was probably some mystical source that felled Nuklo that worked based on her belief they were related. At least that’s my take on it as this assessment is speculative on my part.

15. What Wanda neglected to tell her father is that Pietro has cut Wanda out of his life after hearing she was in a romantic relationship with the Vision, seeing such a romance as an aberration. See Avengers #110.

Topical References

• All references to World War II as happening 30 years prior and the 1950s taking place 20 years prior to that should be considered topical references. This is because the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale that constantly pushes it forward in time. As a result, the length of time in between the mid 20th century and events post-Fantastic Four #1 continues to grow longer with the passage of time. For more on how to compute the passage of time, see this.

• The doctor says that the time capsule would cure Nuklo in 25 years. This was intended to be the length of time between 1949 and when this comic was published, which as stated above such references should be considered topical.