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Joe Hill, Nancy Collins, and Black Phone screenwriter C. Robert Cargill have joined the Marvel Comics Universe - not as creators, but as characters

When you want people to talk about horror inside a Marvel Comic, why not bring in real-life horror writers?

Published on Wed Jul 09 2025

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Marvel’s comic book universe is an ever-growing, ever-evolving thing that introduces new characters all the time — and this week is no exception. Uncanny X-Men #17, released digitally and in stories July 9, starts a story about a new horror movie centered around the idea of a mutant slasher, and brings in some surprisingly familiar faces to talk about the phenomenon.

The opening of the issue features a television broadcast vox pop segment to talk about the new movie ‘Mutina’ — and alongside Marvel characters including Blade, Else Bloodstone, Daimon Hellstrom and X-Men member Magik (credited as ‘Local Concerned Citizen’) are four real-life figures from the world of horror: novelists Joe Hill and Nancy Collins, Wynonna Earp showrunner Emily Andras, and Doctor Strange and The Black Phone screenwriter C. Robert Cargill. Take a look for yourself:

This is far from the first time that real life figures have unexpectedly appeared in Marvel comic books — it’s a tradition that stretches back to journalist and novelist Tom Wolfe’s appearance in 1969’s Doctor Strange #180, and includes such figures as Barack Obama, Eminem, Uri Geller, and the entire cast of Saturday Night Live. (Technically, real life cameos in Marvel comics go back even further if you include Marvel staff; Stan Lee showed up in a 1943 issue of Terry-Toom Comics!)

Notably, all of the horror figures making cameos have some connection to comics in their history already: Cargill, of course, adapted Doctor Strange for Marvel Studios, and Andras brought IDW’s Wynonna Earp to the screen. Both Hill and Collins have written comics in the past for DC, with Hill even curating his own imprint for DC for a short period, Hill House Comics. Collins, meanwhile, was a writer for DC’s Swamp Thing in the 1990s.

Uncanny X-Men #17 is available now.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.