Morbius The Living Vampire - Blog Posts

Ahh, so that’s why Morbius hasn’t been very active in the comics lately…

He was on vacation 😂😂😂

This is hilarious if you’re just skimming along and you actually like a certain comic book character. I was this close to saying ‘What do you mean? he’s always technically been a doctor, he’s in medical science and has a phd…’ . But then I read it again slowly, and looked at the surrounding context: damnit! Bamboozled again by one of the only three characters in all of fiction named Morbius.

Oh! But then It looped back around again when I saw that this guy also will never escape being associated with That Movie! Or, apparently, Matt Smith? (No offense 11th doctor fans 👍)

its funny that now theyre called the morbius doctors. and now they have to be related by name to the matt smith film forever

Multimedia Morbs Headcanons #5:

@scrimbydimby asks:

Q1) “How do they feel about their significant others? If they don't have one (in the case of Cartoon Ultimate) what would their ideal be?”

TAS: Felicia was one of the first people to actually treat him like a person at school and not some foreign weirdo. He was so heartbroken to think he scared her during those first few nights after his accident, but then after she got over the shock, she still tried to help him! And even after his little hibernation stint in that remote cave on that island, when he woke she still loved him and came back to him!! Obviously nothing can or ever will come between them (she never mentioned her partnership with Spider-Man as Black Cat or that she was going out with Peter when they first met; and thank god he never put together that Peter Parker was Spider-Man…).

Ultimate: Love Shmove! W-what does he need that for? (Stuttering in 40-year-old virgin..) Love would just be a distraction from the real important things in life: like science, and promotions, and (gaining his father’s respect/love…); B-but, if he had to describe an ideal partner: just as smart as he is, affectionate, appealing to look at… maybe a blonde? (Notice how he never specified gender…)

616: Oof… yeah, he’s not currently seeing anyone… (And maybe he’s just not ready to?). Things didn’t end well with Martine (he screwed up, she screwed up, they both kind of screwed up together?), and it’s not like he didn’t try to date again (the 90s through 2010s just weren’t his decades). Not to mention his old childhood crush/friend Elizabeth showing up; and that really was the point at which he realized he might need to work on himself first. Yeah, so for right now he’s just content to platonically be ”Lab Partners” with The Lizard for now. (This doesn’t give Blood ties much hope (also, since when did Nikos have a younger sister?); Midnight Son absolutely ships him and the lizard, and is rooting for them to discover their feelings for each other!)

Blood ties: He still misses his fiancée Martine, and as soon as he’s done helping Amanda, he’s going right back to searching for her! She’s got to still be out there! Surely she doesn’t hate him? Surely she won’t think he’s a monster, right? Oh, who is he kidding… (he’s a moppy mess and 616 is hesitant to tell him how close he probably is to being reunited, mostly because he remembers it barely lasting, but also because their paths have long since diverged and it might not actually happen…)

Midnight Son: The Hunter is nice, they’re not really a thing together or anything, but… W-well! Man or Woman, they’ve always been kind to him and tried to include him in stuff going on at the manor… And and! They took interest in what he had to say, even outside of midnight suns stuff! And, just… yeah they make his heart flutter (Ultimate cynically thinks he should get that checked out…)

Wii game: He loves his wife, absolutely forgives her for the whole symbiote thing and turning him into a monster (obviously they both got better, you know?); just an absolute Wife-guy! (Everyone is shocked for quite a few reasons: 1) what do you mean “wife”? (none of them got past “fiancée” without something bad happening), 2) what do you mean “you got better”? (None of them ever managed to get completely cured or stay that way for long), and 3)who the fuck are you?)

Movie: Well, he and Martine weren’t quite together yet… He liked her a lot, she was a good nurse and a good friend, but he just hadn’t gotten around to asking her out or anything. There just always seemed to be something in the way at the time, like patients or research or something… And a first date always felt like it might be awkward, cause like, she’s literally seen him in his worst condition and literally counted his vertebrae! He already felt unofficially close to her, so he just never made a move… and now she’s gone (and it was his fault!), so… what’s the point now? (616 isn’t sure how to tell him that Martine might not actually be dead currently; and boy does he know that that’s not automatically a good thing…)

Q2) “How do they feel about their Spider-Man? If they don't have one (Movie Morbius) how do they feel about their antagonist?”

TAS: Honestly, Spider-man meant well and he (Michael) was being a bit of jerk/terror to others during those first few nights, however he still didn’t appreciate getting punched a couple times…Howevere, if he was going to be upset with anyone, it would be that little jerk Parker for whatever the fuck was in that “blood sample” that he was going to use to cheat in Dr.Connor’s class with (ain’t no way and no how that he made that stuff himself!)

Ultimate: he’s not scared of Spider-Man… who said anything about that? It’s not like that guy can fold Octavius in half and regularly punches symbiotes in the face… Or that he may or may not have accidentally targeted some high school girl that meant something to that red and blue menace…

616: *sigh* He’s tired of dealing with Spider-Man, it’s too much of a hot and cold relationship, really. Some days Spidey gets it: that he doesn’t want to do any of the things his hunger urges him to do and that he just needs a little assistance to snap out of it… and then on other days, Spider-Man will snap: basically use him as a punching bag! He gets that sometimes his hunger can make him a threat, but the amount of times he’s been sent through multiple walls? when it’s not even his fault? it’s too many! it’s almost hypocritical…

Blood ties: meh, they had a rocky start, but he doesn’t really interact with that guy all that much anymore? If anything he just hasn’t had time to think about Spider-Man or that part of his life very much lately…

Midnight Son: ehh, the young man (and he can tell that his Spider-Man is still young) is a good enough teammate. Between him and Blade missions are less awkward than with any other combination of heroes… (maybe it’s out of familiarity?).

