main image

HUNGER

Real Name: Unrevealed (last name possibly Crown?)

Identity/Class: Human mutate;
    formerly human cyborg

Occupation: Vampire;
    formerly Hydra field agent

Group Membership: Agent of Stewart Ward
    formerly Hydra

Affiliations: Vincente Fortunato, Dr. Andrea Janson, Lance & Troy, "masked goons", Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, T-Bone, "Vampire Mob", Stewart Ward

Enemies: Betty Brant, Blade (Eric Brooks), Callisto, Marjory Fields, Hammerhead, 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), Flash Thompson
    formerly T-Bone

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Crown, "Mutant Madman", "Sewer Killer"

Base of Operations: 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. 

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.

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.

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hunger, formerly Crown,  has no known connections to


"Masked goons"

(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

 

 



Dr. Sydney Lanning

(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))

 


Lance & Troy

(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




Jeff & Melissa

(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

 


 


Mutt & T-Bone

(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




"Vampire Mob"

(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)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#4, p17, pan4 (Hunger full body shot)
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 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)


First Posted: 07/09/2008
Last updated: 06/26/2008

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.!

Back to Characters