Mobius

Morbius

Morbius was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971.

Origins

Michael Morbius was born in Nafplio, Greece, to a surrealist author, filmmaker, and painter named Makarioa Morbius, whom he never met, and an overprotective mother who co-owned a bookstore with Michael’s grandfather. Micheal was kept hidden from the outside world due to a rare fatal blood condition he had since birth, which made his body extremely frail. However, he did have one childhood friend, Emil Nikos, with whom we would sneak out of the house late at night to play.

Years later, Michael and Emil would attend college together and become biochemists, working on a cure for fatal blood diseases as well as saving Morbius. Micheal was awarded the Nobel Prize for this research, but he was unable to attend the ceremony due to his health and the fact that he couldn’t even hold a cup of tea. At the time, he was also engaged to Martine Bancroft. He took part in an experimental test at sea with Nikos by his side in the hopes of finally curing his disease. The experiment included using vampire bat biochemistry, which they had been researching, as well as electroshock therapy, which Nikos objected to. The procedure was successful. It cured him of his illness, but the side effects turned him into a vampire on the run. Morbius’ appearance changed to that of a vampire, his skin turned white, and his teeth grew into fangs, transforming him into a “vampire.”

Morbius accidentally killed his partner and oldest friend Nikos, as a result of his new bloodlust. Then he bolted from the boat where he was conducting his experiment. Martine was also abandoned by him. He was later picked up by a ship. He’d soon be feeding on the crew members’ blood. Morbius fought the remaining crew and escaped the ship despite being nearly outmanned. Soon after, he sought refuge in an abandoned beach house on Long Island, New York.

Major Story Arcs

When Spider-Man was troubled by four extra arms growing out of his sides, Peter Parker used Curt Conner’s beach house as a laboratory to research a cure. He had no idea that Morbius was in the same house as him, and that the two would end up fighting in it. The Lizard would soon become involved in the conflict. During the final moments of their first fight, Spider-Man threw Morbius into a bridge, knocking him out and causing him to fall into the river. In a few more Marvel Comics issues, Morbius would face Spider-Man.

When he was attacking Alicia Masters, he came across the Thing. He tries to attack the alien Living Eraser after the battle with Thing. He and Thing are then transported to a Dimension Z cell, but they manage to escape and return to Earth to defeat Living Eraser. Morbius then transports away from Earth using the Living Eraser’s technology, ensuring that he does not harm anyone. He’d then return to Earth for a brief period to fight Spider-Man and the Human Torch. During this time, he transformed a student named Jefferson Bolt into a living Vampire. He did, however, attack Jefferson’s brother during a battle with Spider-Man and Torch, and later killed Jefferson. After that, he used the technology of the Living Eraser to leave Earth for good.

Morbius gained control of a set of wristbands that transported him to another dimension, allowing him to avoid feeding on the blood of others for a time. However, he encountered The Empathoid and used Morbius as a host before returning him to the real world. Morbius would kidnap a girl and face off against Spider-Man once more. As a result, the Empathoid took over Spider-body Man’s and engaged Morbius in a battle across the city. Empathoid died in the end due to the crowd’s overreaction and Morbius once again vanished.

Morbius takes some of Spider-blood Man’s at one point, which cures him of his vampirism. However, this did not last long. Morbius later encountered Spider-Man in his Black Suit while commanding a gang of thugs in the sewers. Morbius attempted to obtain Spider-blood Man’s once more but was tranquillized by Simon Stroud and captured by Dr Paine’s men during his attack. Later, he would discover his hypnotic abilities and use them to dupe Spider-Man into giving him some of his blood.

During the fight against Carnage and his evil family in Maximum Carnage, he would soon join Spider-side, Man’s but he has a hard time getting along with him. He was usually paired with Venom, Black Cat, Cloak, Dagger, and Nightwatch.

The Anti-Hero Midnight Sons Phase

He went on a feeding frenzy after he thought he was cured and regained his vampire powers. He, on the other hand, despised feeding on the blood of others. He would soon be seen in an image of himself, Morbius, and others fighting Lilith by Ghost Rider and Danny Ketch. Ghost Rider and Blaze travelled to New York City to find Morbius and convince him to join the Midnight Sons. Morbius swore to drink only the blood of the wicked after the murder of his love Martine. As soon as he began his life as an anti-hero, he needed a new suit, got a job as a haematologist at St. Judes, and adopted the alias Morgan Michaels.

He’d also meet villains like assassin-turned-vampire Vic Slaughter, serial killer Basilisk, and Nightmare. The fully foamed Midnight Sons fought against Lilith and the Lilin during a battle in Greenland. Morbius drained the life from Fang, a lilin who tainted Morbius’ blood with demon blood, during the fight.