Movie: He… hesitates to call Mil- No, Lucien, his antagonist. They were like brothers, and-and Lucien had good reason to be upset when he tried to withhold the “Cure” from him, and most of the irrational behavior wasn’t actually him talking, but… He tried to warn Milo about the side effects, so why…? Why didn’t he listen to him? Why didn’t he trust him when he said it wasn’t worth it? Everything he ever did, he did it for both of them! He wanted to find a better way to do that, but now there’s NO POINT! Now, it’s too late: he’s dead! Dead because I loved him! Dead because he thought I no longer cared…

Bonus Question:

BQ1) What do they think of Dracula?

TAS: Which one? Historical Dracula, or his great great grand-something-or-other that’s still running walaicha? Or are we talking about Movie Dracula? Because Bella Lugosi will always be the classical version, but personally, he liked Cristopher Lee better…

Ultimate: it was a good book, very modern for its time, really enjoyed the cowboy!

616: Dracula should go gargle two 2-inch balls of garlic-salt! And that stupid looking suit of blood-red armor is just tacky! Why, He even wishes he could go back in time to when he still thought Dracula was just a fictional character!!

1610: Yeah! his older brother suuuucks…! (yep, even more than the average vampire already does…) And you know what, if he could, he would absolutely take a stake to him himself!

Blood ties: Umm, isn’t Dracula just a fictional character? Also is anyone going to address that last guy’s answer? (Who was that anyway?)

Midnight Son: Dracula sucks, Period. He’s a research stealing, forethought lacking, Hack of a leader! And he deserves every splinter he gets each time Blade or some other vampire hunter drives a stake into his dried up husk of a heart!!

Movie: Hmmm, actually Copula’s Dracula is the best (sorry TAS…); wait, why is everyone else implying that Dracula is a real actual person in their universe?

Even though today’s discussion questions have been answered, many more have been raised: Who are these extra Morbs? How long have there been other cell blocks on either side of theirs? And who, or what, might be in them?

Does anyone else have Questions?

Multimedia Morbs Headcanon #4:

Q1) How do they react to being bodily picked up?

TAS: didn’t notice it during his fight with spider-man (just figured spidey had super strength, isn’t wrong…), was shocked and pleasantly surprised when black-cat did it (it would be pretty hot, wouldn’t it? even without her powers she could still lift him probably), but he was incredibly embarrassed when Blade picked him up (Blade was also surprised, but he didn’t let on)

Ultimate: absolutely pissed if done while awake, if unconscious then he goes limp as a noodle (that makes things worse given his wings make it even more awkward to pick him up)

616: resignation, this has happened way too often; thankfully, it usually happens when he’s unconscious (he’s always been underweight and considered liftable, even before his accident, it’s just now more people qualify as “strong enough” to pick him up)

Blood ties: is always a little surprised when it happens, but he can still pick others up just as easily, so he still thinks of it as kind of fair (just don’t tell Amanda! she probably wouldn’t do anything with it… but he’d definitely have a hard time living that down)

Midnight Son: Once it was found out, he was nudged into participating in a “fastball special” competition against the Wolverine (for scientific and team building purposes): technically he goes further and can partner up with more teammates, but Logan still hits harder on impact, so… therefore: The Wolverine won the game.

Movie: no one has ever tried to pick him up, but he remembers almost being blown off that rooftop by the wind; so he’s under no illusions that it can’t be done. He would hope, though, that no one else figure that out (but if somebody were to pick him up, he’d want it to be Martine; it will probably be venom instead)

Q2) Most interesting secondary superpower/mutation that they have?

TAS: the underlying psionic ability he has that lets him hover/float; he has no idea where it came from, or how bat DNA or the neogenic process could have caused it… and that is so exciting for him! (616 had a more developed version of it, but his has atrophied over the years since he discovered it in the 90s; since 616’s ability didn’t stop at flight, does that mean TAS’s will also develop further? If not then what makes his different from 616’s? They like to work together on this as a form of bonding)

Ultimate: energy manipulation, it’s technically a very integral part of how he eats but it also goes further than just that… or at least it has the potential to go further than that and become something greater! However, He’s still working on that part, though…

616: he can taste things like: blood type, drug usage, demonic heritage, or if you have a working copy of the ‘X’ gene from just one mouthful of blood; He’s not doing it consciously, and it’s not exactly flashy, but the fact that it continues to come in handy is what makes it interesting for him (he already knows that nothing in his body works in any way, shape, or form that could be called ‘normal’ so stuff like that isn’t as interesting for him)

Blood ties: The reaction he has to demon blood is very interesting, could other similar substances create different effects? (This is highly unethical to look further into… but Amanda isn’t around to tell him ‘No!’, so…?)

Midnight Son: Mist form, nobody else can do it or explain it so that makes it unique, and therefore interesting! (The others would actually argue that it’s his card deck that’s most interesting, but since that’s just how the rules of his reality work he never considers this)

Movie: echolocation, since it lets him see through walls and across town, but also it lets him predict where objects in motion are going to be next and lets him communicate with bats! It’s so overwhelming (read: over powered) sometimes though… so he tries to use it sparingly.

Q3) Least favorite side effect of their powers (besides the hunger)?

