Hunger (Virus)

The Hunger
Name	The Hunger
Aliases	Hunger Gospel, Undead Contagion, Zombie Plague
Physical Characteristics
Type	Virus
Origin
Origin	The virus was never created, its "origin" was given by a time-loop caused by the Watcher of Earth-Z, who sent the zombified Sentry to Earth-2149's past to keep it contained between these two universes.
Reality	Earth-2149, Earth-91126
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Mark Millar, Greg Land
First	Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 (July, 2005) (Historically) Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #1 (March, 2007) (Chronologically)
First	Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 (July, 2005) (Historically) Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #1 (March, 2007) (Chronologically)

 I have observed all these events, unseen, unsubstantial, pondering the best way, if any, to react. And the moment has, as always, presented the most perfect solution. What has been done cannot be undone. But it can be... contained. It is my duty as a Watcher to report what I observe. The dimensional portal has been open for a few minutes. The unsuspecting citizens of this world will have already heard this thing punching. Before the sound is drowned out... by a flash in the sky and a ripple through the clouds. This terror shall never end. Because it never truly began. And since this hunger shall never be satisfied... let it devour itself. 

—The Watcher

History

Through the means of an eternal time-loop, the Watcher of Earth-Z sent a zombified Sentry from his reality to infect Earth-2149 with the plague known as the Hunger.

 They said it all started with a flash in the sky and a ripple through the clouds. Nobody knows what caused this exactly, but some people think it might be a punch. Was he really that strong? Had the infection made him so determined to get here in search of a brand new food supply? At the time I said no... but having experienced this hunger firsthand I'm afraid that I now know better. The Avengers were the first on the scene. Can you picture them? Faces grave, concerned for all those human casualties. That idiot Colonel America reassuring everyone that everything would be fine now that the super heroes have arrived. What they didn't know is that the infection had targeted the super heroes of this dimension and a thousand realities before us. This was how it consumed, you see... by infecting super heroes just like him and sending them out to infect the others. Within twenty-four hours, we'd consumed the entire planet. One super hero from an infected universe... That was all it took to end an entire world. 

—Zombie Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards)

When the zombie Sentry arrived, the Avengers were sent to investigate. They were quickly infected and spread the virus to the other heroes. In less than 24 hours, all of Earth was infected. Despite the efforts of Nick Fury and Ashley Williams, nothing stopped the zombies from eating and spreading the disease to the whole world. The main reason for why the infection spread so quickly could be attributed to the zombified Quicksilver, since he used his super speed to travel around infecting other countries.

Having nothing to eat, the zombified Fantastic Four had the idea of invading the Marvel Apes' reality; however, other zombies had invaded it first. An alternate zombie Mr. Fantastic had no choice but to revert the invasion, so, he and Spider-Monkey used a time-machine and an inter-dimensional teleporter to shift their consciousnesses into their bodies in the past in order to prevent the invasion. This, in essence, diverged Earth-8101 to Earth-95019 and Earth-2149 to Earth-21050. So, because of this, the zombified Reed shifted his attention to his Ultimate counterpart.

After Ultimate Reed's escape, the Silver Surfer appeared and announced the coming of Galactus. The zombies, only focused on feeding, attacked and killed the Surfer, but only Spider-Man, Colonel America, Wolverine, Giant-Man, Power Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk managed to eat him. Having gained the Power Cosmic from the flesh of the Silver Surfer they then used their newfound powers to kill all the other remaining zombified heroes. Even going as far as trying to toast and eat the remains of their former allies with their powers but ultimately deciding it was futile.

Galactus finally appeared, preparing to devour the world, but over the course of an unspecified amount of time, the zombies constructed a machine using Vibranium from Wakanda, to unite their power cosmic and incapacitate Galactus. After taking him down, the zombie heroes fought a group of zombified villains that were challenging them for the body of Galactus. The heroes came out victorious but lost Colonel America in the fight. They used the Power Cosmic gained from Galactus to travel to other worlds and eat other lifeforms. A divergence occurred during this time, in which this reality's Wolverine was pulled away from it and met alternate counterparts of himself. This action would create a separate timeline, with the notable distinction that Wolverine beat the hunger much earlier than his Earth-2149 counterpart.

Meanwhile, the remaining zombies on Earth tried to invade Earth-616; however, they were stopped by Machine Man and Morbius the Living Vampire. Because of this, the characters of Earth-616 attempted to develop a vaccine to combat the virus. Headpool, who invaded Earth-616 along with zombie Morbius, would eventually meet his Earth-616 counterpart and then be killed by the Evil Deadpool Corps.