In Midnight Massacre, Morbius received a call from Frank Drake one night while operating under his other alias Morgan Michaels, telling him how Blade had transformed into Switchblade and how he might be after him. He later runs into friend Jack Russell ( Werewolf By Night). As Morbius’ feeding becomes more intense, Jack tries to persuade him to accept his curse. They quickly run into Switchblade and engage in a fight in the sewer. At one point during the battle, he tries to save Jack but fails, and he is stabbed to the wall and dies as a result. His demon Lilin side, on the other hand, does not and attacks Switchblade, only to be burned to death by Switchblade’s reign of hellfire.

He is later resurrected after the Demon in Blade is destroyed. He then encountered a man named Gunther, a guy whose daughter Morbius killed a while back. He almost killed Morbius after trapping him in an electronic web, but Morbius escaped and later attacked a group of vicious thugs. Gunther saw that Morbius changed his ways and let him live.

Morbius and The Blade

Morbius and Blade have an on-again, off-again dislike relationship. Years after the Nightstalkers were defeated in a battle with Varnea, and Blade faced a resurrected Deacon Frost, Blade and Morbius teamed up and defeated Frost. Morbius would also attack and bite X-Man and threaten Threnody at times. He would, however, be defeated by both X-Man and Spider-Man.

Morbius was later genetically modified to fight a super vampire named Hunger. Morbius was eventually stored in a chest, which fell into the hands of KingPin and Jimmy 5. Blade, on the other hand, was following Morbius’ chest, but Morbius eventually escaped, killing some of the KingPin’s men and biting Blade in the process. Morbius wanted Spider-Man to let Blade kill him during this battle, but Spider-Man wouldn’t let it happen. Blade then handed Morbius over to Spider-Man. Spider-Man then transported Morbius to Tricorp Research.

Morbius eventually left Tricorp Research. Morbius would then attempt to bite the neck of a paralysed adolescent. (either to turn him into a vampire so he could walk and speak or to end his suffering) He was stopped once more by Spider-Man, who threw him off a roof. Morbius would later become a member of the Superhuman Registration Act. This would result in him capturing Blade and sending him off to fight Wolverine.

Superpowers and Abilities

Michael Morbius is not a supernatural vampire; rather, he is a pseudo-vampire whose abilities are derived from electrical shock therapy and chemical ingestion. As a result, Morbius’ powers are not traditional or similar to those of pure-blooded vampires like Dracula, but he also does not have the same limitations. Morbius possesses superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, agility, and enhanced senses. As a result of the transformation, he not only possesses peak human abilities, but he also possesses a modified beyond, which allows him to have an accelerated healing factor, which allows him to shrug off and heal from blunt trauma injuries, bullet wounds, and cuts and lacerations. 

He can also ingest and process blood plasma, has talon-like fingers and fangs, and can glide due to hollow bones. Morbius can also hypnotise people in the same way that traditional vampires can, and when he was able to transform victims of his bite into vampires, he was able to control them with his mind until they were killed.

Morbius’ desire and need to consume blood in order to power himself and his powers distinguishes him as a vampire rather than a mutated human. It is unknown how frequently or what type of blood Morbius requires to keep himself at peak performance levels; however, meta-human blood, specifically Spider- Man’s, kept him going longer than normal human blood.

In this case, the radioactive elements in Spider-blood Man’s caused Morbius’ illness to remit. With this in mind, Spider-Man developed a serum that allowed Morbius to avoid drinking blood for extended periods of time.

Morbius’ weaknesses however are not Supernatural. He does have similar weaknesses, where he avoids sunlight, which is a result of his photo-sensitive skin, which doesn’t prevent damage from the sun. Morbius doesn’t possess the abilities of Shapeshifting, or weather control such as those exhibited by true vampires.

Abilities

Michael Morbius has previously received the Nobel Prize in chemistry. As a result, he is regarded as a pioneer in biochemistry and neuroradiology. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and is an expert in blood diseases. Morbius has also received training in the use of firearms and long-range hypodermic delivery systems.

Paraphernalia

Morbius was the head of the medical department at A.R.M.O.R. and had access to a wide range of medical technologies while working for them. Morbius has created a variety of biomedical weapon systems to combat Zombies.

