More Morbius - He Found a Cure!

I was going to move on to a different character/series, but I felt compelled to continue on with some Morbius chronology.  Especially since after many years of being a ‘living vampire’ he finally found a cure.  All it took was getting struck by lightning (during a battle with Spider-man).  Although he was now in human form, he still had a thirst for human blood.

While in police custody, he was allowed to continue his research for a cure.  This led to a run in with Jennifer Walters and an attempt to help her affliction (you know, turning into She-Hulk).  Well that didn’t work.  And in the end Ms. Walters actually agreed to defend Morbius during his trial.  

Morbius was found guilty, but was not in control of his actions at the time.  So he did serve some prison time and at one point Reed Richards sought out his help for the birth of his second child.  (The child not make it.  But don't worry the child did make a comeback many years later and that my friends is a tale for another day).

Next up Morbius becomes a vampire again due to some voodoo woman looking for vampire blood and he starts hanging out with Dr. Strange and Strange’s brother, whom Stephen accidentally turned into a vampire many years ago by improperly reciting a spell.  Whoops!

After a few months of hanging out at Strange’s house, good ol Morbius takes off and is next seen in the brand new Spider-Man series by Todd McFarlane.  There Morbius is living in the sewers and feeding off “bad people” that are brought down by the simple/inbred dwellers living in the underground realm.  Spidey tracks them, finds Morbius, they fight, Morbius learns what the simpletons have been doing, Morbius feels regret and flies off.

In the 90’s he finally hit the big time and got his own ongoing series as part the Midnight Sons group.  The group consisted of Ghost Rider, Blaze, The Nightstalkers and The Darkhold Redeemers.  These misfits dealt with everything supernatural. Even though Morbius was a vampire created with science he still fit in with the group.  His series lasted a miraculous 32 issues!  And towards the end you could definetly see the decline in the storytelling and artwork.

   

Morbius #2 (1992)

30 issues later Morbius #32 (1995)

The series did reintroduced the lovable scamp Simon Stroud.  This time around the 70s banter was gone and Stroud was crazy.  Apparently he never worked for the CIA, or maybe he did I’m not sure.  He became delusional in his quest to capture Morbius. 

Martine, Morbius’ ex-fiance was also brought back into the scene.  And then killed.  And then brought back by Morbius using a page from the Darkhold.  So of course she was then evil, but later cured of her evilness and remained undead.  In a way her evilness did continue because she constantly nagged Morbius to find a cure for her undeadness.  She nagged him to the point that he had to kick her out of his place so he could “move on”.  She later started shacking up with Morbius’ good buddy Werewolf by Night.

Throughout this series Morbius worked on a cure and was able to temporarily cure himself during the day. Thus allowing him to get a day job at a local hospital.  And since Michael Morbius was declared dead, he created the name Morgan Michaels.  He also took the vow to never drink the blood of an innocent and only preyed on criminals.  

One character that I really enjoyed out of the series was Vic Slaughter.  He started as a crazy, ruthless, sociopathic (and rather psychopathic) mercenary hired by Stroud and became the “son of Morbius”.  His team attempted to take Morbius down, but Morbius bit him, broke a bunch of bones in his body (like when Ghost Rider broke the bones of Scarecrow that one time) and buried him alive.  

Snap, Crackle, Pop
Rice Krispies Treats, Original Marshmallow, 1.3oz Snack Pack, 20

Slaughter crawled his way out of the grave with life renewed.  His vendetta with Morbius did make for some interesting tales.  Of course like most “crazy” characters from the 90s, Slaughter fell out favor and was soon forgotten about.  Much to my surprise, he had a profile included in Dark Reign: Files, so I had hopes that he would soon return.  Then I finally got around to reading Wolverine: Best There Is. Lo and behold, Slaughter is back!

Troll on crack?

When Morbius’ series ended he was back to being bounced around a few other titles.  He had a couple run-ins with Blade and then in a few Spider-Man tales Hydra wanted Morbius and he under went some genetic manipulation.








So closes another chapter in the world of Morbuis.  When next seen he is involved with some.... zombies.....and the Punisher(?).


X-Men Origins: Wolverine For Nintendo Wii

What I'm reading: Morbius- the early years

You've come along way!

90s

70s

   
In the early 1970s, Morbius splashed onto the scene.  He was the ‘living’ vampire; made by science, not supernatural.  His craving for blood tormented his soul and whenever the thirst came over him he always screamed out and brooded over his victim.  “Why?!”  

From his first appearance in Amazing Spider-man #101 (1971) (you know the one where Peter had 6 arms!!) Morbius grew in popularity and got his own feature in Vampire Tales.  (Vampire Tales is an interesting comic.  They had a couple vampire stories and in between they had essays about vampires in literature and movies.) There he traveled to San Francisco and battled hippies and satanic cults.

Next up, Morbius began some adventures into Fear.  And what followed were a demon sorcerer and thousand year old aliens trying to fix Earth.  In the final battle, the sorcerer is revealed to also be an alien and allies with his alien brethren in hopes of destroying Morbius (and a little girl who the aliens created).  He also happens upon his fiance, Martine who was under possession by the sorcerer.  The storyline was very strange, in that Morbius got transported to various ‘worlds’.  One was a land of cat people who had found peace and kept breeding to the point of overpopulation.  They brought in Morbius in hopes that he would start killing some of their kind.  He ended up getting tossed into a river which transported him to Arcturus IV, where he met grotesque mutants (who also wanted to die) and robots.  Turns out they were created by the aliens that Morbius had met.  One of the mutants had a spaceship so they were able to get back to Earth.  After it crashed back to Earth, Morbius ran into Blade.  Since Morbius isn’t a normal vampire, crosses don’t work, so Blade needs to use his wooden stakes. Also Morbius doesn’t believe in real vampires.  Go figure. Morbius gets away and needs finish his objective of destroying the aliens.  Once this debacle finished up, he and Martine relocate to the east coast.  

Now in Boston, life for Morbius is turning around.  He has his gal, they have a house, he is being hunted by an ex-CIA agent and he continues getting thrown into other dimensions/worlds.  There also seems to be a theme going on about characters who are eyeballs.  The mutant who had a spaceship had an eye for a face.  Then in another dimension he battled a creature with a thousand eyes. Can you guess his name?  Helleyes!  I kid you not.

 

The banter from ex-CIA agent Simon Stroud is some of the best 70’s dialog.  His nickname for Morbius is “leech”.  They became fast friends in their battle with Helleyes.  Afterwards, they fight real vampires and Morbius is dumbstruck by this.  And then his fiance gets turned into a vampire.  Then cured.  Then Morbius almost kills her by sucking her blood.  Life is too much for him so he takes off.

For additional interesting Morbius tidbits on this time in Morbius’ life check out this blog I happened upon.  
What kind of hijinks will Morbius get into throughout the 80’s?  Stay tuned...