Michael Morbius turned himself into a living vampire to try and cure his rare blood disease. However, this change in his genetics gave him an unrelenting bloodlust. Come check out his story in Morbius The Living Vampire #1 by Marvel Comics!

MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE #1

Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Marcelo Ferreira and Roberto Poggi
Colorist: Dono Sanchez-Almara
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Editor: Devin Lewis
Publisher: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 13, 2019

Previously on Morbius: Michael Morbius is an award winning biologist and in an attempt to cure his blood disease. When he decided to experiment on himself with the DNA of a vampire bat; he turned himself into a living vampire. Now that he is cured from his blood disorder, Morbius begins to look for a cure to deal with his vampirism.

LOOKING FOR A CURE

The book starts with a bunch of mooks under the employ of the Melter working on an alchemical formula of some sort. Suddenly, they are attacked by Morbius and the mooks seem to fall both from Morbius’ attacks and Melter’s friendly fire. Morbius’ main goal was not to take out Melter but instead steal some of his science supplies. After the attack, Melter is approached by an unknown lady who appears to be a vampire hunter. Morbius is later seen using some of the science supplies and creating a formula that he injects into his neck. While it doesn’t cure the vampirism, it does subside the bloodlust momentarily before he erupts and his bloodlust begins to seem insatiable.

ARISTOTLE PHILOSOPHY

Morbius is a character who is a victim of his own genius. It is a trope that we see often in Spider-Man comics. The genius is pushed into a corner and must use his own experiment to prove something or to save himself. The experiment then turns him into something else because he wasn’t as smart as he originally thought. I think what makes Morbius’ unique here is the inner dialogue that he has throughout the comic book. He thinks like a philosopher and seems to be questioning his actions at every corner. This inner dialogue shows his inner turmoil and keeps the trope fresh.

However despite the great idea, I think the writing is overshadowed by the art in the comic scenes. The artwork is much stronger than the story being told and often you are distracted from the dialogue because of how dynamic the art is. Dynamic art is not a bad thing but there needed to be more of a balance between the writing. For example, there is a scene where the Melter takes his gun and fires. I am so enthralled by the look of flame coming from the gun and the burned guards on the next panel that I missed the dialogue. When I went back to read it, the writing wasn’t all that interesting.

BOTTOM LINE: VIVID

The book has good ideas but they were outshined by the artwork. I think more subtlety was needed to be able to create a better balance. If you are interested in a gorgeous and vivid book then I think you will enjoy this one. Morbius is also an interesting character that deserves some more attention. 3.5 out of 5 stars for Mornius #1.

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