Bill Foster (Marvel)

Latest revision as of 10:13, 12 May 2024

Bill Foster is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Bill Foster in Black Goliath v1 #1.

William Barrett Foster

Whilst in college, he and Claire Temple fell in love with the two getting married young. However, the pair came to quickly suffer from marital strife as both were too wrapped up in pursuing their own respective careers leading to them not showing any understanding to the other. This led to arguments between them that progressed to being fights and eventually a trial separation before divorcing each other. (Power Man v1 #24)

He came to work for Stark Industries where he operated as a bio-chemist at the Baltimore plant at the Plans and Research Division. Dr. Foster was asked by Tony Stark to assist Hank Pym to help him return to his original height after he was trapped in giant-form with his physiology unable to transform back to its normal height. Bill travelled to the laboratory where he and Hank worked regularly in finding a solution to the problem. During one moment, he was travelling to the lab when he was confronted by members of the Sons of the Serpent who beat him to near death. Goliath arrived at the scene to help Dr. Foster where he decided to halt research on their experiments and instead had the Avengers look into stopping the criminal activities of the Sons of the Serpents. (Avengers v1 #32)

Black Goliath

Dr. Foster moved to the West Coast to take over the research and development section of Stark International in Los Angeles and became the boss of the three brilliant scientists known as the Whiz Kids. Having memorized the formula to Pym Particles in his work with Pym, he synthesized it in the hopes of eliminating its harmful side effects. Eventually, when he tested it on himself, he found that it had indeed given him the ability to grow in size like his former employer and that he had successfully duplicated Pym's powers. (Black Goliath v1 #1)

Struggling on becoming a superhero, he decided to use the Black Goliath identity to stop a series of thefts in the city where a supervillain named Atom-Smasher was targeting laboratories to steal radioactive materials. (Black Goliath v1 #1) At first, Foster was nearly overpowered by his foe who was able to assume a form of pure energy. Looking to kill the hero, Atom-Smasher detonated a fuel line then departed after leaving Black Goliath for dead. However, Foster was barely alive where the explosion caused him to fall into water that took him to a drainage ditch. Regaining consciousness, he managed to save himself before he could be pulled deeper into the water. Emerging on the roadside, he collapsed and was saved by a passing car driven by Celia Jackson, a senior flight attendant at Transnational Airways. At first, Foster felt he was imposing and looked to leave but he was still weakened with Miss Jackson insisting he stay till he was better. The two faced an attraction to one another and later Black Goliath promised to meet her again. (Black Goliath v1 #2)

Taking a leave of absence from his duties at Stark, Foster devised a plan by which he believed he might win back Temple's affections; he wrote to her saying that he had worked with Pym and duplicated Pym's powers, but he deceived her into believing that he, like Pym, had been trapped at gigantic stature. They met at a circus sideshow where Foster had said that he had to work to earn money to continue his research. Foster had outfitted himself in costume and was being billed under the name of Black Goliath. Unfortunately for Foster, in taking moonlighting employment at the sideshow, he had, without realizing it at the time, come under the control of the Circus of Crime. Temple had become the girlfriend of Luke Cage, and Cage had followed Temple from New York; the two men fought over her. In the course of their dispute, the Circus of Crime captured Temple, forcing Foster and Cage to set aside their differences long enough to join forces against the Circus of Crime and its Ringmaster, Maynard Tiboldt, from whose control Cage also freed Foster. (Power Man v1 #25)

After the Champions disbanded, Black Goliath, along with a large group of other heroes, joined the Defenders for only one mission before quitting the group. (Defenders v1 #62)

Giant-Man

Dr. Foster later came to join the staff of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. that was a U.S> government's energy research facility. Whilst there he revealed his identity of Black Goliath to the Thing, who at the time was working for Project: Pegasus. In the process of answering an emergency alarm, Foster decided to change his name to Giant-Man at Ben's suggestion. (Marvel Two-in-One v1 #54) After working at Project: Pegasus for a short time, Foster revealed that he was dying from radiation poisoning he had contracted in his earlier fight with the Atom-Smasher, even though he had continued his attempts to distinguish himself as a crime-fighter, on one occasion teaming up with Spider-Man to face off against Norton Fester, the Meteor Man. (Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #41) Some time later, while on his deathbed, Foster's radiation poisoning was treated using a blood transfusion from Jessica Drew, who called herself Spider-Woman. At the time, Drew possessed an immunity to radiation and other toxins, but when she submitted to the transfusion with Foster, she did so at the expense of losing that immunity factor. (Marvel Two-in-One v1 #85)

