America's Wartime Herione

Madeline Joyce's uncle financed a project to study electrical energy in a converted lighthouse on the eastern seaboard. One night, out of curiosity, Madeline gave herself an unsupervised tour of the facility. But she was struck by a sudden electrical discharge from a raging storm. She was taken to the hospital by the man in charge of the project, a Professor Lawson. Miraculously, Madeline recovered from the coma she was in and found that the lightning had given her superhuman endurance and the ability to fly! She quickly joined the war effort as Miss America. Shortly after adopting this guise, she joined the Liberty Legion. She served with them for months, until she and the Whizzer joined the Invaders. They fell in love and stayed in the Invaders until the end of the war, when they briefly served in the All-Winners Squad. By the 50s, Madeline and Bob Frank, the Whizzer, were married and retired from the hero biz. They got jobs as security at a nuclear plant, but were forced to retire when the villain Isbisa sabotaged the plant and caused the two heroes to be exposed to high amounts of radiation. Madeline was pregnant at the time, and it caused her son Bob Jr. to be born with high levels of radiation. The government took charge of Bob Jr. and gave the Franks a generous pension. They traveled, during which time Madeline again became pregnant. When she went into labor, the Franks were in Europe at the base of Wundagore Mountain. Madeline was taken by Bova, a mutated cow created by the High Evolutionary to be a midwife. Madeline was weak from the radiation and died giving birth to a further mutated, stillborn child. The grief-stricken Whizzer sped from Wundagore Mountain, leaving Bova to bury Madeline Frank and her baby in an unmarked grave at the foot of Wundagore (kind've a bum ending for one of the biggest heroines of the war years, huh?--eric).

Golden Age Appearances: MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #49-85; MISS AMERICA COMICS #1-2; BLONDE PHANTOM #12-14; ALL-WINNERS COMICS #19-21; ALL SELECT COMICS #11; SUN GIRL #1

First Modern and Final Appearance: GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #1

Other Appearances: INVADERS #6,35-41, LIMITED SERIES #1-4, MARVEL PREMIERE #29-30; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #20 (1976)

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