Number One

A mysterious Silver Age figure who stepped onto the Marvel stage in 1966 courtesy of the legendary trio of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Bill Everett, Number One has the rare distinction of debuting in Tales to Astonish — one of the era's most fertile proving grounds for Marvel's expanding universe. With Bruce Banner, Namor, and Rick Jones among the characters sharing those pages, this is a figure embedded in some seriously consequential Marvel real estate from the very start. Though appearances in the catalog are select rather than sprawling, the character's footprint stretches across more than five decades, resurfacing in collections like Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner and X-Men Legends — proof that even a quietly catalogued name from the Silver Age can have remarkable staying power for the dedicated hunter of Marvel history.