After Zemo's death, Josten is convinced by the Enchantress to undergo the same 'ionic-ray' treatment (from a machine invented by Zemo) as Simon Williams (Wonder Man), making Josten super-strong (though not as strong as Wonder Man since the treatment was specifically calibrated to Williams and the Enchantress wasn't aware it had to be tailored to the subject).

[14] Later, he gains the ability to grow to giant size from Karl Malus using a sample of Hank Pym's growth serum.

Under the leadership of the Grim Reaper, Goliath again battles the West Coast Avengers alongside Man-Ape, Nekra and Ultron.

During his time with this group, Josten is one of the villains who invades and captures Avengers Mansion and beats Hercules severely.

[26] When Zemo later decides to disguise the Masters of Evil as a superhero team called the Thunderbolts, Josten creates the original identity (and costume) of "Atlas".

[33] When they are separated upon returning from Counter-Earth, Dallas takes the ionic energy, leaving Josten powerless, a situation which lasts until Fixer gives him a new dose of Pym particles.

[34] This lasts until the end of the Avengers/Thunderbolts limited series, when Erik asks Hank Pym to remove the particles from his system.

[36] Altered again by the Wellspring, during a battle against the Grandmaster in which he has to surrender his powers temporarily to Zemo, he is left stuck in a giant form, too heavy even to move and communicate.

[41] Following the Pleasant Hill incident, Atlas joined Winter Soldier's incarnation of the Thunderbolts to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D.

[44] In the Secret Empire storyline, Atlas, Moonstone, and Fixer eventually defect to the Masters of Evil after Helmut Zemo uses Kobik's abilities to send Winter Soldier back in time.

[46] Similarly to Wonder Man and Count Nefaria, Erik Josten is a virtually indestructible immortal made of "ionic energy", as a result of the application of mutagenic processes developed by Heinrich Zemo.

[50] Josten psionically draws the additional mass from an extra-dimensional source of "Cosmos", to which it returns as he decreases in size.

Encased in an extra dimension, and hundreds of miles tall, he was saved by the 100-foot Giant Man (Hank Pym) and was returned to normal size and in a coma.

[54] After Nefaria had consolidated his ionic energy to be predominant, Eric gained access to the fullest effect of his latent abilities.

[55] As his ionic force meshes with the growth particles in his system; Goliath also has access to certain abilities which Simon and Nefaria do not have, such as extra-dimensional breech generation, which can be turned against him if he grows too large or has his energy polarity shifted.

[61] Even while separated from her, Eric could still bestow on Riorden some of his ionic energy, giving her both mobility and slightly enhanced conditioning back.

Conrad was inducted into the Redeemers and took Erik's previous codename Smuggler and was given a suit that allowed him to access the darkforce dimension.

[66] Years later Zemo coerced Erik into betraying the Thunderbolts by offering to save Conrad from the darkforce dimension.

He ran away from home after his sister's death and joined the military, then he went AWOL and became a smuggler and later a mercenary working for Heinrich Zemo.

Instances of this include: when he knew Man Killer was pretending to be a bartender while she was lying low from the law;[73] not telling the team about saving Zemo;[71] refusing to tell the Thunderbolts about Techno being in Burton Canyon;[74] betraying his team to save his brother;[67] and "killing" Genis to prevent him from disrupting Abe and Melissa's relationship because he feared it would screw up Abe's reconstitution of the Thunderbolts.

[76] Atlas appears alongside the Thunderbolts in the Dead Days one-shot of the Marvel Zombies miniseries attacking Thor.

[volume & issue needed] Erik Josten appears in Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #20 as Hank Pym's research assistant.

[77] In the House of M reality, Power Man is part of a non-mutant supervillain team made up of the Vulture and Stilt-Man.