October 26, 2005
Morbius The Living Vampire: Spider-Man’s Anti-Villain
“Only two things separate me from a true vampire…religion and remorse.”
Morbius injected the superhero world with a dash of horror when he appeared in Amazing Spider-Man 101-102. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Morbius was an anti-villain—he didn’t really want to murder anyone. His goal wasn’t to create a super-race of vampires. He wanted to find a cure for his predicament.
The origin story that Kane and Thomas presented in ASM 102 remains vivid in my mind over 30 years later. A prize-winning chemist, Michael Morbius suffered from a terminal blood disease. He sought to turn back his illness using a serum made with the blood of vampire bats. His cure worked, but it also turned him into a vampire—luckily he was wearing a blue and red suit at the time that would go nicely with his new albino skin!
As a vampire, Morbius could fly (the excuse was that his bones were hollow), drink blood, and possessed extraordinary strength. Unlike his supernatural cousins, he didn’t die when the sun came up (although he felt weaker) and he experienced a heavy amount of guilt for those he killed. Shortly after Morbius is cured, he murders his best friend Nikos.
Morbius seemed popular enough that he made a second appearance soon afterward in Marvel Team-Up #3-4. These early appearances were all drawn by Kane, who had an affinity for the character. Kane’s costume design is beautiful simplicity. MTU 4 features Spider-Man and the early X-Men (in a unique appearance without costumes) subduing Morbius long enough for Professor X to examine him.
When Morbius broke free of the X-Men, he exploded into several different venues of the Marvel Universe. He took over the lead serial in Adventures Into Fear, starting with issue 20, lasting until the series’ cancellation with #32. The stories really aren’t very good. The highlight is issue 21, with art by Gil Kane. The rest of the issues have a rotating chair of artists and writers that continually try to pit Morbius against supernatural creatures.
Morbius made a much more notable appearance in Giant-Size Superheroes #1. This title was meant to be the first in a series of oversized (64 big pages!) comics featuring Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and so on. It turned out to be the first and only issue (as each hero got their own Giant-Size comic) but it was a doozy to a ten year old kid. Spider-Man fought Morbius and Man-Wolf in a story drawn by Kane and written by Gerry Conway.
Morbius’ most memorable stories occurred in the black and white magazine, Vampire Tales. Without the comics code, Morbius’ attacks were bloody and uncompromising. Writer Don McGregor hit upon a formula to make Morbius an interesting and viable character, by giving him a woman named Amanda Saint to protect from a cult called DemonFire. In the first story, we see Morbius stalking Amanda. His attack is interrupted when a bunch of demonic cultists try to kidnap the girl. Morbius contents himself to feast upon them and save Amanda in the process.
McGregor wrote six Morbius stories during his tenure. Reading them again, they’re not that great, either. But the first two stories contain dynamic layouts from Rich Buckler. The first tale’s splash page is in the form of a vampire bat; the second one has a tombstone framing the panels.
Doug Moench wrote a Morbius story that I’ll never forget in Vampire Tales #10. Morbius kills almost everyone in a small town in revenge for their murder of an innocent woman. Again, nothing great, but I could never forget this cover painting.
This is one of those characters that I always remember—yet the quality in these stories is pretty awful. Morbius made an impact on me, because I always equate his vampirism to the condition of an alcoholic. Alcoholism runs in my family. Even as a kid, I always saw parallel between Morbius’ going berserk for blood with certain family members unable to stop drinking. The guilt that comes with the morning after is full of remorse, just like Morbius experienced after killing poor old Nikos. Nuff said.
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