JOE GOLIATH

Real Name: Joe Morgan

Identity/Class: Human (Old West era)

Occupation: Blacksmith;
   former boxer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Formerly "Blue", Luke, "Walt", "Wes" (see comments)

Enemies: Formerly Boom-Boom Brown, Two-Gun Kid (Matt Hawk)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Goosebend, Arizona (see comments)

First Appearance: Two-Gun Kid I#79 (January 1966)

Powers/Abilities: Joe Goliath possessed low level superhuman strength, able to lift an estimated 1500 lbs. or more (see comments). He was also fairly tough, able to take a normal man's punches without much effect. He was a capable bare-knuckle boxer, but relied on his size and strength rather than skill.

 

Height: 7'2" (by estimation) (see comments)
Weight: 350 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

 

History:
(Two-Gun Kid#79 (fb) - BTS) - Joe Morgan was a giant of a man who lived in Goosebend, Arizona. He'd been a blacksmith all his life (see comments).

 

(Two-Gun Kid#79) - When a wagon toppled trapping a man beneath it the locals called on Joe for assistance. He raised the vehicle off the man with ease, unaware his feat was being witnessed by the unscrupulous river rat Luke and his three pals from their vantage point in the local jail, there for a few days after a run-in with the Two-Gun Kid. Once released the group visited Joe's smithy and tried to convince him to become a boxer under their management. At first Joe was hesitant, admitting the idea sounded interesting but reluctant to abandon the only career he had ever known. However Luke told Joe that he was wasting his natural talent pounding anvil for minimum financial reward, saying he could become rich if he tried his hand at fighting instead. Luke's promise to train and manage Joe and split the money made fifty-fifty finally convinced the blacksmith. Another of Luke's gang, "Walt," pointed out that he needed a more impressive name than Joe Morgan, suggesting they name him after a giant, so Luke came up with the moniker "Joe Goliath."

   With Joe now literally on board the group set off along the river while he trained, unaware that they intended to use his fights as decoys for robberies wherever they stopped. Joe declined a punching bag, opting instead to punch wooden logs, and determined to out-do famous boxer John L. Sullivan he sparred with both "Walt" and "Wes" simultaneously. Soon after, when Luke determined that Joe's training was complete, he began his boxing career. Luke offered fifty dollars to any man who could last more than a minute in the ring with Joe. Many took up the challenge, but nobody prevailed. And in each new town Luke and his gang robbed banks and other stores while Joe was in the ring, keeping the locals distracted.

   Learning that a large amount of cash had been recently deposited in the Tombstone bank, Luke decided to make that their next stop. There, as before, Luke galvanized the locals to build interest in the fight, and hyped up Joe's status as a fighter, deliberately claiming Joe was seven times stronger than the Two-Gun Kid in the hope of luring the gunslinger to face Joe in the ring. To demonstrate Joe's strength, Luke had him bend an iron crowbar with his bare hands. However, rather than the Kid, Luke's boasts and Joe's exhibition got the attention of Boom-Boom Brown, a man almost as big as Joe and a trained prize-fighter to boot. A friend of Two-Gun Kid and one of the few who knew the gunslinger's true identity, he publicly challenged Joe to a match. Seeing the immense Boom-Boom, Luke decided he didn't want to pit Joe against him, but knew he couldn't back down in front of the crowd. Joe on the other hand was cocky about his chances, having never yet faced anyone who could match him. Luke and his gang however were unwilling to leave anything to chance, so without Joe's knowledge they made plans to slip Boom-Boom knockout drops.

   A few hours later the match began in a local barn. Still overconfident, Joe started strongly, catching his opponent off guard and landing a couple of glancing blows to Boom-Boom's face. Boom-Boom realized that if the second blow had been more accurate it would have knocked him out, but also that his rival was inexperienced as a boxer. Now having Joe's measure, Boom-Boom landed a solid strike to Joe's head that sent the man reeling, but the round ended before he could follow through. During the intermission Luke gave Boom-Boom some drugged water to drink, and when the second round began it slowly took effect. Joe remained confident, but Boom-Boom began landing blow after punishing blow on Joe, who was not used to well-placed punches, still less from someone close to his own strength. A couple more hits from Boom-Boom would have finished Joe, but the drugs finally took their toll, and to Joe's surprise his opponent keeled over unconscious without Joe having hit him once this round.

   Having been watching from a vantage point nearby, Two-Gun Kid realized his friend had been doped and jumped in the ring to take over the fight, relying on his speed to counter Joe's far greater strength. However even his blows direct to Joe's chin failed barely made the man blink. Hearing gunshots from the direction of the bank the Kid realized Luke's gang were up to mischief, but Joe refused to let him go without first finishing the match. With no time to waste, the Kid delivered an upward strike to Joe's chin with both fists together, stunning the man, then a final downward blow to the face that knocked Joe out.

   Later, after waking to learn that Luke's gang had been arrested for bank robbery a contrite Joe admitted to Boom-Boom and his friend Matt Hawk (secretly Two-Gun Kid) that the dreams of money and power had gone to his head, but they had gone now, and he had realized who he really was: Joe Morgan, a blacksmith. Apologizing for his actions, he departed Tombstone, presumably heading back to Goosebend. After he left Boom-Boom admitted Joe had been a strong scrapper, because otherwise he wouldn't have lasted long enough for the knockout drops to take Boom-Boom down.

