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Porcupine

Porcupine

26 appearances · Silver Age · 1963–2021 · 2 key issues
Who is Porcupine?

Alexander Gentry was a weapons designer who built an advanced suit of armor studded with quills capable of firing a variety of projectiles and chemicals. Deciding his invention was worth more as a criminal tool than a government contract, he became the mercenary villain Porcupine.

Porcupine is one of those wonderfully quirky Silver Age Marvel villains who crawled out of the early 1960s imagination of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, debuting in Tales to Astonish #48 in 1963 — right in the thick of Marvel's most creatively explosive era. Over a surprisingly long publishing history stretching nearly six decades, this spiky troublemaker has turned up across The X-Men, Tales to Astonish, and Captain America, sharing pages with heavy-hitters like Beast, Hank McCoy, and Steve Rogers himself. With two key-issue appearances flagged by collectors and a legacy that outlasted most of his contemporaries, Porcupine is exactly the kind of deep-cut Marvel character that rewards the curious fan who digs past the A-list.

Identity

Real name. Alexander Gentry

Powers. Gentry was a reasonably talented weapons designer.

Teams & affiliations
X-MenAvengers
★ First appearance
Tales to Astonish #48
Oct 1963

Top series

Covers through the years — 1963–2018

Tales to Astonish #48 1963
Tales to Astonish #48
X-Men Annual #2 1971
X-Men Annual #2
Iron Man #44 1972
Iron Man #44
The Defenders #64 1978
The Defenders #64
The X-Men #138 1980
The X-Men #138
Captain America #315 1986
Captain America #315
The Avengers: The Korvac Saga #[nn] 1991
The Avengers: The Korvac Saga #[nn]
Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men #7 2008
Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men #7
Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #3 2018
Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #3

Appearances

Tales to Astonish (1959)
The X-Men (1963)
X-Men Annual (1970)
#2
Iron Man (1968)
#44
The Avengers (1963)
The Defenders (1972)
#64
Hulk Comic (1979)
#29
Marvel Age Annual (1985)
#1
Captain America (1968)
Classic X-Men (1986)
#2
Captain America [Shan-Lon] (1990)
The Avengers: The Korvac Saga (1991)
Wizard Ace Edition: Uncanny X-Men #94 (2002)
Avengers Legends (2002)
#2
Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle (2008)
Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men (2003)
#7
Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man (2006)
#3
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders (2008)
#7
Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange (2003)
#10
Captain Britain Omnibus (2021)