After forty years in space, and having seemingly devoured most life in the universe, the zombie Galacti (along with some new undead allies) returned to Earth to retrieve Reed's inter-dimensional teleporter but instead discover a group of survivors led by a zombified Black Panther. They attack the colony and major casualties are lost on both sides in the ensuing fight. During the battle for the teleporter, the zombies suddenly realize that their hunger has faded away. A result of them having not eaten for a long period of time when traveling back to Earth. A detail the colony was already familiar with. After discovering that they had all unintentionally detoxed their hunger away, the remaining zombies agree to help the humans rebuild. Unfortunately for them Malcolm Cortez had other plans and seized the opportunity. Banishing the zombies to another universe, using the aforementioned inter-dimensional teleporter. Having sent them all to Earth-Z and with T'Challa out of the way, he could now rule over New Wakanda to his own liking.

Back on Earth-Z, the remaining zombies emerge in separate locations, their cosmic powers seemingly gone and their hunger back. Many of them try to avoid temptation but Giant-Man and Wolverine succumb to the hunger again. Wolverine would be stopped by his counterpart, along with zombie Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde, while Giant-Man focused on studying the Watcher's technology (having eaten the Watcher in the process) in an attempt to travel to other universes. Many of the zombies (both natives to Earth-Z and the original universe) tried to stop him but failed and were killed. Only zombie Spider-Man along with the New Avengers succeeded. The secret to their success was none other than Sandman. Having been infused with Tony Stark's nanobots that consume necrotic tissue, Sandman was released onto the remaining zombies, killing them all including the heroically aligned ones, leaving only the zombified Sentry alive.

In a major surprise, The Watcher reappears, apparently capable of surviving without a physical body. Having observed all of these events, The Watcher proclaims that the only solution is containment. With that in mind, he proposes a plan: sending the zombified Sentry back in time to Earth-2149. Right before the infection started. Effectively creating an infinite time-loop, trapping the infection in a vicious cycle between two universes, with no true beginning or end.

Physical Features

The zombie contagion passes via a bite from an infected being. The infected became an undead flesh eater but retained their intelligence, personality and special abilities. The virus also appears to mostly target superhumans. It caused a hunger in the host, a hunger which could only be sated by ingesting the flesh of the living; the flesh of other infected tasted foul to them and could induce illness. The hunger affected the infected's self control; the more hungry they were, the less rational and intelligent they became. Once sated, the zombies' personalities re-emerged, and the more humane and moral individuals often felt great guilt at this point.

It appeared to be 100% infectious, but as noted by Spider-Man, those with any kind of accelerated healing appear to be able to fend off the zombification longer after being bit than others; however, the virus would eventually take hold of them and their healing factor would fade after the zombification was complete. Zombies would completely necrotize and lose flesh and skin rapidly, such as their lips, as the zombies were shown with exposed teeth and lacking lips. The disease was also shown to affect Asgardians, such as Thor. The virus is sentient in nature and focus on infecting the super heroes because they are the most probable beings to breach the dimensional barriers of their realities to infect others. Its obsession to infect other realities is a way to "spread the gospel", also considering the food supply will eventually end in each universe.

However The Conquistador of The Command, Florida's government-sponsored super-hero team, was immune to the zombie virus possibly from bathing in the Fountain of Eternal Youth, but instead died when the zombies tore him apart and presumably ate him.

The contagion appeared to have an addictive element to it, as the hunger was entirely mental; its infected hosts do not need to eat, as the hosts are dead from the virus necrotizing their bodies; severed zombie heads still had the gnawing hunger, despite not even having a stomach, implying that, as with someone addicted to drugs or alcohol, the infected hosts are addicted to human flesh. Also, like any addiction, the hunger could be cured in a sense. If a victim could be isolated from a food supply, within a couple of weeks the cravings disappeared and the subject was able perform a functioning role within society, but with necrotized flesh and near-immortality. This addiction could be explained by the virus messing with the chemical balance of the brain, having this "need" to feed. After having eaten nothing in weeks, this balance is restored.

