Goliath In Black!

Tony Isabella has crafted a reputation for writing black heroes. His creation DC's Black Lightning being  the most famous of his outings in this arena. But he began at Marvel and there he wrote some singular issues of the comic Luke Cage, Power Man and later he crafted the earliest adventures of Black Goliath.

In the debut issue of Black Goliath (smartly drawn by George Tuska and Vince Colletta) we meet the fifteen foot giant who is in his off hours Bill Foster, a talented bio-chemist who had in earlier days assisted Henry Pym and it was there that he'd "perfected" the growing formula which Pym had dabbled with for many years. In that first issue we find a Goliath who is reminiscing about his early days in the Watts community and who ends up fighting some low-level criminals he chances upon. Later we learn that Foster is a man in full command of his power, who can elevate to fifteen feet on a whim and who is running a research lab manned by three up and coming talented young scientists. He seems to be a man well positioned for a successful life, but as we well know the lot of a superhero is rarely blissful..

We'd first met Black Goliath in the pages of Luke Cage, Power Man when the aforementioned Hero for Hire came to blows with the giant when he was searching for his lady love Claire Temple. Turns out Claire is the ex-wife of Foster and had joined him on the West Coast to help because she thought he was trapped at the fifteen foot size. Apparently this is a lie perpetrated by Foster to keep Claire close.

Black Goliath and Luke Cage face off, but both find themselves fighting as a duo against the Circus of Crime. 

I love the Circus of Crime, but this is not one of their most entertaining outings. Cage and Foster quickly dispense with them and Black Goliath moves on the headline his own title, but only briefly. 

Black Goliath only lasted four more issues and rated on visit with Spidey in Marvel Team-Up. Later Bill Foster changed his fighting name to Giant-Man and fought alongside the Thing in Marvel-Two-In-One. He became a background character at Marvel for many years.

Always it seemed he was a hero looking for a place to fight, a time to show his worth. The very stuff of tragedy. 

On a final note, let me that I always loved the corner box image for these the Black Goliath comics, brief though was their stay. 

Rip Off

Marvel Super-Heroes - Ka-Zar Swings!

Ka-Zar was one of Marvel's revivals which didn't immediately get a comic book home of his own. Debuting in the X-Men in the early days of that run under Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Chic Stone, he migrated to Daredevil for some number of issues and even spent some time in Spider-Man before returning to the X-Men under the watch of Roy Thomas and Neal Adams. But he got a nod in Marvel Super-Heroes #19, a book in which he shifts from England to the Savage Land and battles against his brother The Plunderer as well as aliens who seek hegemony over the Swamp Men. Under a dynamic cover by Barry "Not-Quite-Windsor" Smith still in his earliest days and a up and coming Herb Trimpe, the comic beneath features some George Tuska artwork which frankly shows signs of having been done very swiftly. All of Mr.Tuska's shortcuts are on full display, but despite that the story by Steve Parkhouse and Arnold Drake unrolls mostly logically. Of note is that the inking is by longtime DC mainstay Sid Greene. (Is this the only inking he did for Marvel?)

This one ain't the greatest effort by the Bullpen, but it's still worthy of notice. And as we all know Ka-Zar and his toothsome buddy Zabu were destined for bigger things when he set up shop alongside Doc Doom in Astonishing Tales. And speaking of the bad Doctor Doom, he's up tomorrow as we close out this glimpse of Marvel's little Silver Age try-out comic.

Rip Off