Issue(s): Power Man #24, Power Man #25
Cover Date: Apr 75
Title: "Among us walks... Black Goliath!" / "Crime and Circuses"
Credits:
Tony Isabella - Writer
Bill Mantlo - Script on #24
George Tuska / Ron Wilson - Penciler
David Hunt / Fred Kida - Inker

Review/plot:
If it's the Marvel Universe and there's a circus involved, who's gonna show up? The answer is in the review.

Luke Cage and D.W. Griffith track down Luke's girlfriend Claire Temple, who recently left him a letter breaking up with him and then left the city. They find her in a circus in Southern California. It turns out that she is Bill Foster's ex-wife, and he's been messing with Pym particles and got himself stuck at 15 feet. Too proud to ask Stark or Pym for help, he's joined the circus to raise money to continue his research. Claire is afraid that, due to Foster's connection with the Avengers, he'd learn that Luke is an escaped convict, so she didn't bring him along. She's also not sure if their relationship is really over.

Luke and Foster (who is not called Black Goliath anywhere except in the title) get into a fight.

Luke generally has the upper hand the whole time...

...but the fight is cut short when - did you guess? - the Ringmaster shows up.

A few interesting things about the Circus members. First, it now includes Livewire. His move from Psycho-Man's henchman to Circus of Crime member was probably his best career move, ever, at least in terms of having the right skills for the job.

Second, the Clown is trying to re-brand himself as the stoic Funny Man. Certainly "silent but deadly" is a funny catch-phrase.

Third, Luke Cage saves the life of one of the Gambino brothers in issue #24, so he acts to help the heroes in issue #25...

...but only once, and then he's back working with the CoC again. Really strange honor system, there.

Livewire has a more legitimate change of heart, not that it makes much difference.

When it's all over, Claire realizes that she's still in love with Luke, so she leaves Bill behind.

Meanwhile, a reporter comes around asking questions about Luke Cage to Dr. Burstein. Burstein sends him away, but wonders why the reporter reminds him of Phil Fox, "the corrupt reporter who almost exposed Luke Cage's secret past".

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there was a trend with black super-heroes costumes to expose as much skin as possible. To make it very clear that they were black, i guess? In addition to Goliath's bizarre exposed belly, you've got the Falcon's huge v-neck, and that period where the Black Panther's mask didn't fully cover his face.

From the editorial box on the Letters Page: "The costume design for the new Goliath was the work of a promising young Canadian artist named John Byrne, whose drawings have graced FOOM Magazine and many other fanzines, and who has recently penciled a story for The Haunt of Horror - an artist to watch."

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first Bill Foster as Black Goliath

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Circus of Crime fought Daredevil in Daredevil #118, and Princess Python, as a member of the Serpent Squad, fought Nomad in Captain America #180-181.
  
• The subplot of Claire leaving Luke was developed in Power Man #20, Power Man #21, and Power Man #22.
  
• Bill Foster first appeared in Avengers #32.
  
• While fighting Goliath, Luke Cage vents about all the people who've attacked him recently. Mostly it's events from recent issues of Power Man, but he also includes his fight with the Wrecking Crew from Defenders #17-19.
  
• Livewire previously appeared in Fantastic Four annual #5 (called Giant-Size Fantastic Four #5 in the footnote) before realizing that he didn't really belong in a Fantastic Four comic and sullenly downgrading himself to the Circus of Crime. He freed the Circus after their fight with Daredevil.
  
• The Clown thinks to himself that the Circus of Crime has been a wash-up since Amazing Spider-Man #16. The Clown tries to abandon the group but he's knocked out by Cage before it matters.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The John Byrne HoH story showed up in a Giant-Size Dracula, I think.

The Clown seems to have a new green wig on, if it's the same Clown.

Tony Isabella stated more than 30 years later that "Black Goliath" was a horrible name and just plain "Goliath" should have worked.

I think the exposed-skin costumes may be more of a 70's thing. Isn't Iron Fist showing about as much chest as Cage? (Admittedly, his shirt gets ripped less, but that's a function of Cage being more Hulk-like). Man-Wolf also has plenty of, er, fur on display. But it's true that Black Goliath's costume is weird even by the standards of the time.

Maybe I'm misremembering Man-Wolf as having a hugely open-necked costume. He doesn't in those Marvel Premiere issues Fnord has just covered.

yeah, i thought the deep v-neck was more of a 70s thing than a black hero thing, too. Nobody ever calls out iron fist for his chest display. Just most of these black heroes happened to debut in the 70s. You don't see it with many black heroes from the 80s.

Wundarr's costume is another example of why i'm wrong. I still think some of the motivation behind the costume designs (certainly the Black Panther's half-mask period) was to ensure that readers recognized that these characters were black; a not-unworthy goal even if the design choices were very strange.

In any event, whatever the motivation, at least it did end in the 70s. No one wanted to see a belly window on War Machine.

To add to the generally ramshackle nature of these issues, Bill Foster is frequently misidentified as Bill "Temple."

Good lord! I would ask if the Ringmaster runs the only circus in the MU, but I know there'll be the Avengers issue where it turns out the Taskmaster is running the circus. Maybe Marvel heroes should just go the zoo.

Ugh. Luigi Gambonno calls Luke Cage "Senor Power Man" and then in the next panel is (correctly) identified as an Italian. Wouldn't "signore Power Man" be the correct Italian term? Or does he switch to Spanish for the hell of it?

My squinting blood shot eyes believe your reference to first Bill Foster above was a typo and should be changed from Avengers #52 to #32.. I hope Black Goliath brings a can of Whoop Ass out on Luke Cage and Tony Stark to give us a New Giant Guy storyline for Iron Ma

Thanks, RocknRollguitarplayer.

Other examples of costumes for males caucasians that show off their chests around this time are Prince Namor's new black costume and the God-awful S&M outfit Killraven first appeared in.

Indeed, the Italian for mister is "singore", with the "e" dropped before a name or a surname. Also, there's no "senorita", but "signorina".
By the way, here Luke Cage looks like having trouble dousing the strenght behind his blows: Strong Man, Funny Man and Ernesto Gavonno manage to stand up again too often after being punched.