Didja Know... The Morbid Michael Morbius

Didja Know digs into the fun facts, strange stories, and divine details that helped build the hallowed halls of the House of Ideas!

MORBIUS #1 stands to shed some sunlight on one of the Marvel Universe’s most unique characters, one who tends to spend his time in the shadows—but why? Well, effendi, he’s Morbius the Living Vampire and he can do whatever he wants!

“Living Vampire?” you inquire with insight and urgency! How so? What’s it all mean?

Your querulous queries are about to be covered, chums, in a way only Didja Know can dish it…so quicker than you can say “Bela Lugosi,” it's ready, steady, go-go!

Didja Know… Morbius lived because he couldn’t die?

Ahh, our pasty-faced pal’s life story remains one of the most unique among all the dazzling denizens of our nutty little neighborhood, and the roots of it dig down deep into a particular moment in comic book history and a little thing called the Comics Code Authority.

See, back in the day, comic books couldn’t cavort with characters like ghouls and ghosts, weirdies like werewolves, and, yep, those vivacious villains known as vampires. The Code forbid ‘em, and so it was from 1954 until 1971 and a wholesale revision of the rules…and suddenly the Things That Go Bump in the Night were allowed out from under the bed.

What’s this got to do with Morbius? When Marvel head-honcho Stan Lee directed rascally Roy Thomas to vamp up a vampire for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #101, everybody involved decided to hedge their bets and ease into the new world order…and so our friend with the fangs became a scientifically spawned living vampire and not one of the so-called “undead.” But the very next year? All bets were off, bunky, and the dead not only rose from the graves, they started a stampede!

Didja Know… Morbius made himself a vampire?

Bear with us as always, Marvelites, as we roll this one past ya—it all makes sense in the end. See, Michael Morbius, a scientist of soaring standing, sort of asked for the trouble he took on…

Born with a bombastic blood disorder that dissolved his cells, as related in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #102 he pushed his Nobel Prize money toward an experiment involving—get this—electro-shock, radiation, and vampire bats. Why? To cure himself, ‘course, but we honestly hate to say that when you cunningly combine such insane ingredients, aren’t you fanning the flames of failure in fantastic fashion?

Needless to notify you, Morbius emerged from his experiment resembling the traditional terror-titans of the old tales, a bloodsucker to beat the best of ‘em…and Spider-Man was the first to catch the brunt of his brutality. But, as they say, not the last! Read on!

Didja Know… Morbius once battled Spider-Man and the X-Men…at the same time!?

Hoo-boy, what a tale! After Morbius' initial go-rounds in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN he flew straight into an electrifying epic that unfolded in the pages of MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #3-4, and we’re here to tell ya: That crazy cat can really cut through the heroes when he’s hangry!

See, Morbius tussled with both Spidey and the Human Torch in the first part of the story, but in MARVEL TEAM-UP #4 he crossed the wrong costumed cut-ups, namely the merry mutants known as the X-Men. The vampy came to the attention of Professor X when he kidnapped a scientist pal of the X-Men leader and in doing so brought the furshlugginer house down on himself—a house occupied by Cyclops, Angel, Marvel Girl, Iceman, and a certain webby wonder!

We’re looking forward to the all-new MORBIUS #1 and can’t wait to see what wild and wacky webs he gets tangled in this time. Is he hero or villain or something in-between? The answers will astound you, True Believers!

Peruse these eye-poppin' publications with Marvel Unlimited right now! Then visit your local comic shop to read MORBIUS #1 on Wednesday, November 13!