Scourge

A member of Norman Osborn's black-ops Thunderbolts squad, Scourge operated in the morally ambiguous shadows of Marvel's Dark Reign era alongside operatives like Ghost and Paladin, carrying out missions too brutal or deniable for conventional heroes.

A creature of the Modern Age Marvel Universe, Scourge burst onto the scene in 2009's Thunderbolts #128, brought to life by the sharp creative pairing of Andy Diggle and Roberto de la Torre. With a relatively compact but intense publication window stretching into 2011, this is a character forged in the darker, more morally complicated corner of the Marvel landscape — sharing pages with the likes of Frank Simpson, Ghost, Paladin, and both incarnations of Ant-Man across Thunderbolts and the blockbuster Siege tie-ins. Nineteen appearances may sound modest, but in that tight run Scourge earns a place in some genuinely significant Modern Age storylines, making them a rewarding discovery for collectors who love digging into the grittier edges of Marvel's anti-hero era.