Hunger
First appearance: Peter Parker: Spider-Man #76 (as Crown); Peter Parker: Spider-Man volume two #4 (as Hunger)

The life force sucking entity known as Hunger, began his life years earlier as the bitter and strong enemy of Dr. William Fields, who suited up in a energy deriving suit to become SHOC. Crown managed to track down his mortal foe though in a quiet moment with his wife Marjory and young son Todd, and he murdered Allen and Marjory, leaving Paul to be forever haunted by the image of the being who slew his parents. Seven years later Crown returned to the labs of Allen's associate Syndey Lanning, who had the majority of Dr. Allen's notes given to him after his death. With a generator out of control and threatening to let it go off, Crown's plans were stopped by Spider-Man (who just happened to be passing by to join Lanning's research team), and a new hero donning the mantle of SHOC. With the combined might of these two champions, Crown and his lackeys were defeated and Crown was thrust back to his home dimension, a place that SHOC told Spider-Man, "is a place you don't ever want to see." In the aftermath, Peter Parker returned to his normal life, with a new job tutoring young Neil Aikens, a follower of Lannings work. For the time being it appeared that Crown had been done away with, and SHOC returned in grand fashion, but things were just getting started.

As the tragic Dr. Michael Morbius returned to New York, giving in to his chemical induced bloodlust, a young doctor named Andrea Janson offered Morbius a cure from his synthesized vampirism. Janson was in fact using Morbius in a scheme for the terrorist organization Hydra, and was revealed to be romantically linked to Crown of all people. Freed from his home world, Crown returned and was now allied with Hydra in a plan to takeover the New York world of organized crime in association with the crime boss Fortunato, in the hopes that Hydra would provide a cure for the armor that had permanently been grafted to him and he could have a normal life. Hammerhead, a rival of Fortunato, had other ideas and attacked Janson's lab murdering her and several Hydra men, and kidnapped Morbius, SHOC and Peter Parker who were nearby. In the midst of all this, it was also revealed that the new SHOC was actually Neil Aikens, who was in fact Todd Allen, the son of the first SHOC. As the battle raged on Crown, saddened that Andrea had been killed and his hopes for a cure for his condition dashed, he engaged on a suicide mission that was only stopped with Morbius' sacrifice. That night it seemed Crown had died, as had Morbius, though they would both return, for Crown it would be in different fashion than before.

Six months after Crown had died Spider-Man's world had become a vastly different world. No longer were Peter and Mary Jane Parker struggling graduate students, but wealthy socialites living in a high rise penthouse. Peter had also just returned to being Spider-Man after a brief stint of retirement. One of Peter's first missions when he became Spider-Man again, was to look into the disappearences of several New Yorkers who had been taken into the sewers by an unidentified figure. With the uneasy aid of the X-Man known as Marrow, Spidey met the person responsible for the kidnappings, a man called Hunger. Sharing the powers and bloodlust of a vampire, Hunger nonetheless argued that he was not one, nor was he familiar with that term. After a brief fight, Hunger fled, but soon encountered Spider-Man again, now in the company of the vampire hunter, Blade, in an attempt to gain the pocession of a trunk that contained Morbius, who too had survived his seeming demise. Hunger got away, as did Morbius, but not before the latter revealed that Hunger was in fact Crown. Crown has not been seen since.

What Morbius' throwaway line did was open a whole new can of worms that have yet to be resolved.

My theory: The devious Senator Stewart Ward used Crown as a vessel for his alien virus, and that failed transference led to Crown being free of his armor and losing his memory. Hey, it's better than nothing. What're the odds this is actually going to be resolved anyhow?

Powers and Abilities: In both of his forms, Hunger/Crown had superhuman strength, but had energy and shape changing abilties as Crown and flight abilties as Hunger.

REFERENCES: Peter Parker: Spider-Man #76, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #78-80, Peter Parker: Spider-Man volume two #4, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #7-8

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