Foster soon gave up the identity of Giant-Man, which Hank Pym subsequently reclaimed for himself. Not too long after that, Goliath's ionic powers were disrupted in a battle against the West Coast Avengers. This caused an energy disruption which allowed a race of extra-dimensional creatures, the Kosmosians, to attack Earth. Although the creatures were ultimately repelled, the energy disruption and effects on the Pym Particles affected all who had ever been exposed to them, except Pym himself, causing them to lose control of their growth and/or shrinking powers. (Avengers v1 #382)

After losing his powers, Dr. Foster joined the staff of the Centers for Disease Control. In this capacity he helped the Avengers deal with a bio-weapon released near Mount Rushmore. (Avengers v3 #66) Foster donned the identity of Goliath again, along with a new specialized outfit and this time without the modifying 'Black', first to help the Thing deal with a super-villain even as he requested a research grant from the Thing. He then helped Spider-Man track down the Hulk, so that Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, the scientist who uncontrollably transforms into the Hulk, could, possibly, deal with Spider-Man's own cellular degeneration. (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man v1 #2)

During the superhuman Civil War, Foster was a member of Captain America's anti-registration Secret Avengers, adopting the alias of Rockwell Dodsworth. (Civil War v1 #2) He subsequently appeared briefly amongst the cavalcade of other African-American superheroes attending the wedding of the Black Panther and Storm. (Black Panther v4 #18) Foster was killed by a clone of Thor during a fight between the Secret Avengers and Iron Man's pro-registration forces. Since it proved not to be possible to reduce his body to normal size, he was buried as a giant, with Tony Stark paying for the thirty-eight burial plots required to accommodate him. His death affected the balance of forces in the war, leading several previously pro-Registration or neutral figures to change sides, most notably the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, the Black Panther, Storm, and Spider-Man, as well as many others, questioning Iron Man's cause. (Civil War v1 #5)

Legacy

Bill Foster was last seen in Pluto's realm, refusing to accept death's embrace while holding out possible hope for a resurrection. (Incredible Hercules v1 #129) After his death, his nephew Tom Foster came to blame the superhero community for his death during the Civil War. This was to such an extent that during World War Hulk he was keen to see the returned Hulk kill those heroes partly responsible for Bill Foster's death. (Incredible Hulk v2 #107) Tom Foster later joined Wonder Man's Revengers, in order to shut down the Avengers who he felt were responsible for his uncle's death. (New Avengers Annual v2 #1)

Afterwards, Hank continued work on the virtual reality program that he and Bill had been building that allowed one to upload their consciousness in order to live after death. The grieving Pym uploaded Foster's mind into the program thus creating a virtual utopia for his friend. (Ant-Man & Wasp v1 #1) A.I.M. attempted to hijack the program with Hank working alongside Eric O'Grady to stop them. During this time, O'Grady entered into the virtual world where he briefly met Foster with Bill mistaking him for Hank and urging him to stop pushing his loved ones away. (Ant-Man & Wasp v1 #3)

The corpse of Foster was later reanimated by the souls of dead that had escaped Death with this being done so by the Blasphemy Cartel. Turning the body into a powerful revenant, the undead being went on a rampage in the world of the living. This led to him getting into conflict with Death's champion the Harvestman and the reigning Sorcerer Supreme Clea Strange. Together, they destroyed Foster's body whereupon the Harvestman's identity being revealed to had been Stephen Strange. (Strange v3 #7)

Overview

Personality and attributes

He later came to take the name of Black Goliath. (Power Man v1 #24) During the superhuman Civil War, Foster became an outlaw member of the Secret Avengers where he operated under the alias of Rockwell Dodsworth. (Civil War v1 #2)

Bill was noted to had fought his entire life. This saw him rising from the ghetto to becoming a prominent scientist. This same sense also pushed him to try and survive. (Black Goliath v1 #2)

Working with Hank Pym and the Avengers hooked him on the 'super hero bug' where he looked to operate more in that role. As a superpowered being, he was new to the role of being a superhero and like many novices operating alone he made some mistakes. (Black Goliath v1 #2)

At one point, he had fallen in love and married Claire Temple but the two separated as they pursued different career paths with the resultant marital strife resulting in their eventual divorce. (Power Man v1 #24)

He had once been involved with a senior flight attendant named Celia Jackson who worked for Transnational Airways. To her friends, she preferred them to call her Ceil. She came to save an injured Foster once as she felt indebted to superhero's after one saved her when she lived in New York City. The two faced an intense attraction to one another when she helped care for Black Goliath after he recovered from his injury. (Black Goliath v1 #2)

Assisting him were a group of three researchers called the Whiz Kids that were three of the world's infest inventive minds. Among them included doctors Herbert Bell, Dale West and Talia Kruma. (Black Goliath v1 #1)

Powers and abilities

As part of his background, Dr. Foster was noted for being a skilled bio-chemist. (Avengers v1 #32)

