Power Man

Power Man, born Erik Josten, is a mercenary and villain who has superhuman strength thanks to a scientific process involving ionic rays. Josten had been a loyal underling to Baron Zemo prior to Zemo's death, and gained his superpowers thanks to Zemo's confidante in the Masters of Evil, the Enchantress.

Biography

The creation of Power Man

In the early 1960s, Erik Josten was a wanted international smuggler, who joined the villainous efforts of Baron Zemo to evade the authorities. In 1965, Zemo was killed fighting the Avengers with his Masters of Evil, leaving the various "soldiers of fortune" that he employed to seek new opportunities. Josten was left behind in Zemo's Amazon hideaway, nursing a severely injured leg and still fearing police reprisal if he should leave. The solution to this problem lay buried beneath a huge pile of rubble: a laboratory containing a complex energy-beam mechanism that Zemo had used to "create" the virtually invincible (but now dead) Wonder Man. Josten was not scientifically inclined however, and had no idea how to operate the machine. As if on cue, the Enchantress, an Asgardian sorceress and member of the largely defunct Masters of Evil, arrived and offered to do it for him. He agreed, and Enchantress put him through the machine. When the process was done, Josten's leg was healed, and he felt a great deal of strength flowing through him. Enchantress wanted him to be a "living symbol of the Masters of Evil," and supplied him with an appropriate dark-red costume. She dubbed him "Power Man," an appropriate successor to Wonder Man—and a preferable replacement to her usual brawny counterpart, the Executioner, whom she called a fool. Power Man was less than thrilled about having a gimmick, but his newfound power and Enchantress's wiles were more than enough to sway him.

The Enchantress's plan was to defeat the Avengers not by beating them in combat, but by discrediting them in the public eye. First, she conjured an image of a huge beast in the streets that only the Avengers could see. Their attacks went right through the illusion, and they wound up doing a great deal of damage to the surrounding area, much to the displeasure of the police. Next, she arranged a plot to trick the Avengers into destroying a subway train. She and Power Man sent a radio message to the Avengers warning them that someone was tampering with the subway tracks, and the heroes arrived soon after. The super-fast Quicksilver arrived first, and Power Man knocked him out from behind and laid him across the train tracks. The others—Captain America, Hawkeye, and Quicksilver's sister Scarlet Witch—arrived moments later as the train came from the other direction. Enchantress ensured that the train was empty, which allowed Hawkeye to destroy it with an explosive arrow before it could hit Quicksilver. The authorities again blamed the Avengers for the extensive property damage. Next, Power Man beat up a pair of thieves disguised as guards, who were trying to escape from an office building with important confidential documents. Enchantress, hiding in the bushes, used a light persuasion spell to get Captain America to come, and he saw Power Man beating up the uniformed men. He attacked, but Power Man and Enchantress overpowered him. When the businesspeople from the office arrived, it looked as though Power Man had saved the day in spite of Captain America. When news about this event was printed in the newspaper the following day, Enchantress used her influence to print the address of a mansion where she and Power Man were staying. As expected, some of the Avengers came to investigate: Hawkeye and Quicksilver came in turn, and the evil duo defeated them both. Scarlet Witch arrived soon after, and Power Man had all three arrested for trespassing. The next day, the New York city council declared the Avengers a public menace and issued a court order demanding their dissolution. Enchantress's intricate plot seemed to have worked.

Enchantress and Power Man hid out in an apartment while the Avengers disbanded. One day, they were visited by a man with a briefcase claiming to be a representative of sorts. He suggested that they should recreate the Avengers in their image. He bragged about having been responsible for breaking up the Avengers, which drew Power Man's ire. He assured the man that he and Enchantress had been responsible for framing the Avengers' downfall, giving away an incriminating amount of detail. Enchantress detected that something was wrong, and the man revealed himself to be Captain America in an elaborate disguise, running a tape recorder in his briefcase. He pocketed the tape of evidence and fought Power Man while Enchantress stood back, curious to see how her charge could handle a fight on his own. Cap's skill and wits proved formidable, but Power Man got the better of him after a while. The other Avengers arrived thanks to Captain America accidentally activating a fluke distress signal, and Hawkeye incapacitated Enchantress with a sleep arrow. The three fought Power Man while Cap handed off the recording to the police nearby. He returned and told Power Man that his time was up. Enchantress recovered and cut all ties with Power Man, expressing her disappointment in his failure and warping away. Power Man was distraught and aimless without her guidance, and posed no threat to the Avengers. He wasn't charged, as he hadn't actually committed any provable crimes.