HUNGER
Real Name: Unrevealed (last name possibly Crown?; see comments)
Identity/Class: Human mutate;
formerly human cyborg
Occupation: Vampire;
formerly Hydra field agent
Group Membership: Agent of Stewart Ward
formerly Hydra
Affiliations: Vincente Fortunato, Edward Hardcastle, Dr. Andrea Janson, Lance & Troy, "masked goons", Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, T-Bone, "Vampire Mob", Stewart Ward
Enemies: Alan, Betty Brant, Blade (Eric
Brooks), Bulldog (Winston), Callisto, Marjory Fields, Hammerhead, Helen & Judy, Jeff & Melissa, Jimmy-6 (Giacomo Fortunato),
Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Dr. Sydney Lanning, Abby Levin, Marrow, Morbius,
Mutt, SHOC
(Todd Fields), SHOC ("William Fields"), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Mara Syal,
Flash Thompson, Union Jack (Joey Chapman), numerous unidentified victims;
formerly T-Bone
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Crown, "Mutant Madman", "Sewer Killer"
Base of Operations: Manchester Town Hall in Manchester in Manchester, England;
formerly an abandoned Roxxon plant on the Lower West Side of Manhattan;
formerly the sewers of New York City;
formerly a Hydra airship;
formerly the estate of Vincente Fortunato
First Appearance: (Crown) Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76
(January, 1997)
(Hunger) Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4 (April, 1999)
Powers/Abilities: Hunger can drink the blood of individuals, turning them into vampires under his control. His strength increases with every vampiric thrall he creates, but is pained and weakened when they are killed. He possesses sharp fangs and claws, superhuman strength, and can seemingly exhibit some control over bats. He can also convert himself into a glowing energy form, and manipulate energy to destroy objects or paralyze people.
He further changed at some point and now possesses a mass of writhing horror consisting of tentacles, claws, arms and sharp teeth in place of his lower body. His claws are now several inches long and dagger-like and he could easily impale someone with them and pick a person up with them. The reason behind this further mutation is unknown.
As Crown, he was bonded to living armor, just as both SHOCs were, although he never demonstrated the ability to materialize or dematerialize it as they could. He could access Darkforce energy, using it to enhance his strength and speed, fly, teleport, fire energy blasts, and to transform his hands into giant claws. He once wielded high-tech firearms, apparently powered by his own Darkforce energies.
History:
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80 - (fb)/Spider-Man:
Back in Black Handbook) - Years ago, the man called Crown worked alongside the
scientist behind Project SHOC (Sub-dimensional Human-based Occultechnic
Conduit), who bonded himself with Darkforce-powered armor to become SHOC.
When the scientist learned that his research and Crown were being backed by the
subversive Hydra organization, he disappeared.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76 - (fb)) - Years later, Crown (now bonded to armor similar to SHOC's) tracked down the scientist to the campus of Empire State University, where he had established the identity of "Professor William Fields". Arriving at his home on Christmas Eve, Crown slew Fields, but allowed his wife and son to escape. Before departing, he confronted the boy, Todd, and swore that they would meet again.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80 - (fb)) - Scientist Andrea Janson fell in love with Crown, and joined Hydra to try to stop his armor from killing him.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76) - Seven years after slaying
William Fields, Crown returned to ESU, and took Dr. Sydney Lanning and a room
full of scientists hostage in Research Building Number 3, aided by a group of
masked goons. Turning on an unstable energy generator built by Fields,
Crown demanded that Lanning hand over the generator and Fields' notes, or else
he would let the generator overload and explode, killing them all.
