Morbius The Living Vampire #1

Following his escape from the Raft (see Amazing Spider-Man #699.1), a maximum security prison for super powered villains, Dr. Michael Morbius finds his way to the crime infested district of Brownsville to lay low for while. Blending in will be more difficult than Morbius had anticipated, as the local criminals give him the warmest of welcomes.

The Team

Written by Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah! Vol. 1 : Last Days On Earth, Glory Vol. 1 : The Once And Future Destroyer) & illustrated by Richard Elson (Kingdom : The Promised Land). Published by Marvel Comics (Marvel Now).

The Pros & Cons

Morbius the Living Vampire has been around since the early 70’s, created by old school Marvel legends Roy Thomas & Gil Kane. The character was created to compete with other vampire comics, which were very popular at the time. That’s pretty much all I can mention, because the comic does a good job of re-introducing the character to new readers who might or might not be aware of Morbius. That’s the good part. The rest is all bad. The characters are wooden, the story sucks (no pun intended) and the artwork is below average. So Morbius ends up in shit hole part of town called Brownsville, where he basically becomes a homeless person and gets beat up frequently by street thugs. His new nemesis is a muscle bound street punk called St-Germain, for a villain like Morbius who went toe to toe with super heroes like Spider-Man & the Avengers, this is truly pathetic. As far as the story, I can clearly see where it’s going. Morbius will probably become Brownsville’s dark avenger. Well guess what? It will do it without me.

The illustrations are terrible to say the least, you can tell Marvel saved the better artists for more worthy Marvel Now titles like Uncanny Avengers, Avengers & Indestructible Hulk respectively. Every fibre of my being told me not to buy this issue, but I got seduced by yet another pretty cover. Gorgeously illustrated by Gabriele Dell’otto, sure Morbius has his cheesy trademark red & blue costume, but its bad ass nonetheless. If only he could’ve handled the artwork, maybe my review would’ve been different.

The Outcome

Now I love Marvel, but as a company they never learn by their mistakes. Back in the 90’s Morbius had his own title, part of the Midnight Sons crew that involved Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider & Blade. It failed miserably and so will this one. Morbius has always been an interesting villain\supporting character, but that’s all he’ll ever be. Period.