When Marvel Thought Having A Comic Called Black Goliath Was Fine

Black Goliath time! The character of Doctor Bill Foster was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck for The Avengers in 1966. As a biochemist, his role was to work, first for Tony Stark, and then for Hank Pym, when Hank Man was in his Giant Man phases and stuck at the height of ten feet.

Tony Isabella, who co-created Black Lightning at DC Comics, gave him a new role in 1975 in the comic book Luke Cage, Power Man in which, after gaining access to Hank Pym’s Pym particles, he takes on the name Black Goliath. In 1976, he got his own title, Black Goliath, before joining the Champions team. He later became the second Giant-Man and then later just Goliath, before being killed off in the comic book Civil War, by a clone of Thor. Yeah, that went down well at the time. He is probably due a resurrection, though his son has been fulfilling a similar role in the Marvel Universe.

The name of the character, and the comic at this stage, however, is seen as an embarrassment to modern-day Marvel, with the seeming unnecessary “Black” prefix in the character’s name as some kid of racial separation., which was later rectified. Though it doesn’t seem to bother Black Lightning at DC Comics. Bill Foster appeared in his scientific role in the Ant-Man and the Wasp movie played by Laurence Fishburne and Langston Fishbourne at different ages and part of Project Goliath. It has been suggested that Lawrence Fishburne may return to reprise his in the new Quantumania movie. A copy of Black Goliath #1 is currently slabbed at CGC 9.6 at Heritage Art Auctions where it currently has bids totalling $109 and going under the hammer today.

Black Goliath #1 (Marvel, 1976) CGC NM 9.4 White pages. Origin retold. Rich Buckler cover. George Tuska art. Overstreet 2022 NM- 9.2 value = $70. CGC census 8/22: 123 in 9.4, 215 higher.

Affiliates of Bleeding Cool buy from and/or consign to Heritage Auctions.