Everything You Need To Know About Marvel’s Living Vampire Morbius

Morbius The Living Vampire:

We just had our first-ever look at the teaser trailer of Morbius, The Living Vampire of Marvel. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is off battling aliens in the MCU. On the other hand, Sony is hard at work building out its own Spider-Verse. Moreover, it is using various characters from the web slinger’s impressive canon in its Spider-Verse.

Fortunately for Sony, Spider-Man has a wide range of villains, allies and frenemies that have yet to make a debut onscreen. In this regard, the new Spider-Verse starts off this fall with Ruben Fleischer’s Venom hitting theatres. Moreover, Nightwatch, along with Silver and Black, are still in development. Furthermore, the Morbius Movie Trailer has released. And according to reports, the Morbius spinoff film is already in the process of casting. What is surprising is that DCEU’s Joker, Jared Leto, is signing on to play The Living Vampire.

 

Morbius, The Living Vampire Has A Tragic Origin:

Doctor Octopus, The Lizard, Sandman: Spider-Man has no shortage of tragic villains and Morbius is no exception. Roy Thomas created the character of The Living Vampire, with a design by Gil Kane. The design first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971.

Michael Morbius was born to a single mother in Greece. He grows up with a rare blood condition that makes him extremely weak. However, he is quite gifted intellectually. Upon growing, he becomes a doctor, in addition to a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist.

He eventually develops an experimental treatment using his knowledge of biochemistry. He does this as an attempt to find a cure for fatal blood diseases, for himself as well as others. This treatment involves the use of vampire bats as well as electroshock therapy. And in the process, he subjects himself to the treatment as well, which is both successful as well as failure. His blood condition gets cured. However, he is left with horrific side effects from the treatment.

After the experimental procedure, Morbius undergoes major physical changes. He transforms to look a lot like the vampire bats that were a part of his experiment. Subsequently, his ears and nose reshaping to become very bat-like. His skin turns white and he even grows fangs. Simply put, he starts looking like a man-bat and also a vampire. Along with his physical transformation, Morbius also becomes afflicted with that traditional vampiric thirst for human blood, which he needs to consume in order to survive. And this is how he gets the name The Living Vampire.

 

The Powers And Weaknesses Of Morbius:

Morbius is not a true vampire, at least not in the traditional sense of the term. This is because his vampirism is the result of an act of science, instead of the supernatural. This is also why he gets the title “The Living Vampire.” Also, it is important to know that supernatural vampires do historically exist in the Marvel universe. The blade is an example.

Therefore, Morbius inhabits a world where he is unique among humans and vampires. He is a pseudo-vampire. So, he shares some of the benefits vampires traditionally enjoy, like superhuman strength and speed, along with gliding. He also possesses enhanced senses like night vision and echolocation. Furthermore, he can also hypnotize people.

Additionally, Morbius also has a healing factor like that of Wolverine. Also, unlike a regular vampire, those that suffer his bite only transform into living vampires like him some of the time. Of course, these powers and his continued existence all rely upon his consumption of the requisite amount of blood.

The Living Vampire also has some weaknesses. This includes sunshine. His skin is photosensitive. Moreover, his powers are also diminished during waking hours. Morbius doesn’t share all vampire weaknesses though. And since his condition is not mystical, the condition is not mystical, he is unaffected by garlic, holy water, silver or crucifixes.

 

He Has Been Both Villain As Well As An Anti-Hero:

Morbius is traditionally considered as a villain in Spider-Man’s iconic rogues’ gallery. However, it is not as easy as we would like to think it is. The Living Vampire Morbius has been an antagonist. However, just like many before him, Morbius has become more of a tragic anti-hero.

When Morbius first transformed into The Living Vampire, he was consumed by bloodlust. And so, he killed the crew of a ship to satiate his blood cravings. It is around this time that Morbius and Spider-Man first encountered each other. Both of them were at Curt Conner’s beach house trying to cure their respective afflictions.

Subsequently, they battled when they met each other for the first time. The same happened multiple other times as Morbius sought Spider-Man’s radioactive blood. This is because Spidey’s blood sustained him for long periods of time and even temporarily cured his condition.

Therefore, in his quest for a cure and because of his need to consume the blood of human innocents to stay alive, Morbius has fought a lot of heroes. Furthermore, he has battled members of the X-Men as well as the Fantastic Four.

Eventually though, after a personal tragedy, Morbius vowed never to drink the blood of innocents and only feed on the wicked. He then took on the alias of Morgan Michaels and got a job at a hospital. As an anti-hero, he has served as a part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff agency A.R.M.O.R.

Morbius, or The Living Vampire, has also been a member of the Midnight Sons. This group was formed by Doctor Strange to battle the goddess and mother of demons Lilith. Ever since they have fought dark as well as supernatural forces. Morbius has also led the group a number of times while fighting alongside famous members of the group. These include Doctor Strange, Wong, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider and Blade.

In conclusion, Morbius is a rich and tragic character. In saying so, with the release of the Morbius Movie Trailer, and the subsequent release of the film, you will be able to see what makes him an interesting choice for his own spinoff movie.