James was born in 1932, during the middle of the Great Depression, and spent his formative years living in a slum in Franklin, Wisconsin. Well, one of them. There are six Franklins in Wisconsin, but it’s unknown which one he hails from. In any case, the town he grew up in struggled through the difficult times, but together the townsfolk managed to survive through to the end of the Depression and the outbreak of World War II in 1939. It was just as the war was winding down that James’ talents were unlocked by a wayward meteorite impact, which flattened an area just a quarter of a mile south of the Whitlam family home. Unfortunately the meteor had struck a significant dam in the area, and almost all the water in the dam was vaporized and billowed along the ground, slipping through the walls