Tom Foster

Origin

As the nephew of Bill Foster, Tom comes from a very driven and academic family, populated by Doctors and Attorneys. After the death of his Uncle, Tom met and vowed to the Black Panther that he would break the Pym Particles Formula, and when he did, the Pro-Registration side would pay.

Creation

Tom Foster was created by Reginald Hudlin and Koi Turnbull and first appeared in Black Panther Vol.3 issue 23 (2007).

Major Story Arcs

World War Hulk

Tom was next seen during the event known as World War Hulk, where encountered the heroes Hercules, Angel, Namora and Amadeus Cho. These four heroes wanted to help the Hulk, feeling he had been treated poorly by the heroes he fought with. Tom followed them for a brief period, witnessing the Hulk beating Hercules as he tried to tell his old friend they wanted to help. Tom went on to testify on the side of the Hulk, during the gladiatorial battles, where the Hulk pitted the Illuminati against each other.

At the end of the War, Tom was caught up in the aftermath, infiltrating his way into the labs of the Avengers Mansion, and using a third generation particle accelerator to finally perfect the Pym Particle serum, allowing him to grow to a huge size. Siding with the refugees from Planet Skaar, he attacked Iron Man. Iron Man made short work of Tom, untrained as he was, and set off to complete his mission. It was at this point Tom witnessed the two factions of aliens, the Red Skinned people of Skaar and the Insectoids, battling against each other. He tried to prevent them from killing each other, but ended up being hurt by their advanced weaponry. It wasn’t until Elloe, made them all warbound by impaling herself on both of their weapons, that the fighting stopped.

Damage Control

Tom, ashamed by his actions brought the dead to Tony Stark before turning his attention to rebuilding the City. Tom then tried to join Damage Control, and after some initial difficulties, he was allowed to join. Along with many other heroes, he assisted in rebuilding the city, along with battling the Thunderbolts, and calming a now sentient Chrysler Building.

Black Goliath recently joined Wonder Man’s team, the Revengers. Wonder Man came to the notion that the Avengers cause more harm than good, thus he put together a team to take the Avengers out of commission. They successfully invaded Avenger’s Mansion and defeated them. However, the Avengers retaliated and defeated the Revengers.

War of the Realms

When Malekith leads an army made up of soldiers from all the different realms to take Midgard, Freya rallies the heroes of Earth to fight back. The Frost Giants are able to take over Florida, so Freya enlists Tom for a group of Giant Men (the new Giant Man, Atlas, and leader Scott Lang) into enemy territory, disguised as Frost Giants, and defeat Ymir, the father of the Frost Giants. Tom joins even though he is insecure about having the weakest size powers.

It turns out Moonstone had enslaved a number of Florida women into handmaidens so she could torture and take advantage of Ymir. They have been carving pieces off his frozen body to create new Frost Giants in exchange for being left alone in the new world order. Just then one of the handmaidens reveals herself to be Cassie in her Stinger gear ready to liberate the rest of the slaves.

Together, they convince Moonstone to end her madness, but as they discus how to finish off Ymir, Raz makes an executive decision to let him go. He was a victim of Moonstone and left the realm without argument.

Other Versions

What If…?

What if Iron Man died instead of Captain America?

An unexplained alteration in this realities past averts the assassination of Captain America altogether. One day however as Tony Stark is about to head home from one of Captain America’s hearings he is approached by an enraged Tom Foster who blames Tony for the death of his Uncle and is obviously furious over Captain America’s inevitable imprisonment. The two quickly get into a heated argument with Tony trying to calm Tom down but in the end everything goes horribly awry as Tom activates the stolen Pym Particles in his system and grows his body to massive proportions. Without even realizing that he has grown Tom plows his fists into Tony several times before stopping to realize that something is amiss. Horrified by his actions Tom allows himself to be taken into custody and is sent to Negative Zone Prison Alpha.