Black Goliath – 28 Days of Black Super Heroes – Day 3

Previous (Day 2) Super Hero – Vixen!

Day 3 of 28 Days of Black Super Heroes, this time we’re talking about the Marvel Comics’ character Black Goliath.

WHO IS HE?

Black Goliath (real name Bill Foster) is a scientist who was brought in to help the original Goliath (Hank Pym, the Avenger) when he was trapped at 10 feet tall.

He was actually working for Tony Stark (Iron Man) and he was recommended for the job. He hung around the Avengers Mansion and kind of helped them from time to time as they were attacked (well, he was there, anyway -might as well lend a hand).

What I remember about Black Goliath is that I really didn’t like the character. I didn’t like that he was an also-ran type of a character who was following in the footsteps of an original character.

You know, to give Marvel credit, they took pains to say things like he was “just as brilliant” as Hank Pym, and that he’d “perfected” the growth serum that Pym invented. Even though they tried to establish the character as a solid hero, I didn’t really like it.

THE COSTUME

Oh boy, those 1970’s costumes! You thought Luke Cage’s costume was bad?

Negro, please.

 

To be fair, the first costume he had was made to blend into a circus, but still…

I guess he had to make sure his midsection was open so he could show off his abs, and Luke Cage had to make sure his shirt was all the way open to show off his chest.

We can really only judge it by the styles of the time. I sure used to pop my collar back in high school. Here’s another one:

THE POWERS

I also hated his powers. Not just because a black character had them. I never liked the whole growing giant thing.

Maybe it’s just because I’m not an extrovert by nature, but doesn’t it seem like when you’re on the battlefield with the Avengers fighting the Masters of Evil that turning into a giant just makes you a bigger target?

I don’t wanna be the one the bad guys all zero in on!

I mean, just because you grow to the size of a skyscraper doesn’t mean that you’re invulnerable, too. Or does it? I mean, yeah you should grow naturally more resilient because your skin would be more dense, right? Any physics majors out there?

Like if a bunch of ants came up to me with ant-sized machine guns and just unloaded on me I would still get hurt, right? How about an ant-sized bazooka?

It is a mystery.

So essentially growing big is not a very cool power.

The ungrateful DEATH

Oh yeah, for those of you who didn’t know, this character is DEAD.

He bounced around the Marvel Universe for years, never really hitting the big-time, until he was viciously killed by a clone of Thor during the Marvel event Civil War, where the heroes fought each other over whether or not they should be regulated by the government.

Then giant douchebags Reed Richards, Tony Stark and a Skrull impostor of Hank Pym (don’t ask) created a clone of Thor (who was believed dead at the time).

The clone just lost his sh*t on the battlefield and started trying to kill everyone.

Now here’s where you gotta give ol’ Black Goliath some major props. He stepped up and decided to take on Thor (he didn’t know it was a clone).

Hell even at giant size, Thor is the very last guy in the Marvel Universe I would tackle.

Anyway he was killed within moments of engaging him. Oh, the indignity.

Wait, that’s not indignity, THIS is indignity.

I forgot the reason now why they couldn’t shrink him back down. Reed Richards can do everything but he can’t shrink a brotha back down to normal for his funeral. I hate that jackass.

For those of you interested, here’s a pretty irreverant and spot-on blow-by-blow of the whole Civil War debacle on i-mockery.com.

THE WRAP UP

So in conclusion, I had essentially forgotten all about this character when he showed up in Civil War to be killed.

I actually thought he had died of radiation poisoning before, but obviously he dodged that bullet, only to be killed indirectly by Iron-Man and Mr. Fantastic.

I read recently in the Ant-Man and Wasp mini-series that Hank Pym (the real one) had fashioned a “personal heaven” for Bill Foster so he could live his afterlife in eternal happiness.

Well, damn. Shouldn’t you do that for everyone? Damn super-heroes.

I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but none of this stuff makes any sense at all. Oh, well. There are worse hobbies, I guess.

Finally for those of you who are interested, I found a great site while looking up some of these heroes, it’s called Bahlactus.com, and you can check out the Black Goliath listing here:

Black Goliath on Bahlactus.com

Make sure you have some time though because you will get sucked in.

Anyway so that’s all for Bill Foster, and here’s a look at the raw pencil art I drew. Stay tuned until tomorrow!

Next (Day 4) Super Hero – War Machine!

Make sure to check out the comics page for more comics stuff here on Hypertransitory.com!