TALIA KRUMA
Real Name: Talia Kruma
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Engineer, architect, designer
Group Membership: Starcore One crew (Dr. Peter Corbeau, Dmitri, Alexander Hilary, Col. Mikhail Kutuzov, others); formerly Whiz Kids, Avengers Support Crew
Affiliations: Dr. Stephen Beckley, Bill Foster, Tony Stark, the Thing (Ben Grimm)
Enemies: Atom Smasher (Ronald English), Atom Smasher (Michael English), Hijacker, Vulcan and his henchmen
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
formerly Starcore One, orbiting the sun slightly outside
Mercury's orbit;
formerly Project: PEGASUS, upstate New York;
formerly Stark West, Los Angeles, USA
First Appearance: Black Goliath#1 (February, 1976)
Powers/Abilities: No super-powers. Talia Kruma was a highly skilled engineer.
History: (Black Goliath#2 (fb) - BTS) - Talia Kruma took a Ph.D. in engineering, she was a genius, also an architect and ad designer.
(Black Goliath#3 (fb)) - Talia Kruma and her lover Neil, took a holiday at Bangkok. They were involved in a shooting in the jungle. Scared, Talia fled leaving Neil behind, presumably dead. This event made her a very closed and introverted person.
(Black Goliath#1 (fb) - BTS) - Herbert Bell, Talia Kruma and
Dale West were employed by Bill Foster to work for the Stark West
International.
One of the projects built was a personal force-field which had been to be worn by the Police Forces.
The three scientists worked hard on the project, with some difficulties and some
accidents on the work which Talia ascribed to West.
(Black Goliath#1) - Bill Foster attended to a demonstration about the first prototype of force-field jacket. Bell and Kruma demonstrated that the force-field was still unstable.
(Black Goliath#2) - Bill Foster asked to his three assistants to create a sensor to track the radiations emitted by Atom Smasher (Ronald English). Talia was distracted, still thinking about Neil. West urged on Kruma, and the three scientists succeeded in building the device for Foster.
(Black Goliath#3) - Playing with Talia, Dale West kissed her, but she slapped him and went away. In the underground parking she cried after having recalled the tragedy in Bangkok. But the Research Centre was attacked by Vulcan and his henchmen. The masked men hit Talia. Bell managed to call the Police. Vulcan stole the box containing the Null-Life Bomb from the Laboratory, but Black Goliath stopped the criminals.
(Black Goliath#4 (fb)) - The three scientists were surprised to hear Foster's plan of abandoning the Centre after a squabble with Tony Stark about the box's theft.
(Marvel Two-in-One#24) - Foster and his assistants created a space suit for the exploration of the surface of Venus. During the test, Hijacker attacked the Centre to steal Stark's prototypes and projects. The criminal gassed the scientists, but was stopped and captured by Thing and Black Goliath.
(Marvel Two-in-One#85) - At Stark West, the Whiz Kids received
the visit of Bill Foster and Ben Grimm.
Shortly later the Atom Smasher (Michael English) and his men looted the Stark
West warehouse, Ben Grimm tried to stop them but the criminal stunned him. The
scientists helped Grimm. After examining the list of the stolen components, the
Whiz Kids guessed that Atom Smasher wanted to build a bomb.
Spider Woman donated her blood to cure Bill Foster from his radiation poisoning,
the Whiz Kids visited Foster to the hospital, hoping that the scientist will go
back to Stark-West.
(X-Men: The Return) - It was May and Colonel Mikhail Kutuzov was involved in a conversation with Colonel Mikhail Kutuzov and Dr. Peter Corbeau and Dr. Stephen Beckley; Beckley wanted use of the array for his work on the Edmund Project. Kutuzov pointed out that Beckley's presence was only a courtesy to NASA and refused the permission. They were interrupted by Talia Kruma and Alexander Hilary, who alerted them that an alien ship had emerged from behind the sun and was on course for Earth.
(Marvel Year-In-Review 1989, p25) - Now employed by Project: PEGASUS, Talia Kruma was interviewed by reporter Michael Ellis regarding Quasar's Quantum Bands. She theorized that they were terrestrial in origin (though she hypothesized the same thing about Thor's hammer).
(Avengers I#300/3 - BTS) - Captain America and Jarvis planned to hire Talia as full-time physicist for the Avengers.
(Quasar#32) - Now working aboard the Starcore manned satellite, Talia met with Quasar and told him that she believed the recent use of a Shi'ar stargate had been affecting Earth's sun, causing an increase in solar flares. Quasar offered to take the crew back to Earth to protect them (they refused, wishing to continue their work) or to tow Starcore to a safer location (they refused, because they'd have to recalibrate all of their equipment). He gave them a special frequency they could use if they needed to contact him. Talia agreed to contact him if they needed his help.
(Avengers I#345 (fb) - BTS) - A sudden solar flare erupted; Starcore had no time to engage their thrusters, and the satellite was badly damaged. The crew sent out a distress message and boarded their lifepod.
(Avengers I#345) - Quasar tracked down the lifepod and led, Sersi, Thor, and the Vision to its rescue. Just then, another wormhole formed, and a Shi'ar armada passed through; the lifepod was rocked by the resultant energies unleashed. Manipulated by the disguised Imperial Guardsman Hobgoblin, the Shi'ar fired on the Avengers who overpowered them and brought the conflict to an end.
Comments: Created by Tony Isabella (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks).
I'm sure that Claremont wanted to tell something more about the accident at Bangkok, and I'm also sure that Neil wasn't dead, but Black Goliath series was cancelled before Chris could do it. If Chris would use Neil again, it could become the longest sub-plot Claremont ever wrote!--Spidermay
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Talia Kruma has no known connections to any other "Talia" character or
with a similar name.
Images:
Black Goliath#2, p10, pan1 (full body)
Black Goliath#2, p10, pan3 (head shot)
Appearances:
Black Goliath#2 (April, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer),
George Tuska (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker)
Black Goliath#3 (June, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), George Tuska
(penciler), Vince Colletta (inker)
Black Goliath#4 (August, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), Rick Buckler/Don Heck
(artists)
Marvel Two-in-One#24 (February, 1977) - Bill Mantlo/Jim Shooter (story), Sal
Buscema (pencils), Pablo Marcos (inks)
Marvel Two-in-One#85 (March, 1982) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Wilson (pencils),
Chic Stone (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Avengers I#300 (February, 1989) - Kieron Dwyer (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Quasar#32 (March, 1992) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Harry
Candelario (inker), Kelly Corvese (editor)
Avengers I#345 (March, 1992) - Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Tom
Palmer (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
X-Men: The Return (April, 2007) - Chris Roberson (author)
First Posted: 12/03/2006
Last updated: 09/29/2013
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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