Comments: Created by Larry Lieber, Dick Ayers and Carl Hubbell.

   How tall is Joe Goliath? He doesn't have any really good images where he's standing next to Two-Gun Kid, whose height we know (5'9") but he is noted by onlookers as being taller than Boom-Boom Brown, and he does seem to have a few inches on the prizefighter. In Boom-Boom's debut, Two-Gun Kid I#64, there's a really excellent panel for height comparison between Brown and the Kid, which shoes the Kid is only up to Brown's jugular notch (the point where the rib cage starts with that little v in the neck). That makes Boom-Boom around around 20% taller than Two-Gun, or around 7' tall.

   Joe lifts loaded prairie wagon off someone after it toppled on them. He not only does it with seeming ease, but he raises it until his hands are above his own head. Google informs me that such a wagon fully loaded would weight somewhere near 1.5 tons (3000 lbs.) or an unloaded one around 1300 lbs., and that raising an object by one edge while the other is on the ground is equivalent to a deadlift of around half the object's weight. Obviously there are variables that are hard to factor in - for example we saw that the wagon did have crates in it, but we don't know how how many or their weights, so the total weight might have lower than that maximum, but equally Joe didn't just slightly raise it with visible effort, but rather held it almost back to vertical with ease.

   Joe's story was reprinted in Two-Gun Kid I#114 with some minor coloring variations, such as Joe's boxing outfit having a red top.

   Luke's gang traveled along a river that was large enough to get hold a middling size boat, but also close enough to Tombstone to make it a viable destination. The trouble is that the nearest river to Tombstone is the San Pedro, which isn't large enough for most boats, and the nearest river which could accommodate boats is the Colorado, which is several hundred miles away.

   Luke's three pals never got named. For ease of reference, I'm calling them Blue (the one in the blue hat), Walt (the bearded one, because his facial hair and girth reminds me of Prince Vultan from Flash Gordon) and Wes (the Native American, after Wes Studi). 

   Goosebend isn't explicitly said to be in Arizona, but it's on the route Two-Gun takes from the "state capital" to Tombstone, so it's presumably the same state as the latter town. 

   Joe said he'd been a blacksmith all his life. Since it's unlikely he was blacksmithing while an infant or toddler, he presumably means all his working life, likely apprenticing to another blacksmith to learn his trade when he was entering his teens as was common in the era.

   This profile was completed on 08/29/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to represent Two-Gun Kid (Matt Hawk).

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Joe Goliath has no known connections to:

Luke and his gang

Luke and his friends ("Blue,", "Walt" and "Wes" - see comments) were river rats, moving up and down the river causing trouble whenever they stopped somewhere they reckoned the local law wouldn't be strong enough to stop them. When they arrived in Goosebend they drove out the customers already eating in the Waldorf Restaurant and demanded steak or they'd shoot the place up, unafraid because the local sheriff, Waco Smith, was an old man. Unfortunately for the roughs, Waco's friend Matt Hawk was passing through town, and in his guise as Two-Gun Kid he captured the gang. While spending a couple of nights in the Goosebend jail they witnessed the local blacksmith Joe Morgan lift up a toppled wagon, and Luke got an idea. Upon release they visited Morgan and convinced him to become a boxer under their management under the stage name of Joe Goliath. They traveled along the river from town to town, and in each new location they committed robberies while the townsfolk were all busy watching the boxing matches. Reading in the newspaper that Tombstone's bank had recently taken in a large deposit Luke decided to risk facing the Kid again, secretly hoping he could get a little revenge as a bonus by having Joe beat Two-Gun in the ring. When the prize-fighter Boom-Boom Brown challenged Joe, Luke was concerned that his fighter might have finally met someone who could defeat him, so he drugged Boom-Boom during the fight to ensure Joe's victory. When Two-Gun replaced the unconscious Boom-Boom, Luke's gang snuck off to rob the bank, but were interrupted first by Tombstone's sheriff Bret Barton and then by Two-Gun, who had defeated Joe in the ring. Stealing some horses, the gang fled into the hills with the gunslinger in pursuit. He shot the cinch strap of Blue's saddle, causing him to fall from his horse, then blasted the gun-hammer from Walt's pistol, disabling it. Wes and Luke tried to set an ambush, waiting for Two-Gun to follow them over a rise straight into their line of fire, but the Kid knew the area far better than they, and circled round behind them before roping them together. With all four now prisoners, Two-Gun Kid marched them back into Tombstone to face justice.

--Two-Gun Kid I#79

images: (without ads)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, p1, pan1 (main image)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, p8, pan4 (headshot)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, cover (bending steel bar)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, p12, pan2 (fighting Boom Boom)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, p7, pan5 (lifting wagon)
Two-Gun Kid I#79, p2, pan5 (Luke and his river rats)

Appearances:
Two-Gun Kid I#79 (January 1966) - Larry Lieber (writer), Dick Ayers (pencils), Carl Hubbell (inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First Posted: 09/01/2026
Last updated: 08/29/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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