Morbius - The Living Vampire!

As the 1970's heaved into view it was clear that comics were changing. The shackles of the Comics Code which had been deemed necessary in the 1950's (by some few publishers) to save the format was clanking up against more lenient modern attitudes, and the desire for comic book makers to tell stories to an older and more dedicated audience meant that a loosening was inevitable. It came in a few places but Stan Lee pushed the changes when with artist Gil Kane told a story about drug use in The Amazing Spider-Man and ran the issues minus the Comics Code seal. 

It was also in the pages of Spidey that Marvel's first new vampire appeared, a ghastly looking gent named Michael Morbius. The supernatural Dracula was a few months away still so the science-based Morbius was more "normal" in the Marvel Universe. He was yet one more monster in among Spidey's already throng of Lizards, Vultures, and Green Goblins. 

In a rousing two-parter by Gerry Conway and Gil Kane Spidey is encumbered with four extra arms and needs Doc Connor's help, and soon enough the research of Morbius is important. Meanwhile Morbius has attempted to cure his own anemic condition with radical genetic therapies with the assistance of his lady love Martine, which make him a high-flying pale-faced fang-sporting blood drinker of the first order. 

When Spidey suffers aftereffects Morbius returns in two exceedingly fine issues of Marvel Team-Up. First with the Human Torch and later with the then homeless X-Men Spidey is able to overcome his illness while the good guys try to corral Morbius yet again. Conway is on the scripts again with Kane providing the art for the second part and Ross Andru doing the honors on the first installment. 

   

Morbius next appears in the pages of the brand-new Vampire Tales. By this time Dracula has arrived and taken the comic world by storm and Marvel cannot seem to produce vampire stories fast enough. Steve Gerber does the writing and Pablo Marcos brings his robust style to the Living Vampire who finds himself battling demons in Los Angeles. 

Morbius is back in the "Big Apple" for his next yarn in Giant-Size Super-Heroes featuring Spider-Man. Since Morbius had appeared another critter had cropped up in Spidey's mag two years after the Living Vampire had made his entrance, the ferocious Man-Wolf. The two monsters are battling it out in this one by Conway and Kane as to which monster gets to off Spidey first. 

Then it's finally time for Morbius the Living Vampire to get his own ongoing series in the pages of Advenure into Fear (recently vacated by Man-Thing). Things begin to get exceedingly weird for our resident vampire once he gets mixed up with a sorcerer named Daemond. Mike Friedrich is the new regular scripter, and a young Paul Gulacy handles the art on this debut installment. And that brings up the major failing with the Morbius color series, a total lack of consistency in the artwork. 

Steve Gerber and Gil Kane are back as Morbius now runs into the Caretakers, ancient aliens who claim to be responsible for mankind's evolution and who want to manipulate what is to come. They send out Morbius as their killer, but he balks when he's ordered to kill a little girl. It also turns out that Martine has come under the sorcerous control of Daemond. 

The next artist in the rotation is Rich Buckler. He draws a script by Gerber that sees Morbius battling a cat-demon from another dimension which turns out to be filled with cat-demons who want a handy-dandy slayer of their own for population control. 

P. Craig Russel is our fourth artist in as many issues as Morbius moves on to another alien world filled with self-loathing mutants. The cover alas by Kane has absolutely nothing to do with the story. 

The mutants of the distant world give Morbius a rocketship to return to Earth which he does in the nick of time to come up against Blade the Vampire Slayer. The haphazard storytelling is dizzying but on the upside, Russell hangs around for a second issue -- his last. 

Then things get really weird. 

We shift our attention back to Vampire Tales. In the second issue the team of Don McGregor and artists Rich Buckler and Pablo Marcos take the helm of the series. With the story "The Blood Sacrifice of Amanda Saint" we follow Morbius as he attempts to protect the title character from a bevy of attacks by a cult dubbed "Demon-Fire". 

The story picks up in the third issue under a luscious cover by Luis Dominguez, with Klaus Janson joining Rich Buckler on inks. The same creative team that elevated The Black Panther whips out a bizarre tale of cult worship and bloody murder. Morbius is able to protect his new charge from the threats of blood sacrifice and a horrific spider monster, among other things. 

In issue four Tom Sutton takes the artistic helm joining Don McGregor for several issues of some of the best and strangest stories ever rendered using the Morbius character. There's no attempt to tie the continuity of these tales in with the strange meanderings of the color comic, though this collected edition suggests these stories happened in a particular order. 

McGregor is at his best, whipping vocabulary around the page like a weapon while Tom Sutton tries his best to keep our eyes glued to the page with grand results. The duo of Morbius and Amanda Saint get to the bottom of the Demon-Fire cult which has consumed her family, but not without battling some of the strangest creatures to slither across the black and white page. The duo finds themselves stuck in a bizarre western from hell as villains try to claim Saint's soul for their own and kill Morbius in the process. Mike Vosburg steps into the penciling role for the final chapter in eighth installment of Vampire Tales. 

Back at the color comic a new writer shows up -- Doug Moench. He is joined by the fifth artist on the color series, the talented and underrated Frank Robbins. 

Moench and Robbins are still around for the last battle with Daemond and the Caretakers. The chaotic storyline finally winds itself up and sets the stage for more Morbius tales to come. 

 

The final yarn in this first Epic collection is the fourth issue of Giant-Size Werewolf which has Jack Russel's Werewolf by Night battling Morbius the Living Vampire in a story by Dough Moench and Virgil Redondo. Morbius is at long last able to get back together with his love Martine, now freed from Daemon's control and the pair seek a cure for his vampire compulsions. But all this is blocked by a ferocious lupine opponent. The story will pick up in the next issue of Adventures in Fear. But that's for next time. 

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