Real Name-- Erik Josten/Dallas Riordan

Class-- altered human

Occupation-- (Josten) former soldier , mercenary , smuggler , criminal ; now vigilante

Affiliations-- (Josten) Avengers villain , former partner of the Swordsman , ally of the Enchantress , henchman of the Black Widow , the Red Skull , the Mandarin , Count Nefaria , Grim Reaper , Baron Zemo II , member of the Lethal Legion / Masters of Evil ; current member of the Thunderbolts

Scale of Operations-- worldwide, nationwide, now confined to Counter-Earth

Powers: As Power Man, Josten had phenomenal superhuman strength and resistance to injury due to his body being suffused with radiation from "ionic rays." As Goliath, Josten's invulnerability and strength returned to their normal levels, and he could also increase his size to upwards to 50 feet due to a formula based on the size-changing Pym Particles.

The ionic and Pym Particle formulas played havoc with his body's physiology, until his body was purged of Pym particles. As Atlas, Josten maintains his former levels of strength, invulnerability, and size-changing ability due to his ionic treatments. Similar to the hero Wonder Man, Josten became "fully metamorphosed" into "unspecified superhuman flesh-like substance nourished by ionic energy" (Official Handbook Deluxe Edition). After his recent resurrection, Josten's body exists solely as ionic energy, which he can infuse into the body of Dallas Riordan, who then becomes endowed with the strength, invulnerability, and size-changing powers of Josten.

History: The hero known as Atlas currently exists as a physical gestalt between Erik Josten and Dallas Riordan. (See Dallas Riordan's individual entry.)

Erik Josten was one brother from a large midwestern farming family. One day, his sister was killed in an accident when trying to follow her brothers. Wracked with guilt, Josten ran away to join the army. When he was later discovered smuggling, Josten ran away from the army to become a soldier-for-hire.

Josten ended up working as a loyal mercenary soldier for the Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Zemo. He performed one mission to smuggle stolen technology into his secret South American stronghold, which led to the creation of the super hero Wonder Man. When Zemo was forced to flee, his ally, the Enchantress, used the same process to transform Josten into a super powered human and dubbed him Power Man. As Power Man, Josten attempted to discredit and defeat Zemo's enemies in the superhero team, the Avengers. Josten surrendered when the Enchantress abandoned him after his defeat.

Josten then met the super criminal Swordsman and the Russian Spy Black Widow, battling the Avengers before being defeated. Next, the villainous Red Skull had the him and the Swordsman battle the Avenger Captain America, and the criminal Mandarin used them both against the Avengers again. Escaping capture, Josten joined the Avengers villain Grim Reaper in his Lethal Legion, and captured the Avengers, who soon escaped and Josten was imprisoned.

While in prison, Josten learned a hero, Luke Cage, had taken the code name Power Man, and when Josten was released, he battled Cage over the right to assume the name Power Man. Josten lost, in part because the powers he had were on the wane. He sought out the criminal mastermind Count Nefaria and performed Nefaria's errands while being subjected to strength-enhancing treatments. However, Nefaria was really siphoning Josten's own power, and Josten escaped when the Avengers battled Nefaria.

A relatively weakened Josten assumed the code name The Smuggler and began black market operations in New York, but was defeated by the hero Spider-Man and imprisoned again.

When he was finally set free, Josten sought the criminal scientist Dr. Karl Malus, who restored Josten's strength as well as giving him growth powers in a process derived from the similarly-powered Henry Pym, the original Giant Man/Goliath. Stealing the code name Goliath, Josten was elated by his powers and went on a rampage to make his might known to the world, but was defeated by the Avengers' West Coast branch. The Grim Reaper freed Josten from the Avengers' compound to battle them again, and then was recruited by the thirteenth Baron Zemo for his villain team Masters of Evil, which invaded the Avengers mansion before being fought back. Josten, his powers interfering with his brain's chemistry, was becoming truly irrational over time. He insanely attacked the Avenger Wonder Man out of warped sense of jealousy but was defeated.

Josten was abducted by aliens of the extradimensional Kosmos, from which stemmed the source of his size-changing powers. He was tortured there for an undefined period before being rescued by Baron Zemo, who was building another Masters of Evil. With the help of Zemo's associate, the Fixer, Josten's body was purged of the Pym Particles, which had reacted negatively with his ionically-charged body to produce a mental strain. Josten's powers currently stem from his ionic treatments alone.

In gratitude, Josten offered Zemo his undying loyalty, and assumed the identity of Atlas when Zemo created the Thunderbolts, masquerading as heroes in order to carry out Zemo's plans of world domination. During his time as a Thunderbolt, Josten had developed a relationship with the mayoral assistant Dallas Riordan, but when Zemo's true plans were revealed, Riordan rejected Josten. Against his loyalties, Josten ultimately betrayed Zemo with the other Thunderbolts and saved the world.

On the run from the law, Josten returned to his home and discovered his family had been reduced to ruin in part from his publicly known villainous activities. Josten continued to adventure with the Thunderbolts, trying to atone for his villainous past by becoming a true super hero.

Later, however, he was kidnapped and controlled by Count Nefaria, who had found that he could mentally dominate people such as Josten who were powered by ionic energy. Wholly transformed into a being of ionic energy by Nefaria, Josten fought the Avengers and the Thunderbolts before the two teams united to defeat Nefaria. Josten's body was unaccustomed to the stresses that were unleashed by Nefaria's manipulation and was forced to be hospitalized. Josten then became the target of the latest Scourge (a.k.a. Nomad) who was hunting down and killing various members of the Thunderbolts. Josten was forced to fight Scourge, but his powers over-extended, threatening to destroy the immediate area. Scourge helped confine Josten with the help of size-altering Pym Particles, but Josten had perished in the explosion.

However, since Josten was by this time a being comprised of ionic energy, he in fact did not die. His ionic essence was able to seek out Dallas Riordan, contacting her through their mutual love. With Riordan's help, Josten could suffuse her being with his energy, allowing Josten to share her body. When Josten is in control of her body, Riordan appears as a fully-charged ionic being.

Josten was thus ablt to return to the Thunderbolts in their latest attempt to stop the villain Graviton, a battle which sparked an alien invasion. Ultimately, Josten/Riordan and the rest of the Thunderbolts were shunted by Graviton to the world of Counter-Earth after he closed the aliens' dimensional portal, and the team embarked on a plan to return to their native Earth.