Elf with a Gun

Few characters carry a name as gloriously unambiguous as Elf with a Gun — and this Marvel oddity, debuting in The Savage Dragon / Destroyer Duck #1 in 1996 courtesy of Steve Gerber and Chris Marrinan, delivers exactly what it promises. A product of the Copper/Modern Age, this delightfully absurdist figure turns up in rarefied company — sharing pages with none other than Spider-Man himself in Spider-Man Team-Up — and has earned enough cult recognition to land a key-issue appearance and a spot in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z. With only a handful of catalog appearances, this is precisely the kind of wonderfully weird corner of the Marvel universe that rewards the curious collector who digs past the blockbusters.