In the early 1970s, Marvel had begun to push against the Comics Code Authority (and the CCA relaxed some of its rules). One of the results was the return of monsters to their titles. Roy Thomas, who was just handed the reins of Amazing Spider-Man from Stan Lee with #101, took a tact used by DC Comics in the 1960s, which was to take supernatural origins and give them a more modern, scientific twist. This resulted in the creation of Morbius, the Living Vampire. A biochemist searching for a cure to a rare blood disease he had, Michael Morbius turned himself into a vampire!
Along the way, he fought a six-armed Spider-Man and the Lizard. Then, headed over to the NEW Spider-Man title of Marvel Team-Up, and along with facing the amazing arachnid, battled with the Human Torch and then, the X-Men. (Mutants fighting vampires…like that would EVER happen again…).
Morbius then moved into his own stories in Adventure into Fear (where he met a TRUE vampire and vampire hunter, Blade) and Vampire Tales (the Vampire Tales Annual reprinted a few tales, but where are the reprints of these tales now?? Almost everything else from this era has hit the Marvel Essentials!). Morbius even met Johnny Storm’s fantastic friend, the Thing in issue #15 of Marvel Two-In-One (facing the Living Eraser!).
Morbius even encountered other Marvel monsters, helping to turn John Jameson back into the Man-Wolf (an astronaut who had become a werewolf due to a moon rock, and was the son of Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson!) so both could attack Peter Parker’s alter-ego. The scientific vampire also met Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider and Man-Thing.
At this point, Morbius had to go back to basics, and face Spider-Man again (in his newest title, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man!). After a few battles, he was partially cured of his affliction, and even defended in a trial held for the people he killed when he was a vampire by Jennifer Walters (aka She-Hulk). He turned back into a vampire and met Dr. Strange and Brother Voodoo. For a time, in the 1990s, he even had his own title, but faded for a time after that had been cancelled, popping up only here and there, like trying to capture Blade during the Civil War and stopping the zombies from invading the regular Marvel Universe along with former Son of Satan Damion Hellstrom, Jack Russell (the Werewolf by Night) and Jennifer Kale (a sorceress friend of the Man-Thing).
Morbius has recently been active, again looking for Spider-Man, and making plans to use Peter Parker’s radioactive blood.
Now, during all of this, remember that Morbius was NOT a supernatural vampire, and while he had tremendous strength, could glide on air currents and, of course, need blood to sustain himself, he was not affected by crosses, holy water, or even sunlight! He feared the sunlight, but more because, as a tortured soul who did not want to face the light for the horror of what he had to do to survive, which was to drink human blood.