TAS: accidental synesthesia of his sense of taste and touch, sometimes the hand-suckers leave a sort of phantom aftertaste in his mouth after using them.

Ultimate: inability to digest solids, since whatever mechanism lets him absorb life force also renders him unable to keep down solid food. He intentionally designed it with this cruelty in mind when he was going to use it on octavius, but unfortunately it got turned on him instead…

616: accidentally created/unlocked a very strong self preservation instinct, it keeps him from offing himself but often at the price of a loss of control until the life threatening part is over, it has made him do things that he wouldn’t consciously do (according to others: makes him very verbose and prone to slipping into the 3rd person tense in English)

Blood ties: can go through ‘withdrawal symptoms’ on par with coming off of heavy narcotics when he hasn’t fed in a long enough period; it’s different from just being ”hungry” though; (616 theorizes that it has to do with Blood ties’ body using the effects of his respective formula to offset his chronic disease, and the absence of fresh blood renders those effects inert: therefore he’s just dying again…)

Midnight Son: tooth sensitivity, the bat species he used for his experiment typically has less of the hard outer enamel that human teeth have, this is part of what makes their teeth razor sharp. But the gene didn't exactly express the same way while using human teeth as a base ( instead it thinned out his enamel in a way that left it sensitive to temperature and sweets, but technically did make them sharper…)

Movie: accidental synesthesia of his sight and new super-hearing/ echolocation, sometimes loud/sudden/harsh noises kick up visual feedback through this connection and that can be anywhere from mildly annoying to two-day-long-migraine causing

What would you ask them?

Baby’s First year… 2-3 months:

[Deep in the pits of New York City’s underground, further below even the bowels of its deepest darkest subways or dankest sewers,there is a man of medical science descending a dark ladder into even deeper depths still…]

Morbius: *hand over hand, trying to maintain 3-points of contact with the ladder at all times, unfortunately he has a rolled up playpen slung across his back and a partially unzipped backpack bulging around his chest that makes that kind of difficult; he mumbles to himself in Greek…* « it’s going to be fine. It’s going to be ok. It’s going to fine. It’s going to be ok…»

Morbius: *as his foot comes searching downwards for the rung below, it momentarily slides off the much closer than expected surface before finally gaining purchase. Morbius tenses at once, waiting for his heart to stop trying to pummel its way out of his chest (unbeknownst to him during his pause, for brief moment a second pair of footfalls can be felt out of step on the ladder before also coming to a halt); the contents of his backpack burble at him, and it becomes immediately obvious that he is not frightened for himself* «shhh… everything is fine little one. I will not misstep again, I promise you that… just hold on a little longer as we are almost there!»

Morbius: *there is a change in the quality of air as feet finally come to a rest on solid ground. Even in the pitch black, he takes a moment to check on his young charge. Little golden eyes stare adoringly up at him as he lifts the baby out of the backpack and into the crook of his arm. He swings the empty bag around to sit with the playpen before turning to start down the open tunnel* «Yes, you look well and that is good… now! Thank you for being so brave little one, as a reward I have something I want to share with you…»

[Eventually the tunnel begins to widen, and then brighten, until finally a large brightly lit cave mouth leading a steep drop-off is reached. Inside this cavern is a Terrific sight: a sprawling urban metropolis, unjudged by human eyes and wrought entirely by monstrous appendages alone, glitters magnificently below]

Morbius: *proudly hefting the child so he can get a good look* «Behold, little one, the greatest thing I have ever been a part of: “Monster Metropolis”…»

[Now that there is more than enough room for flight, Morbius holds the Baby closer to his chest and takes off into the subterranean gloom… Heading for a rundown looking civil building in the heart of town, he circles the building twice before finding an open window to touchdown at]

Morbius: *trying to enter the window quietly, with a two and a half month old to his chest, without making too much noise:*

Manphibian: *scowling eyes shining through the darkness, fins agitatedly erect, standing judgingly amongst the silhouettes of other key monsters, waiting menacingly/disappointedly in the dark for a certain tardy doctor* “Ssso, you finally shhowed up after … 6 monthssss? Doesss that mean you’re ready to help usss poor unfortunatesss now?”

Morbius: *caught straddling a window frame again, this time facing a whole firing squad instead of one angry lab partner, oh well atleast he was able to point the baby inside over the window seal; grimacing on the inside, but pretending nothing is wrong on the outside as he finishes slipping into the room * “Ahh, καλησπέρα Manphibian… Gentlemen, it is nice to see you all again after so long, too… Has it really been 6 months, Frank? N’kantu? Jack…?”

Werewolf by Night: *hackles raised as he breaks away from the other monsters to lecture Morbius: his tone says he’s not mad, just disappointed at Morbius’ attempts to play things off (as shown by an exasperated face palm), however he’s not afraid to rip him a new one as he starts lecturing the living vampire (gesticulating wildly as he does so) … until he pauses for a second to notice the little bundle of joy in Michael’s arms* “Yeah Mike, it has been 6 months, which means it’s a madhouse downstairs! which means we’re packed to the gills with folks here for everything from silver bullet wounds to their annual visit! And you.. You were supposed to be here months ago!! Of all the dumb, self aggrandizing, scientific shit that you and The Lizard are doing up in that dumb tower of yours, what on earth has kept you away from us little people for so long-uhhh, woah! Um, what’cha… whatcha got there, uh, Mike?”

