Since the announcement that Jared Leto was going to be appearing as Morbius in an upcoming
Sony film, movie fans across the world have been asking the same question: who the heck
is Morbius?
The short answer is that he’s a vampire whose curse comes science rather than magic,
who operates sometimes a villain, sometimes as a hero, and often a bit of both.
Beyond that simple concept, though, is a complicated character, a tormented soul seeking salvation…
and blood.
Here's the untold truth of Morbius, the Living Vampire.
Blood-sucking fiend?
Morbius tends to be a good guy by default these days, but when he first showed up in
1971's Amazing Spider-Man #101?
He was tragic and he was tormented, but there was no anti-hero nonsense going on.
Morbius was a killer.
That issue was memorable for a few reasons; most notably being that it was the first issue
of the comic that wasn't written by Stan Lee.
Roy Thomas took over writing duties, picking up on the cliffhanger ending where Peter Parker
had six arms.
Spider-Man sought out the Nobel-prize winning Dr. Michael Morbius in hopes that he could
find a cure, but instead found a bloodsucking vampire who looked like he raided The Bee
Gees' wardrobe.
Thomas considered Morbius to be a one-shot enemy for Spider-Man, but he also knew there
was more to him than just simple super-villainy.
As he said in a 2009 interview, "Both sides of him were always there.
He was always supposed to be a fairly sympathetic character."
Morbius vs the Code
The Comics Code was a self-imposed industry standard that among other things banned all
representations of the undead starting in 1954.
Some fans believe that Morbius was referred to as a "living" vampire as a sneaky way of
getting around the Comics Code, and that his subsequent popularity helped break it down
for good.
His "living" status was Marvel's loophole... or so the legend told.
The truth is that his creation was actually a response to the Comics Code having already
loosened its rules about vampires, zombies, and other undead creatures.
Since they were no longer restricted under the code's old rules, Thomas and Lee considered
using the most famous vampire of all and making Dracula the villain in Amazing Spider-Man
#101.
Instead, Lee opted for a twist on the classic vampire as a costumed super-villain although
Marvel would launch Tomb of Dracula the following year, giving the original blood-sucking count
a series that ran for 70 issues.
Ironically, while Morbius' creation didn't create any friction with the Comics Code,
another Marvel artist claimed to have locked horns with the Code over his work on the character
years later.
Penciler Ron Wagner worked on the first fourteen issues of Morbius: The Living Vampire, and
in 1993, he told Wizard Magazine he got in trouble with the Code for sexually explicit
drawings in the comic.
Operative word: living
While Morbius' "living" status wasn’t meant to sneak around the Comics Code, it was an
important aspect of his character if for no other reason than the fact that it allowed
him to remain in the Marvel Universe far longer than his undead contemporaries.
In 1983's Doctor Strange #62, the Sorcerer Supreme famously used his magic to boost a
magic spell called the Montesi Formula, killing Dracula along with every other vampire on
Earth.
Eventually, Dracula would make his return coming back from the dead is just what that
dude does but it would take a full decade.
In the meantime one vampire remained completely unaffected by any of it: our man Morbius.
Because his condition had nothing to do with being bitten by some seductive undead temptress,
or stabbing a church, Doctor Strange's war on Dracula had no impact on Morbius.
Other than the fact that he probably had a lot more food available considering all the
competition was dust.
To Infect, or not to infect
Over the past few hundred years, people have defined vampirism pretty thoroughly, especially
after Bram Stoker gave us all the blueprint in 1897.
Morbius, on the other hand, is all over the place, including the question of whether his
bites can create other vampires.
Even when he drinks someone’s blood, they only become vampires, like, sometimes.
The first character he ever transformed was Jefferson Bolt in Marvel Team-Up #3.
Unlike traditional vampire spawn, Bolt retained his free will and intelligence, eventually
turning on Morbius.
More often than not, however, The Living Vampire’s victims either die from the normal injuries
you’d expect from having your neck snacked on, or survive them with the usual mundane
consequences.
Whether or not his abilities allow him to infect others has less to do with his condition,
and way more to do with what’s convenient for the story.
A little help from my She-Hulk
One of the most important stories in Morbius' history, the tale that transformed him from
a tragic villain into a dark hero, involved a weirdly violent court scene in the pages
of Savage She-Hulk.
