Griffin

Johnny Horton was a criminal who underwent illegal surgery to have the head of a griffin grafted onto his body and his hands replaced with lion's paws, granting him the ability to fly and giving him fearsome natural weapons. He emerged as the monstrous villain Griffin, clashing with the Beast in his earliest appearances.

Born in the pages of Amazing Adventures #15 in 1972, Griffin is a Bronze Age Marvel creation from the minds of Steve Englehart and Tom Sutton — a character who clawed his way into the Marvel Universe and kept a foothold there for nearly five decades. With 34 catalog appearances stretching from 1972 all the way to 2018, Griffin has proven a durable presence, turning up in series like Avengers: The Initiative, Dark Reign: The Hood, and The Champions, rubbing shoulders with heavy hitters like Captain America, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye along the way. That debut issue carries key-issue status for collectors, making it a genuine prize for anyone hunting Bronze Age gems. If you love the sprawling, wild-creature energy that Marvel's Bronze Age did so well, Griffin is a fascinating figure worth tracking down.