Erik Josten
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- This article is about the Marvel Comics character Atlas. For the comic book series by Dylan Horrocks see Atlas (comic series), for companies of that name, see Atlas Comics (1950s) or Atlas/Seaboard Comics.
Atlas (Erik Josten), formerly Power Man, Smuggler and Goliath, is a fictional character, a former supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and member of the Thunderbolts.
[edit] Fictional character history
Josten was originally a mercenary who was convinced by the Enchantress to undergo the same 'ionic-ray' treatment (from a machine invented by Baron Zemo) as Wonder Man, making Josten super-strong. Taking the name Power Man, he became the Enchantress's partner for a while, but later struck out on his own. He became a professional supervillain, joining such teams as the Lethal Legion and the Masters of Evil.
Eventually, Josten met Luke Cage, a hero who for a brief time had assumed the name Power Man. The two fought; Cage won.
Josten's powers were greatly reduced when Count Nefaria stole them (along those of the his other superhuman underlings.) His strength fading, he changed his costume and became a smuggler, taking the unimaginative name the Smuggler.
Later, he gained the ability to grow to giant size from the criminal Doctor Malus, who used a sample of Henry Pym's growth serum. He then took on the name Goliath, a name used previously by superheroes (see Goliath, Black Goliath) and again changed his costume.
Josten joined a new version of the Masters of Evil, founded by the second Baron Zemo. During his time with this group, Josten was one of the villains who invaded Avengers Mansion and beat Hercules severely . When Zemo decided to disguise the Masters as a superhero team called The Thunderbolts, Josten created the original identity (and costume) of Atlas. However, like most of the Thunderbolts, Atlas began to enjoy public admiration, and eventually reformed to become a genuine superhero, even after the Thunderbolts' criminal past was publicly revealed. After absorbing the energy from one of Nefaria's weapons, an "ionic bomb", Josten mutated into an "ionic energy creature" similar to what Wonder Man had become. In this form, he came to inhabit the body of Dallas Riordan, a woman he loved.
When they were separated, Dallas took the ionic energy, leaving Josten powerless, a situation which lasted until Fixer gave him a new dose of Pym particles. This lasted until the end of the Avengers/Thunderbolts limited series, when Erik asked Henry Pym to remove the particles from his system.
However, in New Thunderbolts #1, he regained the ability to change his size, by reclaiming the ionic energy from Dallas, leaving her a paraplegic again.