[various sets of glowing and or glassy nearly-dead eyes try to follow jack’s golden gaze to figure out what brought his tirade to a halt… N’kantu is the first to notice, but before anything can even leave his Shara parched lips, the rest also notice the child… Suddenly there’s lots of lisping murmuring from Manphibian, in addition to exchanged looks of disbelief and confusion from Frankenstein’s monster and N’kantu the living mummy as they all wait with baited breath for Morbius’ answer; you’d almost think they’d never seen someone hold a baby up close before…]

Morbius: *big eye roll at everyone being so dramatically curious, reflexively decides to respond with sarcasm; without missing a beat, pulls off the rolled up playpen and the backpack of baby stuff and hands them, plus the baby, over to Jack before walking away * “Obviously my ‘Lunch’, Jack… Do you think you could set him up in the break room for me? Apparently I have a backlog of patients I need to attend to”

Werewolf by Night: *dumbfounded that he was handed the baby, he looks down at the little bundle and gives it a gentle sniff test across its fuzzy little head: it definitely a baby, but there’s something familiar in its scent…, the baby’s eyes crinkle as he burbles with delight at being snuffed, he grins back up at the Werewolf by Night: sharp tiny front-toofers glisten in his mouth; the implications do not go unnoticed by Jack* “woah, uhh???” *sniff sniff-sniff* [pause] *snuffle-snuffle sniff* *[happy burble~]* “wait-a-minute!!”

Werewolf by Night: *having left the others in his dust, now furiously trotting after Morbius with the baby and it’s gear in tow, quickly gaining ground on him!* “Hey! Hey! wait a minute, Michael! Hold on, hold on! Since when have you started eating baby vampires?”

Morbius: *drily, not breaking step, tired of all the lectures and questions by now* “Oh… since around three months ago, when this one was dumped on my doorstep…”

Morbius: *arrives at elevator bank, still yanking Jack’s chain while he waits for one to come; ends with a demented full smile * “yes~, and since then I just cannot get enough of them… you know Jack, you should really try one sometime?”

Werewolf by Night: *knows exactly what he’s hinting at, and doesn’t appreciate Morbius’ blasé attitude; follows him into the elevator when the door dings* “Oh? I should, huh? What do I look like, Nana, To you?”

Morbius:* Looks him coolly in the eyes, his reflective red peircing jack’s lupine yellow, daring him to keep talking* “Well, if you can keep him alive until I finish my shift, you can be his νονός instead…”

Werewolf by Night: *the doors slide closed as Jack does his best to ponder his limited Greek vocabulary for a translation…* “Nonos…?”

[Moments later the elevator opens again on the second floor now, the murmuring of a crowded room can be heard just down the hallway… the two standing in the doorway of the elevator: Morbius happy at having stunned the werewolf into silence, and Jack with an epiphany having gone off behind his eyes]

Werewolf by Night: *with big, teary, indescribably happy, Lupine Puppy-dog-eyes he turns to look at the smug doctor; if Jack had a tail nothing in that elevator would be safe from it right now…* “ wha… Michael!!? You-you really want me to be his Godfather?”

Morbius: *realizing his mistake, steps off the elevator like he’s in a hurry to get down to business, practically running to the door in embarrassment; tries using ‘logical reasoning’ to explain this actual spur of the moment decision * “Of-of course!! After all, You are only my second oldest surviving positive relationship… and, er, you are strong and capable of defending yourself and others… oh! And plus, superheroes do not bother you all that much for some reason … So… of course, you are the best backup guardian for the little one should something happen!!”

Werewolf by Night: *ignoring the embarrassed posturing, surely Micheal wouldn’t make such an offer if he didn’t mean it! Gives him a hearty slap on the back before leaving cheerfully * “Heh~ Whatever you say Doc, I guess me and the little guy will be right over here in the break room if you need us… Go knock’em dead tiger!”

Morbius: *sourly scowls one last time before opening the door and leaping into the metaphorical fray* “you know, generally that is the opposite of what I intended to do…”

[in the break room, Jack sat the rolled up playpen on the ground, placed the backpack on the countertop, and just held onto the baby as he starts unloading stuff: there are dippers and bottles and a pacie and an extra change of baby clothes and… There’s almost no end to the things that Jack pulls from the bag. But just when he starts to question if Morbius maybe asked Dr. Strange to enchant the bag, Jack finally realizes he’s done setting up all the baby stuff! And that’s exactly when he notices the little fella becoming fussy]

Werewolf by Night: *panics a bit since he’s just barely into his 30s and only has a superficial knowledge of how to take care of a fussy baby (doesn’t help that this one is a fussy baby vampire either); he finally figures out what the problem is when the baby tries to sink his teeth into Jack’s palm* “Woah! Woah! Shhh, shhh… it’s ok, it’s ok? W-what’s up little guy, are you tired? Do I do I need to change you, or? what’s going- aAGH!”

Werewolf by Night: *More surprised than hurt, he checks on his hand: his fur is now slightly shorter and a bit soggy were the baby bit, but the kid didn’t actually draw any blood thankfully (he doesn’t need vampirism and this baby does NOT need lycanthropy!); very quickly he goes from annoyed to making baby talk at the little guy to try and calm him down* “*sigh* Ok, note to self, Morb jr. is hungry… Ah! But atweast he didn’t getta mowthful of werewolf blood, no he didn’t ~ Oh no he didn’t!~ ‘Cause him’s daddy would kill me if I handed him back a puppy!, Oh yes he would~ Oh yes he would!~”

Werewolf by Night: *Juggling turning the now squirmy and bite-y baby to face away from his body while at the same time looking for “baby food” : he paws through all the stuff he just set out, not exactly sure what to he should expect it to look like either… until he finds a bag of opaque pink liquid labeled in big messy sharpie ‘B-Negative Formula’* “Ok then little guy, why don’t. you help me. look for… your… Lunch! Got it! Alright! One bag of ‘B-Negative’s Formula’ coming right up!”

