Count Julio Scarlotti

Few characters can claim a debut as storied as Count Julio Scarlotti's — launched in the very first issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD in 1968, courtesy of the legendary Jim Steranko at the height of the Silver Age. That's rarefied company: sharing pages with Nick Fury himself, the Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Dum Dum Dugan, and the enigmatic Scorpio across Marvel's sleekest, most stylistically daring spy series of the era. His appearances stretch across some fifteen years and turn up in corners of the Marvel universe as varied as Sinister Tales, making him a quietly persistent figure in the shadow world Fury inhabits. Rare in the catalog and rooted in one of comics' most collectible debut issues, Count Scarlotti is exactly the kind of discovery that reminds you why digging deep into Silver Age Marvel is always worth it.