Alternate Versions

Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)

In this reality, Morbius is a true vampire and is the son of Dracula. He is portrayed as a hero and is resisting his vampiric instinct. He first appeared helping Ben Urich from a group of vampires and preventing him from becoming a vampire. When Spider-Man appeared, he thought that Morbius was attacking Ben and attacked him. The two fought briefly before a separate group of vampires attacked, and Morbius and Spider-Man fought them off. In the attack, Peter was also bitten, but his blood was deemed “tainted” and thus he couldn’t be turned, nor could he nourish a vampire. Afterwards, Morbius was able to heal Ben.

House of M (Earth-58163)

In this reality, Morbius is a scientist that gave Luke Cage his powers.

X-Man- #60

In this alternate reality that X-Man was brought in, in this reality, Morbius has actually turned Spider-Man into a vampire.

Earth-37072

This reality is ruled by Kulan Gath and Morbius is one of his servants. He is more powerful and has a more bat-like appearance with huge leathery wings. He is also eviler and shows no remorse. He is close to Wendigo. In this reality he also killed Illiana Rasputin after she turned Wendigo back into his human self after being hit by her sword. He also killed Wendigo when he reverted back to his human form. He is later killed by Sasquatch.

Marvel Zombies 3

The zombie version of Morbius is posing as the real Morbius who he beat up and uses as food. He sends Machine Man and Jocasta to the Zombie Marvel dimension to get non-infected blood and use it as a weapon. Apparently, he and the Deadpool zombie snuck into the real world dimension to spread the zombie virus to the superhumans. Over the next few weeks, he would feed on his non-zombie version and then start a major zombie outbreak in A.R.M.O.R. During a fight with Machine Man he would finally be staked to death by the real Morbius.

In Other Media

Television

1. Morbius was voiced by Nick Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a recurring character. Micheal Morbius was a gifted foreign student who competed with Peter Parker in some ways. He was also Felicia Hardy’s boyfriend (Black Cat). He was not afflicted with the blood disease in the animated series, but people from his home country were. He’d end up stealing some of Peter Parker’s blood in a petri dish (at this point, Spider-blood Man’s was infected with a strange mutation). He planned to shoot the blood with an electro-genetic gun in his lab, but a vampire bat he was testing escaped from its cage and drank some of it.
2. Michael Morbius appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Benjamin Diskin. This version of the character is a HYDRA scientist who is transformed into a vampire-like creature after being injected with a vampire bat DNA serum by Doctor Octopus.

Film

1. Morbius appears in a deleted scene from the first Blade film. Blade and Karen Jensen have a conversation after killing Deacon Frost and his underlings. When Blade says he still has a job to do as long as the vampire-human war continues, Karen notices a strange man staring at them from a nearby rooftop and says, “Well, then you’re back on the clock.” Blade recognises the masked figure as Morbius and pulls out his sword, ready to fight. According to screenwriter David S. Goyer, this was intended to be a lead-in to a sequel in which Morbius would have been the main antagonist, but this plan was scrapped when Blade II chose a different villain. Morbius was portrayed by Stephen Norrington, the film’s director.
2. Sony is releasing a live-action Morbius film starring Jared Leto as the titular character. Micheal Morbius, the protagonist of the film, is a scientist who suffers from a rare blood disorder. Unable to fully walk, he embarks on a scientific journey to discover a cure for his disorder and possibly others. He transforms into a vampire-like being after discovering a cure through bats.

Trailer:

Video Games

• Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage — Morbius appears as a summoned character by Spider-Man and Venom to aid them during the fights. When aiding Venom, he sucks the blood of attackers.
• Spider-Man 3: The Game — Morbius appears in the Wii version of the Spider-Man 3 game. Spider-Man first trails after him in order to get a picture of him for the Bugle. He then later in the games fights Spider-Man near an electrical grid. He is defeated and brought back to Curt Conners. Also in this game, it is revealed that Shreik is his wife and that both were infected by the symbiote. He was voiced by Sean Donnellan.
• The Amazing Spider-Man: The Game — Micheal Morbius is a doctor at Oscorp who is involved in the creation of the Rhino. Here he is also trying to find a cure for himself for his deadly blood disease just like in the comics and because of this, he remains isolated from everyone else, hiding in the dark giving him the nickname, “The Living Vampire.” He doesn’t turn into his vampire form in the game.
• Marvel Super Hero Squad Online — Morbius appears as a playable character.
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds — Morbius makes a cameo appearance in Jill Valentine’s ending, where he is seen as one of the monsters preparing to fight Jill and Blade.
• Marvel Avengers Alliance — Morbius appears as an enemy character.
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 — Morbius appears as a playable character.e
• Spider-Man (2018) — Dr Morgan Michaels appears as an NPC, voiced by Phil Morris.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order — Morbius appears as a playable character in the Marvel Knights: Curse of the Vampire DLC pack, voiced by Jake Green.