Edward "Papa" Costra

Edward "Papa" Costra made his entrance in the very first issue of Countdown back in 1971, a Bronze Age debut that put him right at the ground floor of Polystyle Publications' action-packed anthology. With only a handful of catalog appearances, he's a rare find — the kind of character that serious collectors of British comics love to track down. Sharing pages with the likes of Captain Scarlet, Jeff Tracy, and Captain Blue, he kept genuinely iconic company in that debut run, making those early Countdown issues a fascinating snapshot of the era's bold storytelling ambitions.