Werewolf by Night: *having transferred the contents of the bag into a bottle and set the little one up to feed, realizes something important* “wait a minute… Is your Name ‘B-Negative’, little guy?”

B-Negative: *turns those cute little glowy golden eyes to look lovingly up at Jack while he gratefully sucks down the bottle*

Werewolf by Night: *has to shake his head at the absurdity, but ends with a smirk* “heh, of course your Daddies named you like a science experiment! What else should I have expected…?”

[meanwhile, in the Examination Room, Morbius goes through patient after patient making diagnoses and administering treatment to many a different and strange problem faced by these monstrous citizens]

Morbius: *trying to reassure a large snake woman that she’s good to leave now; he practically has to shove her out the door…* “*sigh* Yes, yes I promise Mrs.Echidna, that cream should absolutely clear up your scale-rot! Yes, and if you would just go on to the front desk where one of my associates will write you a prescription for it at your local pharmacy… Yes, the door back is just down the hallway… Mhmm, you just read the instructions… yes, yes of course, but you need to go get it first… so if you would kindly? Yes, ‘goodbye’ Mrs.Echidna!”

Morbius: *watches to make sure she actually leaves through the correct door before checking for his next patient* “Ο δόξα το Θεό! I thought she’d never leave… Ok, and the next one is…? One, ‘Mr.Barlow’?”

Morbius: *radios to Manphibian to let the next patient through, and then waits…*

Morbius: *he waits for five minutes before he notices the noise of the waiting room escalate through the painfully thin walls of the examination room, and then he hears/nearly feels a suspicious *THUD* from something striking the floor in there* “what on earth is going on up there?”

Morbius: *Deciding to investigate, he goes to check the hallway: one of the bulbs at the end has decided to flicker ominously, and he can now hear screaming coming from the door at the end of the hallway that leads to the waiting room! He gets halfway down the hall when it stops; he also pauses for a moment*

Morbius: *finally, the door to the hallway creaks open to reveal an older looking nosferatu-style vampire… but something looks off about the way he fills up the door way…; fearing something medically might be wrong, Michael calls out to him* “Hello? Mr.Barlow? Do you need any assistance?”

[Mr.Barlow never gets a chance to reply: as suddenly his eyes bulge and he attempts to let out a scream that gets quickly silenced by the glint of a blade slicing cleanly through his wind pipe and the rest of his neck! The body starts to smoke and catch fire as it crumbles forward into the hallway, as if pushed from behind, and someone else enters the room]:

Blade: *with all the menacing British vampire hunter swagger he has* “I’m afraid it’s too late for him, Morbius… But you can help me out by pointing me towards that bloody little bundle of joy I watched you drag down here!”

Morbius: *has a pretty good idea of what Blade would do to the baby and decides that that’s unacceptable; furious, he crouches forward, ready to spring into a fight* “I am afraid that you are not scheduled for an appointment with us today, Blade! In fact, YOU WILL SEE THAT CHILD OVER MY DEAD BODY!!”

Blade: *pointing up the tip of his sword, signaling that he is also ready for a fight* “I see… so it’s going to be like that, is it?”

Morbius: *launching himself forward, all claws and teeth, ready to die for “his” child* “YES, IT SHALL!!”

To be Continued in the next issue of‘Blade’…

[Part 2 of 6]

Months after both the Blood Hunt and Venom War events…

Dr. Strange: *entering the master bedroom of the sanctum sanctorum in nothing but his cloak of levitation, doing his best attempt at seduction* “Clea Strange: I’ve come to bargain!”

Clea: *On the bed and also naked, doing her best to humor her husband’s attempt by not giggling* “Oh? And what, lowly Sorcerer Strange, do you come to bargain for?”

Dr. Strange: *joining her on the bed* “Why, O queen of the Dark dimension, your first born child, of course…”

Clea: *still trying not to crack up, they’re on take #27 and this is the furthest they’ve gotten yet (she just can’t help it, she loves her man dearly, but she finds earthly mating rituals to be so silly)* “ Is *snk* is that so? And-and what do you have to offer in return?”

Dr.Strange: *cupping her face in his hands, leaning in for a sweet sincere kiss* “an evening so magical it would make even fair Aphrodite blush”

Clea: *leans into the kiss, otherwise she might finally burst; it’s absolutely magical, but as they pull apart for an air break she happens look at the window… and what she sees there turns her love and mirth into embarrassment and terror: a shiny pair of red tapetum lucidum are watching her!* “Gyahhh! STEPHAN! STEPHAN! The window!”

Dr.Strange: *whirls around, beet-red: he sees the blood red eyes too (but that shouldn’t be! that window is dressed to the nines in protective wards, nothing with even an iota of magic should be within 10ft of it!); however, through narrowed angry eyes, he knows exactly who’s peeping on them…* “goddamnit Michael… hold on a second Clea, I’ll be right back.

Dr.Strange: * leaves his cloak with his wife, and storms over to open the window * “By The Hoary Hosts, Michael Morbius! You better have a good reason for interrupting me and my wife!”