Temporarily cured of his pseudo-vampire condition, Dr. Morbius was working on ways to help another
character with an interesting blood-related problem: lawyer Jennifer Walters, whose gamma
powered blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner turned her into the She-Hulk.
While helping her, Morbius was arrested, and when Walters defended him during the trial,
she used a bizarre method to protect her client.
To prove Morbius was not in control of his actions while he was a vampire, Walters brought
a pair of rabbits into the court and fed one of them the formula that had transformed him.
Predictably, the rabbit immediately went full Holy Grail and killed its furry mate.
“...I warned you!”
Walters succeeded in getting Morbius' charges reduced, but the public wasn't happy.
Right after the jury read its decision, her father told her he was ashamed of her, which
might be even more painful than what happened to that poor rabbit.
Story vs gory
When Morbius got his first shot at a solo title in 1992, it began with the creative
team of Len Kaminski and Ron Wagner.
In spite of the passion Kaminski felt for the project, his time on the title was short-lived.
The reason?
Apparently he wrote too much story.
Speaking to Back Issue magazine in 2009, Kaminski described Morbius as one of his dream projects,
and said that he’d plotted 50 issues of the series when he started, including a crossover
with Spider-Man and Venom.
Unfortunately, he was fired from the book after only eight issues.
Kaminski recalled that that he wasn't sure why editor Bobbie Chase fired him, but in
a 1993 Wizard article, Ron Wagner said he was tired of Kaminski's character-driven stories,
that he wanted more action and more gore, and that Chase agreed.
When Wizard reached out to Kaminski for comment, the writer said Wagner used to leave snide
notes in the margins of Kaminski's scripts, and that he tried to call Wagner to talk over
changes, but never got a response.
Once Chase fired Kaminski, colorist Gregory Wright gave Wagner the gorier scripts he wanted...
for a little while.
Wagner himself was gone from the book by #14.
Ultimate Morbius
When Jared Leto brings Morbius to the big screen, there’s a chance he won't be a "living"
vampire at all.
Ultimate Spider-Man #95 introduced an updated version of Morbius who had a much bigger connection
to the vampires of his world than the regular Marvel Universe’s version.
He was a more traditional, undead vampire who told Spider-Man he was the son of Dracula,
and spent his time hunting his brethren and operating as a villain.
While Marvel officially put the nail in the Ultimate line’s coffin in 2015, its impact
on the film adaptations can't be ignored.
A lot of what we've seen in the MCU was first seen in the Ultimate Comics.
Nick Fury was first drawn as Samuel L. Jackson in The Ultimates six years before the actor
appeared as the S.H.I.E.L.D.
Director in Iron Man.
Black Widow and Hawkeye being a part of the original Avengers line-up, Captain America's
World War II era uniform, the invading alien soldiers from the first Avengers film, and
plenty of other visual elements seen in the movies were lifted from the Ultimate line.
There's no reason to believe the Morbius filmmakers wouldn't learn from the MCU's example and
draw on a much less complicated version of the character.
Morbius versus Blade… or not
While he never actually made it to the screen for a film adaptation, Leto’s casting isn’t
the first time that Morbius has had a brush with Hollywood.
In fact, if screenwriter David Goyer's original plan had been realized, the Living Vampire's
first big-screen appearance would likely have pre-dated the MCU by eight years.
The DVD for 1998’s Blade, written by Goyer, features a deleted scene in which a mysterious
figure in a dark trench coat watches from a nearby rooftop as Blade and Karen emerge
triumphant from their conflict with La Magra.
In 2016, David Goyer confirmed the figure was intended to be Morbius and, had he gone
on to direct Blade II, Morbius would have been the villain for the sequel.
Instead, Guillermo del Toro directed Blade II and the story was altered to pit Blade
against the Reapers instead.
By the time Goyer directed Blade: Trinity, the focus had shifted to Hannibal King and
the spinoff-ready Nightstalkers.
All three movies wound up featuring stone-cold evil bad guys, which makes sense since we
all want to see Blade chop their heads off, but presenting a more tragic and sympathetic
foe could’ve made for a very different, very interesting movie.