Ordering his men to kill two students (Peter Parker and Neil Aiken) who'd just
wandered in, Crown also killed a scientist who attempted to flee. Before
he could make any further demands, Spider-Man and a new SHOC (secretly "Neil
Aiken", who was actually Fields' son Todd living under an assumed name) burst
into the room and incapacitated Crown's thugs. Recognizing SHOC as a
different man than the one he knew, Crown grabbed both heroes as his hostages
fled. With the generator beyond the point of no return, Crown planned to
allow it to explode, bathing him in its energies and granting him phenomenal
power. Distracted by a face full of web-fluid, Crown released Spider-Man
and SHOC, who threw him and his goons into a spatial rift, allowing SHOC to
absorb the energy released by the exploding generator.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#79) - Crown journeyed to Janson's private island, where he embraced her and inspected her new experimental subject, Morbius. Taking his lover and the living vampire to the Staten Island mansion of Hydra's Maggia representative, Vincente Fortunato, he was given the secret identity of SHOC and sent to capture him. Intercepting Aiken and fellow ESU students Peter Parker and Abby Levin with a group of Hydra storm troopers, Crown threatened to kill Parker unless Aiken came with him. He teleported SHOC, Parker, and his troops back to Fortunato's residence, leaving Levin behind.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80) - Crown conferred with Fortunato and Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker on Janson's experiments on the captive SHOC. As Fortunato and Strucker left, Crown bade farewell to Janson before teleporting away. Returning shortly afterwards, Crown arrived to find SHOC missing and Dr. Janson slain. Swearing vengeance upon her killer Hammerhead, Crown took a Hydra airship to his apartment building, which also housed Parker, SHOC, and Morbius. As his men engaged in a brutal firefight with Hammerhead's fellow gangsters, Crown took on SHOC and prepared to overload his armor, killing them all. As he casually blew away Hammerhead, Darkforce energy began to destroy the building. He quickly struck down both SHOC and Spider-Man, but was prevented from finishing them off when Morbius attacked him. As they grappled, SHOC and Spider-Man sent Crown's energy field back to the Hydra ship. In the resulting explosion, the ship was destroyed, and both Crown and Morbius disappeared.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#8 - (fb)) - Crown was recovered and somehow transformed into the vampiric Hunger. He entered the service of sinister U.S. Senator Steward Ward, serving him in some capacity (see comments).
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4 - (fb)) - Living in the sewers
beneath New York City, Hunger began abducting citizens off the streets and
keeping them prisoner in a subterranean chamber. Among his victims were a
number of Morlocks, including their leader, Callisto.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4) - Hunger abducted Jeff, leaving his significant other Melissa catatonic with shock. When Bugle reporters Peter Parker and Betty Brant investigated the scene, he knocked Parker out and kidnapped Brant. Returning to the sewers as Spider-Man and joined by Marrow, the two discovered his cache of as-yet unharmed victims and soon confronted Hunger himself. Accompanied by a flock of bats, Hunger was dismayed to see his "cattle" escaping and vowed to slake his thirst on the two heroes instead. Grabbing them, he was confused when Spider-Man called him a "vampire", and let them go when he was attacked from behind by Flash Thompson, who had followed the web-slinger. Discarding Thompson and snatching Marrow once more, Hunger was denied a meal once more when Spider-Man pummeled him. His mind clouded, Hunger retreated, transforming into energy and blasting through the ceiling and into the sky, accompanied by his bats.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4 - BTS) - Hunger was re-apprehended and contained by agents of Stewart Ward.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7 - (fb)) - Hunger crashed a meeting between the Kingpin, Jimmy-Six, and a number of lower captains of Maggia families. Setting the building on fire, Hunger slew a number of the captains, but Fisk and Six escaped. Transforming a number of mobsters into his thralls, Hunger began damaging the operations of the Maggia.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7) - Blade, Spider-Man, and a gangster named Mutt tracked Hunger down to an abandoned Roxxon plant, destroying nearly all of his vampire gangsters along the way. Destroying the firearms of Mutt and Blade, Hunger used his energy powers to summon Spider-Man and Blade to him, where he planned to use them to replenish his vampire army. Before he could do so, Mutt slew T-Bone, Hunger's last remaining thrall. Weakened, Hunger fled.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#1 (fb) - BTS) - During the unending night Hunger took advantage of the situation and sired a horde of vampires in Manchester. He grew stronger with each person turned by him or one of the vampires he had created. The British superhero Bulldog was among those turned by Hunger while fighting against the vampires. Union Jack took him in and chained him to a bath filled with blood at Rusholme Hospital.
(Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#1 - BTS) - Union Jack saved PC Mara Syal, the graphic designer Alan, veterinary nurse Helen and her daughter Judy from Hunger's vampires in the streets of Manchester. He took them to his hideout at Rusholme Hospital, which was soon attacked by Hunger's vampires under the leadership of Edward Hardcastle, who had been turned into a vampire shortly before Union Jack was able to save Syal and her group of survivors.
(Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#2 - BTS) - Hunger telepathically ordered Hardcastle to take out Union Jack for the pain he had caused him by killing several of the vampires sired by Hunger. Union Jack, Syal, Alan and Helen try to fight off the vampires, but Alan got turned in the process. Union Jack and Syal were still fighting Hardcastle and the other vampires while Hunger telepathically tried to convince Bulldog to not listen to Union Jack's claim that he would try to cure Bulldog somehow. When Hardcastle attacked Union Jack from behind Bulldog killed him by ripping out his spine. Bulldog then offered Union Jack to help him find the vampire master that had turned him and all these other vampires.
(Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#3) - The vampirized Bulldog led Union Jack, PC Mara Syal, Judy and Helen to Manchester Town Hall were Hunger was hiding out. They were attacked by a horde of vampires created by Hunger and fled inside where they were already expected by Hunger. They shot him numerous times, but with all the vampires he had created he was far too powerful to die that easily. Syal wasn't so sure about Hunger's vast powers because he couldn't even control Bulldog, but as it turned out Bulldog was under his control all along and led them into this trap and now turned on them. Union Jack shot and stabbed Hunger, but it only got him impaled by Hunger's massive talons. Hunger gloated because Union Jack had believed that he had actually gotten to Bulldog. Syal shot Hunger, who dropped Union Jack and then sliced through Syal. Helen got turned into a vampire by Alan while Union Jack got turned by Bulldog, who got shot through the hand by Syal. Bulldog noticed that Hunger was affected by the shot through his hand and while Union Jack resisted Hunger's control and attacked him once again despite being one of his vampires, Bulldog asked Syal to kill him to weaken Hunger. Syal shot off Bulldog's head, which weakened Hunger long enough for Union Jack to stab Hunger in the head with a large knife. Hunger exploded in a ball of fire and everyone that had been turned by him or one of his vampires reverted back to their human forms except for Bulldog, who had sacrificed his life.
Comments: Created by Howard Mackie, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna.
Crown is really hard to find good pictures of. He's almost always shrouded in blackness - appropriate, I guess, what with the Darkforce powers and all.
After Crown and his goons get sucked through the portal to "where they came from" at the end of Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76, SHOC describes that place as "a place you don't want to ever see". This doesn't seem to jibe with the later revelation that Crown is a Hydra agent. I mean, it's not like Spider-Man hasn't been in a jillion Hydra bases. On the other hand, maybe the unspeakable horror stems from the fact that their battle took place on Hydra karaoke night - sure, you think Baron Strucker is evil now, but you haven't heard him belt out "99 Luftballons".
I have no friggin' idea what Ward was using Hunger for. He apparently used him to strike at the Mob, but Ward's agenda didn't really include ruling the underworld. Maybe he was trying to use Hunger as a vector for his Z'Nox plague?
And for that matter, I have no idea what the point of making Crown into Hunger was - or the point of Hunger himself, really. Mackie was clearly planning to do something with him, but in the next thirty-odd issues of Spider-Man he wrote, he was never touched on again.
References in the Spider-Man 2005 OHotMU and Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons, and Other Monstrosities confirm that Hunger is a scientifically-created pseudo-vampire, like Morbius, and not an actual supernatural vampire.
Thankfully, Hunger lost the side-ponytail after his first appearance. Man, that thing is lame.
To get this out of the way: Crown was never called Loxias in the comics! NEVER! He even insisted in his early appearances that he was just Mr. Crown. I checked! So where does the name Loxias come from? Apparently an early script for Sony's Morbius movie (what a Morbin masterpiece that turned out to be). And then the character's name was changed and in the end he was called Lucien for around 20 seconds in the actual movie before Michael Morbius just decided to call him Milo for the rest of the movie and Lucien just accepted it. Meanwhile people on the Internet just started adding the Loxias name, which Stuart (Loki) at the earliest could find in an article about this earlier script, to multiple websites and because nothing gets double-checked it can now be seen on every freaking Wiki and crowd-sourced website...including Marvel's own official website. I don't know when it was added to the latter or by whom, but I won't verify this obvious mistake on this website. Maybe the entry on Marvel's official website was done around the time the character in the Morbius movie was still supposed to be called Loxias Crown, but just because a character is named a certain way in a movie doesn't mean that the character has the same name in the comics. Carol Danvers's cat is named Chewbacca and not Goose in the comics, M.O.D.O.K. is not Darren Cross, Black Dwarf is a member of the Cull Obsidian (Black Order) and not named Cull Obsidian, and so on.
SO PROVE ME WRONG ABOUT THE LOXIAS NAME IF YOU CAN!
--Markus Raymond
Profile by Minor Irritant. Update by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Hunger, formerly Crown, has no known connections to
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76) - A group of non-powered goons in monster masks accompanied Crown when he invaded Dr. Lanning's lab. Although they were armed with Darkforce weapons similar to those wielded by Crown, Spider-Man and SHOC made short work of them. At the battle's conclusion, they were thrown into a dimensional rift, sending them back from whence they came...