Morbius: *three points of contact in a death grip to continue hanging under the window seal, yet gently holding a bundle of something to his chest; he cannot seem to look dr.strange in the eye as he answers, he’s too embarrassed by what he saw* “ζητό συγγνώμη , I promise this is important Stephan…”

Dr.Strange: *still irate* “important? Someone better be out there dying or getting eaten by demons, Michael! This couldn’t wait till morning?”

Morbius: *bundle briefly starts squirming before stopping when he adjusts it* “It has waited for far too many mornings, I am afraid, and neither the Lizard nor I know what to do anymore! I just feel so weak, now and… you know, I nearly fell out of the sky just getting here!”

Dr.Strange: *wary, but puzzled* “look, if you’re just asking for blood, know that I don’t have any for you-“

Morbius: *offended, then in pain as the contents of the bundle latches onto a bare patch of skin; he has to grip the window seal to not fall off* “Ugh! Tis not always about blood, and even if it was this time, it would not be for meeee-Aagh! Why!? Why!? Γιατί τα δοντάκια σας είναι ήδη τόσο κοφτερά ;!”

Dr.Strange: *more concerned now* “would you- would you like to come in to discuss this?”

Morbius: *clearly overwhelmed* “yes!”

Later…

In a Drawing room, seated in comfortable chairs by the fireplace , with everyone dressed and no longer hanging by a window seal:

Dr.Strange: *leaned forward in seat, elbows on knees, and fingers steepled; trying to be understanding* “So let me get this straight: you, and The Lizard, found a baby?”

Morbius: *nods In confirmation, is now holding said baby in a more open position on his lap (mostly so the baby can’t take another bite out of him…)* “Yes, someone left a foundling on our doorstep in a covered bassinet. We waited for του μωρού parents to come back for him for hours, but they never came. Eventually, the child got hungry… and well…” *waggles a bandaged index finger at the baby, the child laughs and tries to reach for it*

Clea: *has an ‘ah-ha’ moment as she points to the small fresh wound on Morbius’s chest* “Wait… are you saying that the infant did that?”

Dr.Strange: *concerned look at the baby: it’s just as plump and cherubic as any other infant, if a little pale…* “Is he… like you?”

Morbius: *looks down at the little bundle of ‘Joy’ with a frown: the baby looks back at him, the fire light catching tiny golden tapetum lucidum, and he smiles a big baby smile, showing off two slightly sharper than average baby-teeth…* “Ehhh, probably? Conners is at home running all the scientific tests, but we will not be sure until the morning. Meanwhile I came here, to you, for a second opinion…”

Clea: “… on whether or not the infant is Undead?”

Morbius: *lips pursed at the idea of ‘undeath’* “Well, I was just going to say ‘Supernatural’… but yes. I did wonder if he would ever have a chance to grow up… to maybe get better…”

Dr.Strange: *understands where Morbius’ concerns come from, tries to reassure his friend* “hmmm… well I can confirm, he is not ‘supernatural’ as you put it; a vampire his size would not have survived all the Wards you traipsed through to get to my window, Michael.”

Morbius: *surprised pikachu face in horror as it dawns on him how careless he was* “ what do you mean ‘survive’…?”

Clea: *trying to distract their guest* “So, how have you been feeding him then? what has his feeding schedule been like? Have you setup a routine for him yet? What names are you thinking about? Did you see if he already had one…

*Clea proceeds to as a thousand questions that just didn’t occur to the poor scientist; (Dr.Strange could absolutely kiss his wife right about now, her distraction is working!)*

I’m sorry, did you tag Morbius as one of the villains in love? Because the two of them literally don’t give two shits about each other. Bro is barely a Spider-Man “Enemy”, they just don’t have that much chemistry (I.e. neither of them hates the other nearly as much as some of these other guys do, like they’re just a nuisance to each other and that’s it). I mean, yeah, on occasion Peter has felt bad for the guy… but more often than not he pounds him into the dirt for looking at a blood bag funny…

Peter Parker truly has a disproportionate amount of enemies that are homoerotically obsessed with him and yet Marvel maintains that he must stay straight

Multimedia Morbs head-canons 3:

What do they do if they found a lost child?

TAS: is nervous, looks around for the adult who was with the child, when he can’t find them then he tries to engage with the child. Depending on how upset the child is he would speak softly (At a certain volumes kids either find his accent silly or intimidating) or try to cheer them up with a silly face (he knows he looks weird and is banking on the kid not being off put by him if he casts the weirdness in a silly light) to gain their trust before asking what’s wrong. If he can get a description of the adult they were with, or maybe directions to someplace the child feels safe, he would scoop them up (holds little kids close to him, or lets the more adventurous ride on his shoulders) and fly them to that person/place. Once he finds it/them, he will set the child down a little ways away ( if a person) or on the doorstep (if a place) and then watch from afar until he knows that they’re safe. Then he breathes a sigh of relief and gets the heck out of dodge.

Ultimate: upon noticing an unaccompanied child, contemplates having a free snack. Ehh, there’s not much life force in something so small and the aftermath would be too much of a hassle, so he’ll keep on walking. He’d walk right past the distressed child, look directly into their little tear stained face, and keep walking. He’d continue walking away until what little sympathy he has finally starts to gnaw at him. He’ll stop, consider his options, and then find a payphone (of course he has his own work phone, but he isn’t going to use that to call the cops). He’d give 911 a brief anonymous description of what he saw and where he saw it, and then leave. Whatever happens next isn’t his problem anymore.

