The Golem is the name of a number of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. These include:
The Golem first appeared in Strange Tales #174 (June 1974), and was created by Len Wein and John Buscema.
The character also appears in Strange Tales #176-177 (October, December 1974), Marvel Two-in-One #11 (September 1975), The Hood #3 (September 2002), #5-6 (November–December 2002), and Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #2 (February 2006).
Golem is a humanoid creature that was made in the 16th century by Judah Loew Ben Bezalel. It was made from purple stone or clay and protected the Jewish people from persecutors in Prague. In later years it was reanimated by Professor Abraham Adamson’s life force as Adamson died.[volume & issue needed]
Golem later became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Howling Commandos Monster Force.[volume & issue needed]
Golem is 8 ft (2.4 m) tall and has superhuman strength which it draws from the land as long as it is in contact with the Earth.
This character first appeared in Invaders #12 (January 1977) as Goldstein, and was created by Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins and Frank Springer; he appeared in Invaders #13 (February 1977) as Golem.
The character subsequently appears in The Invaders #2-4 (June–August 1993).
Jacob Goldstein, the brother of the Blue Bullet, was a resident of the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw, Poland, during World War II. He mystically transformed himself into a Golem in order to fight the Nazis. He assisted the Invaders when his brother was kidnapped by Doctor Death.[volume & issue needed]
In Golem form, Jacob was a hulky humanoid of 3 m (9.8 ft) in height. His skin was hard as stone, giving him a good degree of invulnerability. His strength was greater than Captain America's but less than Namor's.
Dennis Golembuski was the grandson of a Polish freedom fighter who immigrated to America. Dennis may or may not have killed a man at the age of eight. He spent some time working as an underboss for Kingpin, but he quit. He began to work for a mysterious new master.[volume & issue needed]
Later he had Mosh brought to him for robbing a liquor store under his "protection". Mosh refused to hand over a percentage of his take from the robbery. So Golem and his assistant Madame Rapier kill Mosh. He recruited the Constrictor, Shocker and Jack O'Lantern to help protect a batch of "bloodstones". After the Hood arrived and stole half the diamonds, he gave Madam Rapier a list of pawn shops for them to scout, in case Hood tried to sell them. Hood arrived at the Golem's office and asking for a cut of the diamonds if he returned the rest undamaged. Golem agreed, but after the Hood left, told Rapier to kill the thief at their rendezvous.[volume & issue needed]
After the Hood double-crossed Rapier, knowing she planned to double-cross him, she was killed in a hail of police gunfire. The Hood confronted Jack O'Lantern and the other super villains. He handed the diamonds over to them, telling them to tell Golem to just leave him alone. After they reported back to him, he promised that nothing was ended between him and the Hood.[volume & issue needed]
Dennis apparently possesses no powers beyond those of a normal man his age.
The Golem was ranked #26 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters in 2015.[2]
This Golem was infused with compelling Jewish lore and really captured the ancient feel of the Hebrew legend.