(Strand)om Stories: Morbius the Living Vampire Omnibus Review
A clever concept can't fully support a character whose qualities shift erratically, no matter the monstrous material presented
—by Nathan on October 31, 2026—
Another year. Another Halloween.
October 31 has not been one of those holidays I've commemorated often on this site, posting my first All Hallows' Eve-inspired review only last year. For that particular post, I surveyed Batman: Haunted Knight, a collection of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's trilogy of Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween specials, preceding the work they'd do on Batman: The Long Halloween and follow-up Batman: Dark Victory. But I tend to enjoy making a tradition out of something I tried once and appreciated, so as I've done with a few other holidays more consistently, I figured I'd come back around this spooky season and provide another creepy critique.
And what could be scarier than being reminded of Jared Leto's face across 828 pages of decades-old comics?
This omnibus has been sitting around basically ever since I bought it a handful of years ago, mainly as a joke. Released in 2020 to coincide with the original release date of Sony's third Spider-Man Universe film, this brick beat that cinematic disaster to audiences by close to two years. The omnibus made its way into my hands before I watched the abysmal "adaptation," for far cheaper than a Morbillion dollars, primarily because I thought it'd be amusing to say I had the Living Vampire's initial appearances in physical form.
This was, sort of, my second reading of this collection. "Sort of," because I never finished it the first time, as I slowly felt my will sapped like Morbius in need of a satiating bloodletting. I've never really itched at the chance to sink my teeth into this again, but with Halloween approaching, I threw up my hands in a defeated "Why not?" Nothing else would inspire me to give it another shot.
And thank goodness I finished the whole chunk before feeling drained dry this time, because you can rest assured I'm likely not digging this one back up for a third time.
Morbius: The Living Vampire Omnibus
Writers: Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, Mike Friedrich, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Bill Mantlo, Ralph Macchio, Archie Goodwin, and David Anthony Kraft
Pencilers: Gil Kane, Ross Andru, Paul Gulacy, Rich Buckler, Luis Dominguez, P. Craig Russell, Mike Vosburg, Frank Robbins, Don Heck, George Evans, Arvell Jones, Sal Buscema, Pablo Marcos, Tom Sutton, Virgil Redondo, Sonny Trinidad, Patty Cockrum, Vicente Aleazar, Gary Morrow, and Sandy Plunkett
Inkers: Frank Giacoia, Steve Mitchell, Pablo Marcos, Mike Esposito, Jack Abel, Vince Colletta, Luis Dominguez, Klaus Janson, Ernie Chan, Frank Chiaramonte, Leonard Starr, Bob McLeod, Frank Springer, Duffy Vohland, Steve Gan, Dick Giordano, Jim Mooney, Chic Stone, and Danny Bulanadi
Colorists: Linda Lessmann, George Roussos, Petra Goldberg, Michelle Brand, Bill Mantlo, Janice Cohen, Don Warfield, Phil Rachelson, Stan Goldberg, Marie Severin, Bob Sharen, Carl Gafford, and Ed Hannigan
Letterers: Art Simek, John Costanza, Tom Orzechowski, Jean Simek, Irving Watanabe, Gaspar Saladino, Dave Hunt, June Braverman, Marcos Pelayo, Charlotte Jetter, Karen Mantlo, Diana Albers, Peter Kirch, Joe Rosen, and Michael Higgins
Issues Collected: Amazing Spider Man #101-102, Marvel Team-Up #3-4, Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1, Marvel Preview #8, Marvel Premiere #28, Marvel Two-in-One #15, The Spectacular Spider-Man #6-8 and #38, The Savage She-Hulk #9-12, and material from Fear #20-31, Giant-Size Werewolf #4, and Vampire Tales #1-5, #7-8, and #10-11
Volume Publication Date: July 2020
Issue Publication Dates: October 1971-November 1971, July 1972, September 1972, August 1973, October 1973, February 1974, April 1974, June 1974, August 1974, October 1974, December 1974, February 1975, April 1975, June 1975, August 1975, October 1975, December 1975, February 1976, May 1976, May 1977, June 1977, July 1977, January 1980, October 1980-January 1981
When I first dove into this volume those few years back, I wound up closing the cover and chucking it into my closet for one primary reason: I was bloody bored of blood.
Michael Morbius was originally created as a workaround. Though the Comics Code would relax its grip in the early 70s and allow companies like Marvel and DC to use actual vampires instead of stand-ins, Morbius debuted just shy of that decision. So instead of being a Count Dracula copy, Morbius is more like a knockoff of a knockoff. Not even a real parody of a vampire. Roy Thomas needed something inspired and clever to get around the Code's constraints, thus gracing us with a scientist whose attempts at curing himself of a rare blood disorder accidentally inflict him with pale skin, the ability to glide, and an insatiable thirst for human blood.
So…yeah. Morbius doesn't have wings, but he can glide. Direct sunlight doesn't kill him, but it does sap his strength. And he's still alive. So, forget that those pointy fangs aren't just the latest trend in dental fashion, he's not a traditional vampire. Got it?
The concept is clever, and when paired against a six-armed Spider-Man and a Lizard recently shed of Curt Conners' skin, Morbius makes his purpose understood: he's a scientific monster, a new creature for a new age of comics horror. Yeah, traditional horror eventually ran rampant, but Marvel had many a monster whose ghoulish origins were tied to science fiction rather than the occult. Check out the Man-Wolf or the Man-Thing. Maybe Morbius should have been called "The Living Man-pire."
