Welcome back to another spectacular spotlight on a great Marvel character in Marvel Snapshot! In this week’s edition, we’ll take a look at Morbius, The Living Vampire! He’s one of my favorite horror characters and has an origin story like no other, so let’s dive right into his story right now.
Michael Morbius was a brilliant scientist who was experimenting with blood and trying to find a cure for a blood disease. Little did he know that in doing so, he would doom himself to live the life of the bloodsucking undead. During one of his experiments, he was bitten by a vampire bat, and that forever changed him into a living vampire. At first, he couldn’t control his urges and succumbed to the primal feelings for blood. He initially, and frequently after, ran into Spider-Man. The two became arch-enemies for a while, with Spidey usually finding a way to out think Morbius.
Morbius ran into all sorts of other macabre beings, including the X-Men, the Human Torch, and Man-Wolf. Nobody really hates Morbius as much as Blade, though. Blade’s hatred towards all vampires is legendary, but for a while, he really hated Morbius. The two battled back and forth several times, but neither could really ever gain an advantage. Eventually he had an inter-dimensional adventure, but returned to plague Spider-Man. He helped Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo battle Marie Laveau, and later was captured and forced to work with Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze during the Midnight Sons storyline. He also made an appearance in the Darkhold series.
Morbius was part of a limited series entitled “Legion of Monsters” (2007), which also featured Man-Thing, Satanna, and Werewolf by Night. These one-shots were collected in a Hardcover Edition with some great reprints from back in the day, with some great artists and writers (Hickman, Young, Moench, Cebulski, Carey, Finch, and Land). Recently, Morbius was a player in the Frankencastle story line.
I, for one, love Marvel’s horror scene, and hope that in the future, some of Marvel’s talent will keep up the tradition of this fantastic genre. Well, except for Frankencastle, that is. If you’re a hardcore old school horror junky, then I highly recommend the Vampire Tales Tpb (trade paperback) shown above. It is an excellent book.
Recommended Reading
Vampire Tales vol. 1 – Tpb (2010)
Morbius: The Living Vampire #1-32 (1992)
Legion of Monsters – HC (2007)
Blade #5-8 (2006)
Spider-Man #13, 14, 36, 77-80 (1990)
Billy
billy@comicattack.net
Morbius: the Living Vampire was one of my favorite comic books back in the day. I think Morbius is a very cool character and way different from any other vampire out there.
@Nick- If you’re a big fan, you should definitely pick up that Vampire Tales Tpb. It’s old school, but awesome!
I love me some Michael Morbius, too! His most recent appearance in Amazing Spider-Man was a VERY good issue!
@Billy thanks man, i will for sure check out the Vampire Tales Tbp.
@Aron- How about that epic pimp slap on Spidey above? 😀
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