Goliath

Black Goliath
Real Name	Dr. Bill Foster
First Appearance	Avengers # 32,(September 1966) [as Dr. Bill Foster], Power Man # 24, (April 1975) [as Black Goliath]
Creators	Stan Lee, Don Heck
Team Affliations	Champions, Defenders, Project: Pegasus, Centers for Disease Control
Aliases	Giant-Man, Goliath, Rockwell Dodsworth
Base of Operations	New York City
Powers	Size/Mass Changing, Super-Strength (while giant)
Skills and Abilities	High Intelligence, expert in biochemistry
Tools and Weapons	None

Black Goliath (Dr. Bill Foster) was a superhero in the Marvel Universe and a former assistant to Dr. Hank Pym. He began as a recurring supporting character in the Marvel universe before becoming a superhero and eventually graduating to his own book.

He is currently dead, having fallen in the events of the Superhero Civil War.

Origin

A brilliant scientist who worked with Henry Pym, Bill Foster learned to find new uses for Pym Particles and attempted to use his powers to win back his ex-girlfriend, only to have his plan backfire. Now seeing the importance of responsibly using his powers, Foster decided to fight crime as The Black Goliath.

Biography

Born in Watts, Los Angeles, California, Bill Foster was an exceptionally smart young man who grew up in a poor neighborhood. He joined the military and saw combat in southeast Asia, where he ran afoul of a shady CIA agent named Geoffrey Ballard, who later became the supervillain known as Centurion. He later became an expert on biochemistry at the California Technical Institute and married medical student Claire Temple. He eventually built a strong reputation as a biochemist in Tony Stark's Baltimore factory in the Plans and Research Division, though it came at the cost of his marriage, which ended in divorce.

Eventually, Foster was asked to work with superhero and scientist Hank Pym to help cure him after he found himself stuck at 10 feet tall. After months of working together, Foster and Bill gained each other's trust and Foster was given access to Pym's laboratory in New Jersey and the Avengers Mansion (so they could work together) and even gave assistance in some of the Avenger's adventures, including their work against the Sons of the Serpent and Whirlwind's attempt to kill Pym and the Wasp.

After a cure was found for Pym's condition, Foster returned to Stark Enterprises, this time in the Los Angeles branch. Interested in continuing the research that he and Pym worked on, Foster successfully synthesized a formula that would grant a person the same size-changing powers as Hank Pym. After giving himself such powers, he decided to take a vacation in the hopes that he could use his newfound powers to win back Claire Temple. He wrote her a letter claiming that his powers had him trapped in giant form as Hank Pym, despite the fact that he was perfectly fine, had been and asked for her help in the hopes that the ruse would get them back together. When she agreed, they decided to meet at a travelling circus, where Foster claimed to be living to make enough money to continue his research. He began performing there as the "Black Goliath" with a custom outfit made for him.

What Bill Foster had failed to realize was the circus he hastily joined was "the Circus of Crime", a criminal group disguised as a circus. Meanwhile, Claire's then-boyfriend Luke Cage was investigating Foster and discovered his ruse, which resulted in a battle between the two. But soon, both put aside their differences and teamed up to defeat the Circus of Crime once they revealed themselves. They were victorious, but with Foster's deception revealed, Claire was upset and told Bill bluntly that Cage was the man she wanted to stay with, causing Foster to return to LA in disgrace.

Soon, Foster considered a full career in crime fighting, though doubted himself when he considered the selfish reasons the identity was created. When he was encouraged to become the Black Goliath once more by Hank Pym and soon took to the streets to fight crime, where he met the villain the Atom-Smasher. The Atom-Smasher used his powers to irradiate Goliath, which gave him side effects that made changing size difficult  and causing him to black out from time to time. He defeated the Atom-Smasher, but found himself still suffering from the radiation poisoning, deciding to try to rise above it as he fought Vulcan, Stilt-Man and the Hijacker. He also found himself aiding the Thing and the Champions during this period before changing his name to Giant-Man.

In other Media

Doctor Bill Foster appears in the film ANt-Man 2, where he mentions that he participated in a project by Dr. Henry Pym to use Pym particles to grow instead of shrinking mentioning that the project is called Goliath (alluding to the comics).