Bruised Bruiser

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

To say that this guy has had some bad breaks would be an understatement. He's also been thrashed repeatedly in the course of his career. A lot of people start their lives of crime by "falling in with a bad crowd," but this guy takes the cake. He was a petty criminal before eventually becoming a minion of super-villains; consequently, he's been used as a pawn more than once, even after gaining super-powers himself.

Erik Josten was one of Baron Zemo's henchmen before digging his way back to Zemo's lab in the Amazon jungle and attempting to use the machinery there to heal his injured leg. But the Enchantress saw an opportunity to make a new Wonder Man:

And so Power Man was born. His picture above in costume represents his first appearance as a super-villain--but he's had several incarnations, and there have been variations of his powers. As you might guess by looking at him, he's mostly been used as muscle in his appearances. And, well, muscle-bound villains are a dime a dozen. He didn't really step out from his own shadow until Luke Cage took over the name "Power Man" and Josten later became the new Goliath:

With even more power than he had as Power Man, plus the advantage of using Hank Pym's growth serum, what could possibly stop this guy? Himself, of course:

Though I think everyone remembers Goliath more from his time as one of the Masters of Evil, probably the one group he was affiliated with which actually made some headway against the Avengers. And this little scene certainly was a step up from his days as Power Man:

Yet Thor, playing hit-and-run with him, eventually delivers the coup de grâce:

Believe it or not--and certainly with nowhere to go but up--Josten reforms as the hero, Atlas, and has a good run with the Thunderbolts. His size-changing powers go through the wringer (as they did with Pym himself)--but you could say much the same for Josten himself in pursuit of his super-powered career.