Whitman Knapp first met Alpha Flight interning at the New Life Clinic under the supervision of Lionel Jefferies. Lionel's broter, Madison was also known to be the smith for Alpha Flight and the team had previously encountered Lionel. One of the members of Alpha Flight, Box developed a symptone called "the Bends" on a mission and therefore could not safely phase out of his robotic armour. Whitmann had contact with Alpha for some time after that as they often turned to the New Life Clinic for medical help. He soon had a cose relationship with Purple Girl which had a slow beggining. Scramble, one of the members who believed to have had his insane mentality cured was actually stil present within Scrambler's mind son tried to kill all the members of Alpha Flight. He also revealed why he had chosen Knapp as an intern. Knapp had a latent power which Scramble activated when he transmutated him. Scramble quickly canged his name to Omega after joining with Bochs and were defeated by Knapp and Alpha Flight. After the battle, Alpha Flight was impressed with Knapp's efforts and offered him membership in the group Beta Flight which he accepted. He served in Beta Flight until, after the Alpha Inquisition the team disbanded. He chose to go back to being a doctor as he had been feeling uncomfortable in the role of the hero. Once back to his routine as a doctor, he began to think that he was a fictional character and even had 'conversations' with his creator. It was soon revealed that this was the work of the DreamQueen who was using members of Alpha and Beta Flight to gain a foothold on this world. When Alpha Flight once again re-formed, Whitman chose to remain as a doctor until much later, re-joining shortly before the Consortium attacked, possibly because Alpha needed another opinion in diagnosing Diamond Lil's cancer. He eventually became the Beta Flight advisor and, during Beta's first full mission, he was injected with poison by the Jackal (II). While his body recuperated on its own at Department H, it was attacked by the Hardliners. In order for him to live, his other selves, Apeman, Proto and Highbrow gave up their lives. He soon discovered that he could change his physical form to those of his "other selves."

Powers:
Manikin is able to summon three of his genetic relatives from various points of human evolution:

Proto: A semi-sentient glob of primeval goo capable of corroding substances through secretion of acid.

Ape-Man: A pre-homo sapiens hominid with great strength.

Highbrow: A future descendant of humanity possessed of great intellect.