Atlas
Atlas is a comic book character that first appeared in The Avengers #16Atlas is a former Thunderbolts member. He used to be a villain called Power Man.
A Milwaukee Wisconsin native, Erik Josten was a mercenary who gained superhuman strength after exposing himself to ionic rays at the urging of The Enchantress. These were the same rays that gave Wonder Man his powers. He and The Enchantress partnered up for a short while. He took the name Powerman. Soon his partnership with The Enchantress would dissolve and his career as a professional supervillain began. At first, he teamed up with the Black Widow and the Swordsman. Power Man: After finding out that Luke Cage had been calling himself Power Man, Erik Joston decided to find him and force him to stop using the name. Luke Cage won the battle leaving Erik without moniker. He would go on to join many other supervillain groups such as several versions the Lethal Legion. Count Nefaria soon stole Josten's powers though, and left him to turn to solo crime. He became the Smuggler and well, smuggled things. In his only appearance as the Smuggler, Josten was defeated by Spider-
Man, and then later assited by him in fighting the Maggia.
Later on, Josten was given the ability to grow in size and strength from Pym Particles, administered by Dr. Karl Malus. Josten now called himself Goliath, and continued his solo villain career. He fought James Rhodes as Iron Man and the West Coast Avengers and the cosmically-powered Spider-Man. Josten even joined a team including Ultron, Man-Ape, Grim Reaper, and Nekra. After more unsucess, Josten joined the fourth coming of the Masters of Evil, led by Baron Zemo. During his time there, Josten helped capture the Avengers Mansion as Goliath. Josten would become Atlas after the founding of the Thunderbolts. After finding that being in the public image as a good guy, Josten decided to do away with his evil doings, even after his past was revealed to the public.
As Atlas, he soon absorbed an iconic bomb from Count Nefaria. He became an engergy creature, and took refuge in the body of Dallas Riordan. This energy gave Dallas the ability to walk again. Dallas left with the engergy, and Josten was once again powerless. The Fixer soon gave him a new round of Pym Particles to restore his powers. After an Avengers/Thunderbolts series, Josten had his Pym Particles taken from his body, but was able to reclaim the ionic energy from Dallas Riordan to become Atlas again.
Characteristics
EYES- None; replaced by contaenment spheres for unknown energyHAIR- Red
WEIGHT- 225 Ibs
HEIGHT- 6 ft - 60 ft due to size manipulation (as he gains his height, he gains more strength. Josten also has super strength in his normal form. The mass comes from an alternate dimension, and is put back there when he returns to normal size. If he changes too quickly, he can suffer severe consiquences, such as coma.)
Earth-58163
In this reality Atlas is Major Erik Josten of the legendary Howling Commandos and does not have any of his powers. Here he is also working with the Human Underground Resistance. In an attempt to combat Private Vell and stop him from tearing apart their reality he come in to posseion of an Atlas-Class Sentinel. After stopping Vell Josten is last reported driving a stolen vehicle outside of Phoenix.
| Super Name: | Atlas |
| Real Name: | Erik Josten |
| Aliases: |
Erik Josten Smuggler Power Man Goliath |
| Publisher: | Marvel Publishing |
| Gender: | Male |
| Character Type: | Human |
| 1st Appearance: | The Avengers #16 |
| Appears in: | 196 issues |
| Birthday: | |
| Died: |


























