The Answer first came to work for the father and son team of Wilson and Richard Fisk when they controlled the Las Vegas division of HYDRA . He was their top hit man, but he also had an angle, or an answer, to any problem.

At some point, he volunteered to be the guinea pig for Fisk's attempt to grant superhuman powers. The experiment seemed to fail, and Nicholson was compensated.  However, while being attacked by assassins he developed super strength and invulnerability, which faded over time.  He later generated flight to escape an explosion.  With a few other incidents, he began to realize that he now literally had the answer to any situation, he had the power to adapt to any situation.

Kingpin, upon hearing the good news, immediately began using Answer as a stalking horse for Spider Man, to observe his new abilities in the black costume.  He also played a large role in Spider Man and Black Cat remaining together when he kidnapped Black Cat for Spider Man to rescue.

When Kingpin revived the cyborg Silvermane, The Answer deduced that it went out of control to find Dagger, who was bonded to it's life force through her light powers.  They decided to use her light powers to restore Vanessa Fisk from her coma, since it seemed she could effect the life force of others.  Answer kidnapped a drained Dagger and brought her to Fisk.  Silvermane followed them, as did Cloak.  In order to stop Silvermane, Answer used his adaptive powers to recharge Dagger and break the link with Silvermane.  However, the infusion of Dagger went out of control and she seemingly absorbed all of Nicholson's life force.  

The Answer survived as an unconcious energy being, until a surge awakened him.  He sought out a solution to his current existance and it manifested itself in the form of Otto Octavius.  Dr. Octopus was incarcerated in The Vault, however, with his sets of robotic arms destroyed.  Nicholson used the telepathic chip that Doc Ock used to control his Adamantium arms to contact the good doctor.  Answer offered to help Octavius escape and rebuild his arms in exchange for Octavius' restoring Nicholson to coporeality.  Octavius agreed, but used the telepathic chip to control The Answer.  They needed the atomic blaster that had originally turned Octavius into Dr. Octopus, but it was stolen by the Sinister Syndicate.  So they had to get someone to build a new one.  Answer tried to betray Octavius and leave him in the vault, but failed due to Dr. Octopus' control of the telepathic chip.  He freed the doctor, and helped Octavius build a temporary set of arms.  Octavius tried to kill him, but Spider Man and Swarm showed up.  He finally was able to come up with an answer to the mental link, and tracked Octavius to a lab where Dr. Octopus was trying to recreate the adamantium arms.  The Answer was getting beat when Mr Hargrove interfered.  Dr. Octopus fled and Nicholson was taken into custody.  He was part of the Ryker's Island breakout.

He was later seen trying to impress The Owl, who was running NYC's underworld at that point in time.  He was also part of the crew that Hammerhead rounded up during Civil War, who all got captured by SHIELD.  Apparently he got loose again, because he is seen calling himself a loser at Stilt Man's wake, where Punisher poisoned everyone and blew up the bar.  He seems to have survived that also, because he is now seen working for The Hood.