Before anti-hero/”good guy” vampires were all the rage, Marvel Comics beat nearly everyone else to the punch with Morbius, the Living Vampire. Dr. Michael Morbius first debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101, exactly fifty years ago. Back in 1971, the Comics Code censorship rules loosened up. This allowed vampires and other monsters to appear in comics again.
Stan Lee wasted no time, quickly jumping on these new allowances. He commissioned writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane to come up with a vampiric villain for Peter Parker to fight. The result was a character who will star in his own movie soon, starring Jared Leto. But Morbius’ comic book history is undoubtedly stranger than anything Hollywood can conjure up.
Tragic Origins
From a very young age, Michael Morbius lived with a rare and debilitating blood condition. Raised mostly in isolation by his mother in Greece, he had only one true friend in the world, Emil. The pair became like brothers, and both grew up to become lauded scientists and biochemists. Their research to create a cure for Morbius’ condition even earned a Nobel Prize. Michael and Emil decide to take stage two of their experiment to the open sea as a way of avoiding anyone getting hurt.
Feeling like this was his last chance, Dr. Morbius used electricity combined with vampire bat DNA. (We’re not sure how that works, but we’ll go with it). The resulting experiment turned him into a pseudo-vampire, and he killed his best friend and jumped ship. Because he did not gain his abilities via supernatural means, it meant that he wasn’t a true-blue Nosferatu. He still had to drink blood to survive, like a regular vampire would. And he could fly, had super strength, and had some psionic abilities, like hypnotism. But the similarities ended there. Morbius could walk in sunlight, albeit with less power. He also did not have any of their usual weaknesses, like religious iconographies such as crosses or stakes through the heart.
From Villain to Anti-Hero
Morbius’ comic introduction was primarily as a villain for Spider-Man to fight. Peter’s radioactive blood put Moribus’ disease into remission and was therefore quite tasty. Despite these battles with Peter, he quickly went on to headline his own solo adventures in Vampire Tales. And later, Adventure into Fear. Both showcased Morbius as a tragic anti-hero more than a straight-up monster. He often saved innocents, while giving in to his bloodlust and killing off bad guys. (Although sometimes innocents would die, too.) As a living vampire, the “real” vamps of the Marvel universe often came into conflict with Morbius. Specifically, Dracula and his daughter Lilith. He also crossed paths several times with Blade.
After receding into the background for much of the late ’70s and ’80s, Morbius had a big revival in the early ’90s. This was very much Marvel riding a wave of Goth/vampire trends of the time. In the early ’90s, Vampire: The Masquerade was an RPG phenomenon, and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles were flying off the shelves. Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula was also a box office smash. Marvel revived Morbius as a trenchcoat-wearing, brooding, and kind of sexy hero, headlining his own comic series in 1992. The book lasted three years and thirty-two issues. He also joined other “spooky” Marvel heroes in the team book Midnight Sons.
Cartoon Bloodsucker
The ’90s was also the time when a much larger audience first met Morbius, thanks to his debut on Spider-Man: The Animated Series. On this show, actor Nick Jameson gave him his thick accented voice. His origins remained largely the same as his comic book counterpart, with one hilarious change. Because network standards and practices didn’t allow for biting necks and the word “blood” on a kid’s show, instead Morbius drained “plasma.” And he did it with strange suction holes in his hands. If you ask us, that’s way more disturbing than fangs. Morbius nearly made it into the movie Blade as a tease for Blade II, as seen in a deleted scene on the film’s Blu-ray release.
Modern Day Morbius
Over the past few decades, Morbius has consistently appeared throughout the Marvel Comics universe. He’s fought the Punisher, Deadpool, the Hulk, and his old nemesis Spider-Man. The Ultimate line of comics introduced us to an alternate take on Morbius, one related to Dracula, and who was a traditional vamp. He received a new ongoing series in 2013, which lasted nine issues, and another title which came out in 2019. He continues to struggle to find a cure for his bloodlust while walking the line between hero and monster.
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