He only appeared in three Defenders issues, while the original character started in the pages of Man-Thing. Gerber who created the first incarnation, then introduced Salinger in Omega the Unknown #9, after a cameo in the previous issue (written by Stern). BTW, he used Salinger for the first time in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (1977) #58, and by then, Stern had already recycled Cobra (from Thor, Daredevil and Captain America fame), Power Man (Avengers), Gideon Mace (Luke Cage), Nitro (Captain Marvel), Jack O'Lantern (Machine Man) and Killer Shrike (Hulk). So not quite the first Marvel-wide villain he used.
And i we go by number of appearances, he'd be a Deadpool villain.