Foster had memorised the formula to Pym Particles in his work with Pym. In fact, he synthesized it in the hopes of eliminating its harmful side effects. After testing it on himself, he once again gained the ability to grow in size thus duplicating Pym's powers. (Black Goliath v1 #1)

If in too much pain, then he could not concentrate and trigger his size-changing. (Black Goliath v1 #2)

Notes

• Bill Foster was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck where he made his first appearance in Avengers v1 #32 (September, 1966).
• Tony Isabella and George Tuska later had the character become Black Goliath in Luke Cage, Power Man v1 #24 (April, 1975).
• The character appeared as Giant-Man in Marvel Two-in-One v1 #55 (September, 1979) and then as Goliath in The Thing v1 #1 (January, 2006).
• In an interview on First Comics News, Isabella recounted the characters creation, "Bill Foster was Hank Pym’s colleague at a time when Pym (aka Ant-Man, Giant-Man, and Goliath) was trapped at a giant size. They were working to reverse that condition. Later, Foster used their work to become a super-hero himself. I wanted to call him Giant-Man, but I was told Giant-Man had sold badly near the end of his run in Tales to Astonish. We went with Black Goliath to distinguish him from the Pym incarnation of Goliath, but I was never happy with that name."

Alternate Versions

• In A-Next v1 #2 (1998), an alternate version of Bill Foster appeared in the Marvel Comics 2 reality designated as Earth-982 in the Multiverse. Bill Foster was investigating a crashed spaceship with his son, bush pilot John Foster. When the Avengers arrived and a fight broke out with a Kree Sentry, John was transformed by the ship into a Kree officer to divert the Sentry. Bill respected his son's choice to use his newfound abilities as the Earth Sentry.
• In Ant-Man: Season One v1 #1 (2012), an alternate version of Bill Foster appeared in a world within the Multiverse. Doctor Bill Foster was a scientist working for Egghead Innovations. Warren Pym got him to spy on his son Henry by claiming that he was worried about his mental stability inthe aftermath of Henry's wife Maria's death. Bill worked with Henry as he developed and refined the Pym Particles that enabled shrinking and enlarging objects, at which point Elihas Starr ordered his security forces to confiscate his research and have the younger Pym killed. Henry escaped, and when Foster was fired the next day as well, came to him to develop the Ant-Man's Suit and Helmet based on his late wife's designs. Foster was under the impression that the results would be published, but Hank at this point was only determined to bring Egghead down. Believing that Hank was having an episode, Foster helped his father subdue ad restrain him. However, when he realized that Starr had stolen the Helmet and the particles and used them to send giant-sized hornets to kill him, Foster realized his mistake and returned the helmet to Hank. Together they helped expose Starr and have him arrested, but while Bill had trust in the system ad believed that the justice was done, Hank decided to take the matter into his own hands and seek justice as the vigilante Ant-Man.

In other media

Television

• In Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Bill Foster appeared in the setting of the animated television series in the episode "Devil on Her Shoulder" where he was voiced again by actor Laurence Fishburne. After Devil Dinosaur had shrunk in size, Moon Girl sought Bill Foster's help to bring Dinosaur back to normal.
• In What If...?, Bill Foster appeared in the setting of the Disney+ animated television series tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was voiced once more by actor Laurence Fishburne. During the 1980s, he joined with other exceptional individuals assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D. to confront the Celestial Ego and his progeny in their attempt to terraform Earth.

Films

• In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Bill Foster appeared in the live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was portrayed by actor Laurence Fishburne. He was a scientist who worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and came to work alongside Hank Pym on Project Goliath where they attempted to use Pym Particles to grow subjects to great heights. Foster took part in the program where he managed to grow giant sized for a short period of time. He came to have a tense relationship with Pym who he believed had a big ego and could not tolerate anyone being his equal. In time, he left the project where he claimed he left under his own will whilst Hank stated he fired Foster for not being competent. Around this time, Foster learnt that a former colleague named Elias Starr who had been disgraced and fired by Hank Pym was conducting his own quantum research in secret but his project suffered an accident that killed him along with his wife. Elias's daughter Ava Starr was the only survivor but the experiment resulted in her body suffering molecular instability leaving her nearly intangible and in constant pain. Bill was called in as an expert to help her where he became her surrogate father to help her with her powers and to cope with the pain whilst he attempted to find a cure for her.

Video games

• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Bill Foster as Goliath appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Emerson Brooks. This version is an ally of Captain America in opposing the Superhuman Registration Act. He would attack the player's team until defeated.
• In Marvel Avengers Academy, Bill Foster as Goliath appeared in the setting of the mobile video game. He was one of the many heroes to join the Avengers Academy where Bill worked with Hank Pym back in Hope Van Dyne's home universe.

Appearances

• Avengers v1: (1966)
• Luke Cage, Power Man v1: (1975)
• Black Goliath v1:
• Avengers v3:
• Civil War v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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