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Fighting: |
Gd |
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Agility: |
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Gd |
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Endurance: |
Ex |
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Reason: |
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Intuition: |
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Psyche: |
Am |
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Health: |
50 |
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Karma: |
80 |
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Popularity: |
10 |
Real Name: William Barrett Foster
Alias: Black Goliath
Occupation: Biochemist
Legal Status: American Citizen
Identity: The public does not know that Foster was Black Goliath or Giant-Man
Place of Birth: Watts, Los Angeles, California
Marital Status: Divorced
Known Relatives: Claire Temple (ex-wife)
Base of Operations: None
Past Group Affiliations: Ally of the Thing
Known Powers:
Growth: Foster’s rank was Amazing, but his Strength could only reach In credible. Each time he used this power, he would have to make an Endurance FEAT roll, or black out for 1-10 rounds. If he blacked out, he would have to make a second Endurance FEAT or lose one rank of Endurance permanently due to cellular degeneration. He no longer possesses this limitation. His Endurance has been restored.
Protection vs. Psychic Attacks: Giant-Man has Amazing protection against mental attacks.
Talents:
Foster has remarkable reason with biochemistry
Contacts:
Foster was an ally of the Thing, the Champions of Los Angeles, and Project Pegasus. He is a friend of Tony Stark and Henry Pym, and recently fought alongside the West Coast Avengers.
Role-Playing Notes:
Foster was a reluctant superhero, who was motivated by a desire to help people, but lacked confidence in his ability as a superhero. Giant Man is not an active superhero; a direct threat against his personal interests (friends, place of work) might be the only thing that is likely to bring him out of retirement.
History:
William Foster spent his childhood in the Watts ghetto. His natural intelligence and the influence of several good people helped him leave the ghetto and attend California Technical Institute. There Foster worked to ward a degree in biochemistry and met and married Claire Temple, a medical student. Upon graduation, he worked his way up the corporate ladder at Stark Industries, but his drive for success strained their marriage to the point of divorce. When Harry Pym was trapped at a minimum of ten feet in height, Tony Stark recommended that Foster assist Pym in finding a cure. For several months they worked together in Pym’s laboratory in New Jersey, and eventually found a cure. Foster re turned to Stark Industries, where he was promoted to head of the bio chemistry division at Stark Indus tries’ Los Angeles plant. Fascinated by Pym’s research, Foster synthesized the growth compound, hoping to eliminate side effects. Eventually Foster tested the formula on himself and found he had successfully duplicated Pym’s growth powers.
Taking a vacation from his duties at Stark Industries, Foster devised a plan by which he might win back the affection of his ex-wife, Claire Temple. He wrote her about how he had worked with Pym and duplicated his powers, but deceived her into believing that, like Pym, he was also trapped at giant stature. She agreed to meet him to see what help she could provide. They met at a travel ling circus where he said he had to work in order to earn money to continue his research. Foster had outfitted himself in a costume and billed himself as “Black Goliath.” Temple’s current boyfriend, Luke Cage (see Power Man), had followed her, and the two men fought over her. They settled their differences long enough to join forces against the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime (see Ringmaster) but Temple chose to remain with Cage rather than her ex-husband. Ashamed, Foster returned to Los Angeles.
Although he had fashioned a costumed identity for himself, Foster was uncertain whether he should use it to fight crime, considering the circumstances in which he fashioned it. With the encouragement of Henry Pym, he decided to try. On his first outing, Black Goliath encountered the criminal Atom-Smasher, who bombarded him with deadly radiation. This bombardment immediately produced painful side effects, making his size transformations difficult and causing him to occasionally black out. Before Black Goliath was able to defeat the Atom-Smasher, his foe was killed by a mysterious assassin that later turned out to be Atom-Smasher’s brother, the second Atom-Smasher! Ignoring the symptoms of radiation poisoning, he continued his career, battling such menaces as Vulcan, the Stilt-Man, and the Hijacker, and aiding the Champions of Los Angeles and the Thing.
When it became difficult to ignore his illness, Foster took a leave of absence from Stark International to become a consultant at Project Pegasus, an upstate New York energy research installation facility. There to do research on the corpse of the Atom-Smasher, he nearly sacrificed his life to stop the mad scheme of the Nth Man. Following the attack, a team of top radiologists were assigned to help cure his condition, including Reed Richards and Walter Langkowski. After their treatments failed, Foster returned to Los Angeles to finish his life’s work with Stark Industries, only to be attacked by the new Atom-Smasher. He, the Thing, and the Original Spider-Woman defeated him. Spider-Woman saved his life with a transfusion of her blood, at the expense of losing her immunity factor permanently. However, Foster’s cell structure had deteriorated to a point that he could never become Giant-Man again. He retired, and became a full time researcher.
Eventually, Foster found himself working as technician for the High Evolutionary at his Antarctic stronghold. Learning the High Evolutionary’s plan to mutate everyone on earth, he managed to release a warning to the West Coast Avengers, who tracked him to the stronghold. But as the avengers were being defeated, Foster swallowed a chemical that again transformed him into Giant-Man, and he learned that his cellular disintegration had been cured. He then defeated the High Evolutionary in combat. Giant-Man’s current status is unknown.