This notion never changes–Morbius is always presented as a creature of science run amok. Yet across these cumulative appearances, stretching across nearly a decade, Morbius undergoes a constant reappraisal from a litany of writers who, it seems, never precisely know how to handle the character and aren't terribly concerned with keeping certain facts straight. Some of the traditional vampire qualities leech into his character, yet they're used inconsistently, subjecting the subversion to erosion.
Depending on the guys telling the story, Morbius occasionally feels deep remorse towards his victims when the sun rises, occasionally hypnotizes people, and occasionally inflicts his pseudo-vampirism on others when he nibbles their necks. But then, at other times, none of those things are true! More often than not, for example, he just drains people dry, like polishing off a Capri Sun pouch, instead of leaving them in a half-human/half-vampire state. He just kills people.
And not in a "Punisher only kills bad guys" way. Bad, good, doesn't matter. When the need to feed strikes, ain't nobody safe. Men, women, even children fall under his shadow. All victims, mostly innocent. The central conflict driving the heart of every story is Morbius' vacillation between hero and horror, and every writer attempts to derive sympathy from a guy whose main shtick is straight up murder caused by biological necessity. He's not Dracula, certainly, killing for the joy of it. Morbius hates this primal compulsion, cursing it at every turn, but that moral twist doesn't make him any more a hero.
But here comes that dreaded word "occasionally" again, because just like with his abilities, Morbius' morality is dependent upon the narrative. When a story sees Morbius' righteous nature supersede his bloodlust, he'll hold off, look for a cure, bemoan the loss of his humanity. But when narratives want to show the darker side of him triumphant, pushing the former scientist into even more deplorable straits than he was previously, he'll sink his teeth. There's a shoulder-shrugging attitude woven through these issues. "Hey, this guy's a vampire, sorta," our writers seem to say, "so we gotta make him do sorta vampire things, y'know?"
Likely because there are several creators involved, and also because Morbius' adventures are split for a time between color comics and black-and-white issues of Fear, synergy is often difficult to find. Little effort is done to align stories told in Fear with Morbius' other guest appearances, with issues tossing him around the United States without a care of what's going on elsewhere. When a writer can focus on Morbius' backstory and use his memories of past misdeeds to guide him along, there you may discern some stronger characterization and a lean toward nobility. But then again, even in the color comics, depending on the series you're reading, he'll go from teaming up with blue-eyed Ben Grimm to battling Spider-Man in the turn of a page, with nary an explanation, at times, why the change has occurred.
Consistency would have been much appreciated, because at his core, you do see a character who, with some tweaks, would be deserving of greater sympathy. Morbius is locked in a battle of identity, his seemingly futile struggle against his personal curse and how it has shaped his life–made him a fugitive, driven him from his love Martine–causing abundant grief. He's no superhero like Spider-Man, yet even anti-heroes are, or at least should be, given some internal tussling. It becomes difficult experiencing sympathy for Morbius and his condition after the tenth or eleventh feeding, especially when it feels like a writer hasn't allowed him the valiant struggle of at least resisting his compulsions.
Of the issues presented, the strongest, by far, are the black-and-white Fear installments. Funnily enough, my disinterest in these issues was what stalled me out on this omnibus a few years ago. Perhaps reading some other colorless comics adjusted my perception like a bat in the darkness, because on this second readthrough, I found them the most enjoyable part of this colossal collection. Not as beholden to Comic Code restrictions and written with Don McGregor's traditional flourish, these issues provide a more visceral level of urban horror, blending some genuinely Lovecraftian concepts and characters with more grounded, vicious evils. We've got Tom Sutton, no stranger to manmade monsters himself, and McGregor's "Panther's Rage" partner Rich Buckler to thank for a salvo of gritty images, as drained of color as a vampire's victim yet teeming with tension and emotion. These are the stories where you tend to feel for Morbius, best evidenced when the reality of his curse sinks upon his soul.
In terms of plotting, our color comics tend to go in a different direction. Repetitive as Morbius' personal saga can be, you have to hand it to our various creators for considering all the entertaining ways they have Morbius brush up against fellow monsters (or "monsters"). Where the Fear issues are grounded, the color comics have no such qualms, having Morbius mingle with the Cat People responsible for Tigra, a Cthulhu-inspired demon, the Werewolf-by-Night, John Jameson's Man-Wolf, the Thing, and She-Hulk. Possibly the most entertaining issue of the whole omnibus sees Morbius temporarily team-up with not only Jack Russell's fuzzy alter ego but Man-Thing and Ghost Rider for a wild and way-out "creature feature" that reminds you all four men share a former full humanity. "What other horribly misshapen Marvel hero can we throw into Morbius' bloody blender this issue?" the question seems to be, and when the writers commit to going all out, you can find some fun, especially when they select heroes who, like Morbius should be, are really only monsters on the outside.
For these holiday posts, I generally review comics I either enjoy or feel I'm going to enjoy. Hence why I dove into Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Halloween specials last year. This year, I settled for a chunk of comics featuring monsters to elicit those spooky sensations. These issues introduce an interesting twist on the vampire concept, yet they quickly become lost in a corn maze constructed by guys who weren't paying attention to what the others were doing. Next time, maybe have Doug Moench and Don McGregor discuss who's putting what dead end or false turn where so they can at least lead our Living Vampire through a labyrinth that makes some sense.