Madeline Joyce (Earth-616)

History

Sister, you asked for it!

-- Miss America ^src 

Preface

Miss America has appeared in almost 70 years worth of Marvel publications. Below is an abridged version of her history. For her complete history see The Unabridged History of Madeline Joyce.

Origin

Madeline Joyce, the niece of a millionaire who was financing electrical experiments of an unknown nature in a converted lighthouse on the East Coast of America. One night, Joyce was visiting the lighthouse during a violent electrical storm. She was caught in a powerful electrical discharge from the equipment triggered by the storm outside. Joyce miraculously survived the accident, but lay in a coma for a week. The discharge, however, activated her latent mutant(?) abilities.

World War II

It was during WWII that Miss America became nationally famous. Shortly after the United States entered the war, the team of Allied champions known as the Invaders were captured and brainwashed by the Nazi agent the Red Skull. Under the Red Skull's influence, the Invaders attacked a domestic defence plant. Bucky Barnes, who had escaped capture, commandeered a New York City radio station, and began a marathon broadcast to round up available superhumanly powered crime fighters to counter the threat. Barnes had located existing FBI files on several such crime fighters, including the Whizzer, and broadcast specifically to contact them. Miss America heard the message while battling a Nazi spy ring in upstate New York, a mission in which she first met and fought alongside the superhuman crime fighter the Whizzer.

The Whizzer and Miss America were attracted to each other, and travelled together to New York City to join Bucky Barnes. Bucky's effort was successful, and after the Invaders were rescued from the Skull, the group stayed together to combat Nazi espionage in the United States under the name the Liberty Legion. While active with the Liberty Legion, the Whizzer and Miss America were engaged to be married. Once during this period, they left the Liberty Legion to fight in Europe alongside the Invaders.

Post-War

After the war ended, the Whizzer and Miss America became members of the short-lived All-Winners Squad. The Squad disbanded after a few years, and the Whizzer and Miss America resumed their civilian identities of Robert Frank and Madeline Joyce and were married. In 1949, they began work for the United States government as non-costumed superhuman security agents at a secret nuclear project located in New York City. Unknown to Frank, Isbisa, a former enemy of the All-Winners Squad, sabotaged the facility and staged a nuclear accident which exposed the Franks to massive amounts of radiation. Although Isbisa's act of revenge did not kill the Franks, Madeline was pregnant at the time, and several months later gave birth to a radioactive mutant son, Robert Frank Jr., later called Nuklo. Because the baby emitted dangerous levels of radiation, the United States government took custody of him and placed him in an experimental chrono-module. There he would be kept in suspended animation until he ceased to emit dangerous levels of radiation.

Leaving the research facility with a generous government pension, the Franks decided to travel the world. Madeline Frank became pregnant again, and was in the tiny Balkan country of Transia when the pregnancy came to term. The Franks had found refuge in the scientific citadel atop Wundagore Mountain at the recommendation of nearby villagers who believed it to have modern medical facilities. With the evolved cow called Bova Ayrshire as midwife, Madeline gave birth to a stillborn child, even more radioactive and mutated than her first child. Madeline died of radiation poisoning hours later.

Years later, a mysterious villain resurrected Madeline alongside a number of other heroes and villains (including Kraven, Mysterio and Anarchist) in order to use them as his elite soldiers. 

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Flight: Miss America possessed the ability to psionically negate the effect of gravity around herself, allowing her to float into the air. In coordination with planned jumps, she could simulate the power of flight.

Superhuman Strength: Miss America possessed an unknown degree of superhuman strength. While the exact level of this strength is unknown, she was said to possesses the strength of "A Thousand Men"^[1]

Superhuman Durability: Miss America possessed an unknown degree of superhuman durability that made her resistant to some forms of damage. While she was far from invulnerable, her durability seemed to be on par with superheroes such as Spider-Man or Jessica Jones.

Superhuman Stamina: Miss America possessed enhanced "Vitality" which allowed her to operate a peak capacity for several hours before the fatigue toxin build up in her blood began to impair her.

X-Ray Vision: (Formerly) Miss America originally possessed the power to project "X-Ray Vision" from her eyes. Presumably, this power allowed her to see through solid objects with the exception of objects made of lead. This power faded in time, however, and left Madeline as one of the only superheroes to truly need glasses.

Abilities

Miss America was a natural athlete,with the gymnastic ability, agility, and reflexes of an Olympic contestant. She was schooled in unarmed combat by Captain America while she was a member of the Invaders.

Strength level

Miss America possessed superhuman strength to an unknown degree (she purportedly possessed the "strength of a thousand men"---1,000 men who can lift 200lbs=100 tons)

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Conventional vehicles, Flight under her own power

Notes

Doctor Lawson is the name of the scientist whose experiment accidentally gave him the same powers Miss America would gain on purpose.

Trivia

• Madeline is a natural brunette. Blonde hair is sometimes used as part of her costume as Miss America.
• Miss America was loosely adapted for the 1979 "Super Sentai" Japanese TV series Battle Fever J as part of the collaboration between Marvel Comics and the studio Toei. While retaining the name, the costume and character were both changed for the series.

Links and References

• 140 Appearances of Madeline Joyce (Earth-616)
• 1 Minor Appearances of Madeline Joyce (Earth-616)
• Media Madeline Joyce (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
• Images featuring Madeline Joyce (Earth-616)
• 1 Quotations by or about Madeline Joyce (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Madeline Joyce (Earth-616) 
• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 2 #18
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Miss America
• The Grand Comics Database: Miss America (Series) search results
• Atlas Tales: Miss America

Footnotes

References

Template:The Invaders