Tom Lightner

Tom Lightner stepped onto the Marvel stage in 1978, a genuine Bronze Age creation born from the collaborative talents of Ralph Macchio, Sal Buscema, and Alfredo Alcala in the pages of Marvel Two-in-One — one of that era's most eclectic team-up titles. With a compact but collector-notable footprint, two of his four catalogued appearances carry key-issue status, which is a remarkable ratio that makes tracking down his handful of comics genuinely rewarding. He shares those pages with some wonderfully varied Bronze Age company — the ever-lovable Thing, the tragic Deathlok, the cosmic Wundarr, and the rising Quasar — placing him squarely in the thick of Marvel's most inventive storytelling period. A short run, yes, but Marvel Two-in-One had a knack for launching characters who linger in the memory, and Tom Lightner is a fine reason to dig through the long boxes.