Notes

• Early on, dialogue indicated that Magneto made a deal with something to bring the zombie contagion to his Earth as an attempt to balance the playing field for mutants.
• Many pathogens similar to the Hunger have appeared throughout the Multiverse:
  • On Earth-616, Dr. Mortimer Dauoi created a zombie plague by turning medical cadavers into clones of the Squadron Supreme in an attempt to achieve immortality.
  • On Earth-11081, Ebenezer Scrooge caused the spread of a zombie plague called the Hungry Death.
  • On Earth-12591, Loki caused the outbreak of a zombie virus on Earth, and it was later used by the nazists to win World War II.
  • Earth-13264, which later became the Deadlands of Battleworld, also fell victim to a zombie virus outbreak.
  • On Earth-14031, an unknown pathogen was accidentally created by A.I.R. through samples of individuals with healing factors, such as Deadpool.
  • On Earth-483, a meteor containing a zombie pathogen caused an outbreak, which was contained by Machine Man and Howard the Duck.
  • On Earth-691, its pathogen didn't cause zombification but instead filled those infected with rage and made them attack anyone they saw. It's important to note that they didn't eat flesh.
  • On Earth-13027, a zombie outbreak occurred under unknown circumstances.
  • On Earth-904913, Justin Hammer started infecting people with a zombie gas, trying to find out who blackmailed him. Mr. Fix ultimately infected him with the zombie gas revealing he was the one blackmailing him in revenge for turning him into an A.I. Fortunately, no outbreak occurred.
  • On Earth-TRN760, a zombie outbreak occurred, leading to the end of the world. A few heroes tried to survive, but they were eventually killed when one of the survivors they were trying to protect, a kid named Donny, decided to save the voodoo zombie, Simon Garth.
  • On Earth-11080, a chemical turned people into predatory primitive human flesh-eating monsters. They weren't undead but acted primarily on instinct and committed acts of cannibalism.
  • In many alternate universes, Parker Industries worked alongside with New U Technologies to find a way to bring dead people back to life via cloning. However, those clones were not perfect, and would eventually suffer from cellular degradation caused by the Carrion Virus, becoming mindless monsters in the process. The virus was highly contagious, passing from person to person through contact.
  • Agent Heather Sante stated to have fought a zombie Spider-Man from Earth-81143.
  • On Earth-19121, the Brood planted eggs in Galactus' corpse, the resulting new parasitic lifeform infecting entire civilizations and assimilating them into its hive known as the Respawned, turning its hosts into zombie-like creatures. It was pretty similar to the Hunger, as the infected ate human flesh, infecting those who were bitten. Much like the Brood, they were part of a hivemind, each of their own possessing a queen. When that world's metahumans investigated Galactus' corpse, they were quickly turned, intending to use Magik's powers to invade worlds across the Multiverse through the Blackspring after turning Franklin Richards. However, their plans failed, the hive being destroyed and seemingly killing all the Respawned, except for its queen, whose identity is still a mystery.
  • On Earth-89521, a Quantum Virus infected Janet Van Dyne during her time in the Quantum Realm, and once Hank Pym went to her rescue, unleashed it on the regular-sized world.
• Although the virus is contained in a time loop between Earth-2149 and Earth-91126 due to The Watcher, it has been able to escape the loop through various means:
  • Earth-6195 diverged from Earth-2149 when its Wolverine was recruited by the Timebreakers, being killed during that time.
  • Earth-21050 diverged from Earth-2149 when they discovered Earth-95019, and were able to invade it.
  • Earth-7044 is a variation of Earth-2149 in which Spider-Ham exists.
  • Somehow the undead Avengers of Earth-2149, composed of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Colonel America, Black Widow, Hulk and Wolverine traveled to Earth-616 and were defeated by the Children of Tomorrow with Colonel America being torned apart.
  • Due to the Phoenix of Earth-80777 recruiting the Wolverine of Earth-2149 to stop the Onslaught of Earth-696, he spread the virus on Earth-93068.
    • During this mission, Wolverine also infected the Selene Gallio of Earth-31974, who was forced to use all her stored life force to fight the infection.
    • Wolverine was also transported and left on Earth-91.

Trivia

• One of the distinguishing features of those infected by the Hunger which was absent from their initial appearances in Ultimate Fantastic Four is their lipless mouths. This design element was introduced in Marvel Zombies by artist Sean Phillips on accident. Phillips had started drawing Marvel Zombies before the Ultimate Fantastic Four issues featuring them saw print, so he was sent digital copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four pages to ensure consistency with the way artist Greg Land was drawing the zombies. However, the images were highly pixelated, so Phillips couldn't tell the zombies' finer details. According to Phillips, "it looked like all their lips had fallen off and you could see the teeth," so he drew them that way.
• About 18 heroes have counterparts in both universes (Earth-2149 and Earth-91126) who were infected, those being Hulk, Wolverine, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Vulture, Mysterio, Blackbolt, Medusa, Lockjaw, Crystal, Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Moon Knight, Super Skrull, Namor, Quicksilver, and Goliath.

See Also

• 82 appearance(s) of Hunger (Virus)
• 9 minor appearance(s) of Hunger (Virus)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Hunger (Virus)
• 525 image(s) of Hunger (Virus)

Links and References

• The Hunger in the Zombies article
• Characters infected by the Hunger