These guys were presumably Hydra agents. Don't know what the deal with the monster costumes was.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76 (fb)) - Marjory Fields gave her late husband's notes to ESU professor Dr. Lanning.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76) - Having partially constructed a huge generator using Fields' research, Lanning and a group of his colleagues were held hostage by Crown and his masked goons. Crown forced Lanning to activate it, and demanded that he surrender the device and all of Fields' notes. When Spider-Man and SHOC burst in, Crown ordered his men to kill Lanning and the other hostages, but SHOC shielded them and absorbed the energy of the overloading generator.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80 - BTS) - Some time later, Lanning canceled his lecture, giving Peter Parker, Paul Stacy, and Neil Aiken the day off.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76 (Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76 (fb), 76, 80 (BTS))
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80) - Two of the Hydra agents who accompanied Hunger on his assault on Hammerhead's compound, they were ambushed, killed, and probably exsanguinated by Morbius.
Lance and Troy were trained Hydra agents, and wielded conventional firearms.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4) - While canoodling in the streets with his significant other Melissa, Jeff was grabbed and dragged into the sewers by Hunger. Melissa was left catatonic with shock. Jeff was presumably among those later rescued by Spider-Man and Marrow.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7 (fb)) - Mutt attended a meeting between Jimmy-6 and the Kingpin which was crashed by the vampiric Hunger.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7) - Low-level goons in the Fortunato crime family, Mutt and T-Bone were sent by Jimmy-6 to Cypress Hills Cemetery to retrieve a chest (which unbeknownst to them, contained the living vampire Morbius). They grabbed the chest and fought the vampire mobsters guarding it in a running battle that eventually took them to a convenience store. Once there, they were assisted by Spider-Man and Blade, but managed to lose both T-Bone and the chest to the vampire mobsters. Mutt, Spider-Man, and Blade followed the vampires to an abandoned Roxxon factory on Manhattan's Lower West Side, where they confronted Hunger. Mutt found T-Bone, who had become one of Hunger's vampiric thralls and tried to feed off Mutt. Mutt staked him instead, weakening Hunger, and fled.
T-Bone's the hefty guy on the left, Mutt's on the right.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7 (7 (fb), 7
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7) - A group of vampire mobsters was assigned to guard a chest containing Morbius at the Cypress Hills Cemetery. The chest was stolen from them by Jimmy-6's henchmen Mutt and T-Bone, and they followed them to a convenience store, where many of their number were slain by Blade. Despite this, they recovered the chest and turned T-Bone into one of their own. Retreating to Hunger's abandoned Roxxon plant, they battled Spider-Man, Blade, and Mutt, and were all subsequently destroyed, including T-Bone.
Hunger's vampire mobsters possessed superhuman strength, enhanced durability, and enlarged canine fangs, which they used to feed on the blood of humans. By doing so, they could convert that human into a pseudo-vampire like themselves. When staked through the heart, they crumbled into ash. Whether they shared any of the traditional weaknesses of supernatural vampires (daylight, garlic, religious symbols, etc.) is unknown.
--Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7
images: (without ads)
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#3, p4, pan1 (main)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4, p21, pan1 (Hunger headshot)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#79, p20, pan2 (Crown grabbing Parker)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80, p7, pan4 (Crown full body shot)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4, p17, pan4 (Hunger full body shot)
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#3, p18 (Hunger stabbed in the head)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76, p15, pan1 (masked goons)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76, p12, pan2 (Dr. Lanning)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#80, p18, pan3 (Lance & Troy)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4, p1, pan5 (Jeff & Melissa)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76, p5, pan4 (Mutt & T-Bone)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76, p5, pan1 (vampire Mob)
Appearances:
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#76 (January, 1997) - Howard Mackie (writer), John
Romita, Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man I#79-80 (April-May, 1997) - Howard Mackie (writer),
John Romita, Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4 (April, 1999) - Howard Mackie (writer), Bart Sears
(penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#7-8 (July-August, 1999) - Howard Mackie (writer),
John Romita, Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#1 (July, 2024) - Cavan Scott (writer), Kev Walker (pencils), Craig Yeung & Belardino Brabo (inks), Danny Khazem (editor)
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt#2-3 (August-September, 2024) - Cavan Scott (writer), Kev Walker (pencils), Craig Yeung (inks), Danny Khazem (editor)
First Posted: 07/09/2008
Last updated: 09/26/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!