Summary
- Stephen King's section of an X-Men comic features Kitty Pryde facing extreme hunger, mirroring the haunting tale of Thinner.
- King's rare superhero story was a contribution to Heroes for Hope, which raised awareness and money to fight hunger in Africa.
- The X-Men are subjected to terrifying scenarios in the comic, leaving fans wondering what fresh horrors King could bring if he decided to write another Marvel Comics story.
If you’re going to have heroes like the Stephen King? While King’s prolific writing career has seen him dip his toes into the world of comics, most of that has been focused on horror and adaptations of his own work. But in a rare contribution to a superhero comic, King subjects a beloved X-Man to a terrifying scenario that reads like a condensed version of his classic novel, Thinner.
Stephen King’s sole work on an X-Men comic appears in the 1985 one-shot Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men. This special comic was published to raise money to raise money and awareness about hunger in Africa. Numerous writers and artists contributed short segments to the story, including notable creators like King, George R.R. Martin, Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Harlan Ellison and Frank Miller.
King wrote three pages of the story that were penciled by Bernie Wrightson, inked by Jeff Jones, lettered by Tom Orzechowski and colored by Christie Steele. The segment sees Kitty Pryde enduring a horrifying bout with extreme hunger.
Even Marvel Heroes Are Scared By Stephen King
The Thing and the Human Torch regularly go up against evil supervillains, but even they are terrified by the works of horror legend Stephen King.
X-Men's Kitty Pryde Faces the Curse from Thinner
The comic opens with the X-Mansion seemingly transported to the middle of the desert. After this is revealed to be an illusion, the story follows each member of the X-Men as they experience their worst fears. When Kitty Pryde enters the kitchen for a snack, she is confronted by a cloaked figure who identifies himself as Hungry. Hungry places his hands on Kitty and she starts rapidly getting thinner. He offers her a plate of food, only for it to immediately rot once she touches it. The extreme starvation causes her to wither away, and she’s practically a skeleton when Hungry departs, leaving her babbling on the floor in terror.
Reading the story, it’s hard not to be reminded of another King tale of someone wasting away. The novel Thinner follows Billy Halleck, an overweight lawyer who accidentally kills a Romani woman with his car. He is then cursed by the woman’s father with a single word - “Thinner” - and begins to lose weight at an alarming rate, becoming emaciated no matter how much he eats. Obviously, the circumstances in the two stories are very different, as Kitty’s torture turns out to be a vision while Halleck’s is very real. But the haunting pencil work by Swamp Thing co-creator Bernie Wrightson captures the horrific essence of Thinner in just a few pages.
Stephen King's Scariest Concepts Can Be Used More Than Once
Thinner was published just a year prior to the release of Heroes for Hope. It’s likely that, at the time, few readers considered the similarities between the two works. King wrote Thinner under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. It would turn out to be the last Bachman book that King would publish prior to his identity being publicly revealed in April 1985, just a few months before Heroes for Hope hit stands. But although there are similarities between the two, that’s not to say that King was copying or repeating himself.
Throughout his career, King has often revisited scenarios and characters that he’s found interesting, expanding them or looking at them from different angles. the movie Maximum Overdrive.
Some readers who picked up Heroes for Hope likely found the scenario King creates to be even more frightening. That’s because it happens to a fan-favorite hero, rather than to a protagonist like Halleck who, to be honest, deserves his fate. If he were to ever write another X-Men story again, there’s no telling what kind of fresh horrors Stephen King could come up with to plague Marvel’s Merry Mutants.
- Movie(s)
- X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- First Film
- X-Men (2000)
- TV Show(s)
- X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
- Video Game(s)
- X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Character(s)
- Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Comic Release Date
- 213035,212968
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
