In his relentless hunt to cure vampire curse, the research of Michael Morbius has fallen into the hands of a madman, with twisted designs on transforming the world. With allies Spider-Man and a former friend that wants him dead, the philosopher-with-fangs fights for his very life in the latest Morbius the Living Vampire.
Since his youth in Greece, Dr. Michael Morbius has suffered from a rare blood disorder, and his experiments into antidote transformed him into a bloodthirsty vampire. Yet, while the act of drawing blood from his prey allows him to revert to his human form, the scientist is wracked with chronic guilt and abhorrence over his craven, animalistic behavior. His metamorphosis has also reaped a greater tragedy -- the death of his childhood friend Emil, and the lasting animosity between his fellow researcher’s sister Elizabeth... and the devil that slew her brother.
Elizabeth’s ambitious schemes of vengeance go astray when her hired-hand, the mercenary Melter absconds with Morbius’ experimental serum and injects it into unwilling sacrifices in the villain’s secret lair. Spawned from the Morbius' own serum, Melter’s human test subjects are turned into hideous creatures: a giant cricket, a deformed pigeon-man, a bat-like fiend, and a were-rat of impossible proportions. Like an animal cornered, Melter lashes out when confronted by Morbius and injects himself with his modified serum. Transformed into a canine-humanoid hybrid, Melter masters the mutated mob and it falls to the tortured doctor to cure the malformed menace in Morbius the Living Vampire.
Writer Vita Ayala leads an exceptional creative team on Marvel’s Morbius the Living Vampire with Marcelo Ferreira, Francesco Mobili, Roberto Poggi, JP Mayer, Scott Hanna, and Dono Sanchez-Almara. The artwork has an elegant density, designed to create a dark, cinematic style with heavy shadowing accentuating the bleached-white highlights. Vita Ayala’s Morbius is a gothic tale of tragedy, cruelty, and the supernatural. Yet, it is more psychological than most tales of blood-thirsty vampires and their thralls. Michael Morbius is torn between the avaricious vampire-within and humanity that he craves to rejoin, lamenting, “I only pray that my need for a solution will not overcome my reason. I only wish to be a man.”
The existential and melancholic vampire, doomed by a ghastly blight of his blood, continues his search for a cure in Vita Ayala’s latest Morbius the Living Vampire, from Marvel Comics. Morbius the Living Vampire is available now for digital download at Marvel and Comixology, and a curbside-comic shop pick-up near you!
- Morbius the Living Vampire #5
- Writer: Vita Ayala
- Pencillers: Marcelo Ferreira and Francesco Mobili
- Inkers: Roberto Poggi, JP Mayer, Scott Hanna
- Colorist: Dono Sanchez-Almara
- Cover Artist: Skan
- For years, Michael Morbius has looked in the mirror and seen a monster. Thanks to his recent tampering with his own genes, that horror has become a reality. Can his immortal bloodlust finally be satiated – and at what cost?