616: would be out on a late night run to the blood bank and already hangry. Spotting a lone child would definitely tip off his Prey drive, making him tense up and watch the child closely. Intently. Hungrily… until something breaks his line of sight on the child and he snaps out of it. Ashamed of what he was doing, he’d crawl up a building trying to put as much distance between him and the child as he can. And then he’d sit up there for a moment, all full of self loathing, until he really thinks about what he saw. There is a child in need down there, and they are all alone. There are absolutely worse things than him out here tonight, so he’d circle back to where he saw the child. He’d Panic a bit until he could see them, and then start to think of a way to get help for them without going down there (feels like he can’t trust himself with the child and also doesn’t want to frighten them). Ends up spending the whole night keeping an eye on the child from afar as they wander around until he can flag down a superhero (he’s hoping for dr.strange or daredevil, just anyone but Spider-Man; spidey doesn’t always hear him out, and usually ends up beating the shit out of him). No one ever comes their way, and he never does complete his blood-run, but at least he keeps the child safe until morning when they are found asleep by a police officer.

Blood ties: steps out one night to look for a drink while Amanda is asleep, doesn’t plan on being out for very long (hasn’t confided in Amanda yet, he doesn’t really want to scare her). He barely gets 10 feet away from where they’re staying before he finds an unattended child wandering around. The area is rough and seedy, so he has no illusions about what could happen to a child all alone. He decides to stuff his hunger deep down deep and try approaching the child as non threateningly as possible… it doesn’t really work well. In fact he ends up scaring the child into the path of something even worse than him. He manages to get the child away from the threat, but they have to make a run for it. He scoops up the child and flees back to where he and Amanda are staying, unfortunately bringing the threat with them. He has to wake her up to take care of the child while he goes back out to brutally beat the shit out of the bad guy/monster (hopefully where the kid won’t see it). In the morning Amanda takes the child to the police station while Michael gets some rest (she’s so going to chew him out later, though).

Midnight Son: is out on a mission with some teammates (maybe captain America and blade?, any combo really) When he thinks he hears something in a suspicious pile of rubble. He checks the deck, there’s an Echolocation card available, which he uses to find a child hiding from bad guys underneath. He knows that he’s not the best with children, but he can’t seem to pull any of his teammates’ cards to ask for a teamup. Guess this means he has to help the child himself. He tries moving the rubble With a Claw card, but that just makes the debris unstable. Judging from the outside he figures he might fit underneath if he had Mist Form in his hand… unfortunately a quick glance shows that he currently doesn’t have one of those ready to play. Honestly it’s so frustrating when you don’t have the right cards available! It wouldn’t be such a problem if he could just get the child to come out on their own, right? Unfortunately, he can tell that they’re scared; and of course, why shouldn’t they be? There are demons and hydra soldiers and vampires out here, all things that little children should definitely be afraid of. So the question is, how can he coax the child into coming out? A quick look at his hand provides the answer: a Charm card is playable. One use and the child timidly shimmies their own way out from their hiding spot, just in time for the rubble finally collapses inward. Together they look at it in stunned silence. The child clings tightly to him as he takes them back to the drop off area where he started the mission. Thankfully his teammates are already waiting for them; they must have finished the mission without him. However, upon hearing what happened, they both agree that he did the right thing by sticking back to help the child. Together they take the child back to the abbey for the night. In the morning they’ll get the authorities involved, but for now this child is going to meet all the superheroes they could ever dream of!

Movie: He finds a child all by themself on the street at night and they’re already crying their eyes out. After checking to see if there’s any adults nearby looking for them, he steps in to try and calm them down. Peekaboo doesn’t work (the kid is scared of his face trick), jokes don’t work (the kid is too young for Morbin’ Time jokes, which aren’t really that funny when he thinks about it), and in fact none of his usual bedside tricks seem to do the job. But there is still one thing he could try: very softly, he starts to sing. The waterworks immediately dry up to just a sniffle. Unfortunately, whenever he stops singing they start to tear up again, so he can’t really ask them any questions. It’s fine though, the child is pacified enough that he can look for a safe place to bring them on his own. He just hopes doesn’t run out of songs before that happens.

Ehhh, close enough. The Lizard actually just asked him to repeat it in English ( «στα αγγλικά;», or “in English?”). However, due to The Lizard’s fluency in Greek, and that the voice box on his translator keeps sticking on certain sounds, I can see why it translated like that.

Whenever the Venom War event is over:

Morbius: *trying to sneak back into the lab building he got from Blood Hunt, goes through an upstairs window, turns around:

The Lizard: *hulking in the shadows, waiting for him like an angry mom* “you sssaid you’d only be in Monssstarrr Metroooopolis forrrr the weekend?”

Morbius: “I see you got your communicator fixed?”

The Lizard: “itsss been a monnnth, Michael.”

Morbius: *mumbles* «Τι είσαι, μαμά μου;»

The Lizard: «Σσστα Αγγλικαά;»

Morbius: *still straddling the window seal; brief surprise quickly turns to exasperation, * “Never mind , Curt…”

The Lizard: *flicks tongue out and back in, annoyed* “You owe me a monnnth of Sssciencesss, Michael… alsso, what is on your shirrrt?”

Morbius: *puzzled, feels shirt, runs fingers directly over something dried on * Eghh, Zombiote? Still?

The Lizard: *intrigued reptile sounds* “ Zzzommbiote?”

Morbius: *annoyed, until it dawns on him* “Yes, ‘zombiote’… wait… where have you been all month? How did you miss all that?”

The Lizard: *Already concocting experiments for the ‘sample’ in his head* “Sssciencess”

Empathy is a bitch

I just realized that, although I love the 2012 Dark Shadows movie, for some people that movie is their 2021 Morbius.

