Back in the day before Luke Cage got married and became the doting dad he is now, his main squeeze was a nurse named Claire Temple. Unbeknowest to Luke, Claire was a divorcee and one day she went off after receiving a distress call from her ex-husband. Luke followed her, and it turned out her ex was Bill Foster, former assistant to Henry Pym, a.k.a. Ant-Man, a.k.a. Giant-Man, a.k.a. Yellowjacket, a.k.a. Guy that slapped his wife, Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the Wasp.
Turned out that Foster had gotten his hands on some of those sweet Pym particles that enabled Pym (and others) to change sizes. Must've been a bad batch though, because although he could enlarge hiimself up to twelve feet (and more), he was unable to shrink down to normal size. The instructions on the bottle said "If you have an enlargement that lasts more than four hours, call a doctor."
So he did -- well, okay technically she was a nurse, but who better to help bring you down when you're enlarged than your ex-wife?
Anyway, Luke followed Claire who went to meet with Foster at a circus tent, as he had inexplicably taken a job with the Circus of Crime. Luke arrives and then, just as any guy would do who finds his woman meeting with an ex-husband he didn't know about, invites them both for tea to talk things over. Just kiddin' -- fisticuffs ensue! And Foster, now calling himself Black Goliath, is still getting used to his new stature so even though he puts up a good fight, eventually get his clock cleaned by Luke. It all took place in the pages of Luke Cage, POWER MAN #24
Pencils on this incredibly cool piece were by my number one go-to-guy for commissions, the incomparable Darryl Banks. In fact, this piece is already up in his CAF gallery, along with many other off da hook looking commissions by Darryl. He can draw anything and make it look great. That's why he's my ace boon artist with nearly 2 dozen pieces in my gallery.
On a tragic note, Bill Foster was killed during an horrific encounter in Marvel's CIVIL WAR event from several years ago. Sadly, I don't think he'll be coming back through that revolving door that so many other heroes have used to come back from the dead. Time will tell, but until then, here's to the great Bill Foster. We hardly knew ye.