Reasons I like it: It’s Johnny Depp, in a vampire movie, set in the late 60s early 70s, with all the music and Johnny Depp-ing around that that would entail…

But I get what a fan of the Original Dark Shadows would see: that’s not Barnabas Collins, this tone is too cheerful, they truncated whole arcs, and some characters are missing or smooshed together!

Because that’s kind of how I feel about the Morbius movie: that’s not Michael Morbius, they’ve smooshed three different characters into one worse version of an important one, why does this taste like a diet version of the 90s comic? What is this tone?

But someone probably says: yes! Jared Leto is Jared Leto-big all over the place, and I love that Milo guy, I’d like to ship him and Michael, and ooo! Cool special effects! Boy, what a fun early 2000s comic book movie!

And I cringed, just like those poor Dark Shadows fans did. However, 3 years out from my worst ever experience with the cinema, I can’t completely find it in my heart to hate movie-character Morbius anymore. In the grand multiversal scheme of things he’s just another version of my favorite character, and he did nothing wrong but exist in a shitty movie. And I hope the Dark shadows fans eventually realized this about movie-character Barnabus too. He might not be your favorite version of the guy, but he’s still that guy. And he might become someone’s favorite.

I just thought I’d point this out because sometime in the next decade or so, they will do this again to someone else’s favorite vampire blorbo. I just know that Hollywood will. So I hope that when they do, both fandoms will there to commiserate with the new guys. Because it sucks to see your blorbos done out of character in an adaptation that overshadows their original portrayal.

But just know that that shitty adaptation will make more people interested in that character, and hopefully, they will eventually watch/read the original versions. And then you’ll have new friends!

Whenever the Venom War event is over:

Morbius: *trying to sneak back into the lab building he got from Blood Hunt, goes through an upstairs window, turns around:

The Lizard: *hulking in the shadows, waiting for him like an angry mom* “you sssaid you’d only be in Monssstarrr Metroooopolis forrrr the weekend?”

Morbius: “I see you got your communicator fixed?”

The Lizard: “itsss been a monnnth, Michael.”

Morbius: *mumbles* «Τι είσαι, μαμά μου;»

The Lizard: «Σσστα Αγγλικαά;»

Morbius: *still straddling the window seal; brief surprise quickly turns to exasperation, * “Never mind , Curt…”

The Lizard: *flicks tongue out and back in, annoyed* “You owe me a monnnth of Sssciencesss, Michael… alsso, what is on your shirrrt?”

Morbius: *puzzled, feels shirt, runs fingers directly over something dried on * Eghh, Zombiote? Still?

The Lizard: *intrigued reptile sounds* “ Zzzommbiote?”

Morbius: *annoyed, until it dawns on him* “Yes, ‘zombiote’… wait… where have you been all month? How did you miss all that?”

The Lizard: *Already concocting experiments for the ‘sample’ in his head* “Sssciencess”

Huh, so he was just like that because of a poor writer? I thought he had, like, Lilian poisoning or something, from that serum used in that run to let him change back and forth? It had demon blood in it, and later in the run it seemed like his vampiric tendencies were forming into a kind of split personality? Did they fix that by then? Cause I was under the impression that there were two of them duking it out in there for control of his body ?

Basically I thought it was going somewhere, but it just turned out to be poor writing. 🫤 well dang.

What are your thoughts on the Lisa Trusiani run of Morbius The Living Vampire and what are some of your favourite and least favourite moments of the run.

I'll have you know I went back and reread these issues just so I could give them a fair shake. When I was younger I could recall page numbers things happened on, now I'm lucky if I recall breakfast. I'm going to try to make a compliment sandwich. I think her writing tried a lot of bold things. None of them fit the character. Insert 2nd good thing here. I feel like... she wanted to write a crime novel and kind of got shoehorned into a hero title, and I'm in this weird position because Morbius in the 90's went VERY heavy on the melodrama with very little comic camp. It was the era of 'edgy' unironically. But even with that knowledge Morb feels like this weird stand in of his former self. Like he stepped into someone's really weird RP and doesn't fit at all. There are things, facets that strike true to the character occasionally but the writing and pacing are just weird. Every single damn scene with a woman it feels like a creepy dude hits on her. Jack loses all his brain cells. Martine doesn't have emotions supposedly yet goes full aggressive bitch. And do not get me started on Lena who has very little depth or personality somehow despite the writer's best efforts. Facts change between pages. A patient is stable, a patient is bleeding out. Character is conscious, now he's not. Things like that. It's slapdash. Sidenote: If these are the only issues you ever read of Morbius he would be highly intolerable as a character and spends most of his time drooling over Lena for... some reason? And it's not like he doesn't get full stupid over women, but usually they come onto him. It's almost a requirement. This time he spends the run mostly simping. (Do we still say simping?) The rest of the time he's talking outside his normal verbal style, treating friends like shit, treating Martine like shit, running out on patients, and generally being dishonest but not in his usual lying to himself way. Weird enough that the only other writing Trusiani ever did for Marvel was for Barbie comics, and she also did a bunch of non-fiction kids books about the founding fathers of the US. I feel like they knew the comic was dying, and wanted a fast wrap up maybe with key points the Marvel heads planned ahead so they moved her in, but the writing has the air of someone who didn't know the character even from the earlier comics in that run. 3/10 Don't ask me about the art. I've made my feelings on that very clear and my eyes hurt from issues 31-32. Have mercy on me.