Marvel takes another bite at vampire series
Marvel's socalled “living vampire” is getting another comic-book series as the character is eyed for a feature film.
Jared Leto has been cast as Michael Morbius in the Sony film “Morbius,” set in the same world as the recent “Venom” flick. Leto recently shared a first look at the set via his Instagram account.
It's been a winding path to stardom for Morbius, who started out as a foe of Spider-Man after developing vampirism after a treatment for a rare blood disorder went wrong. As the brilliant biochemist responsible for his own affliction, he bears some resemblance in origin to Marvel's the Hulk, or Spider-Man villain the Lizard.
Morbius, first introduced in “Amazing Spider-Man” #101, with a September 1971 cover date, was a creation of writer Roy Thomas and penciller Gil Kane. This issue was reprinted in Marvel's $1 “True Believers” format in June.
As the Comics Code had banned vampires up until 1971, Morbius was one of the first horror characters introduced following the lifting of the ban. After appearing in two issues of “Amazing Spider-Man,” he faces the wall-crawler again in 1972's “Marvel Team-Up” #s 3 and 4 and 1974's “Giant Size Super-Heroes” #1.
Then, Morbius moved over to “Vampire Tales,” a black-and-white horror magazine that skewed more mature than the main Marvel line, appearing in nine of the 11 published issues.
Concurrently with “Vampire Tales,” Morbius became the headliner of the bimonthly “Adventure into Fear” comic series, appearing in issues #20 through #31, when the series ended.
Morbius appeared sporadically in backup roles from then until the early 1990s, when he was brought back with a vengeance as part of the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” crossover. In 1992's “Morbius” #1, the vampire became involved in a crossover with “Ghost Rider” and other popular horror characters from Marvel. Len Kaminski was the writer for the issue, which was pencilled by Ron Wagner with inks by Mike Witherby. The letterer was Janice Chiang and the colorist was Gregory A. Wright, who later took over as writer of the series, which ran through 1995.
In 2013, Joe Keatinge was the writer of Morbius' first ongoing series since the 1990s, which ran only nine issues.
Now, with movie stardom on the horizon, the character may have his highest profile since the 1970s.
The new comic-book series, “Morbius, the Living Vampire,” is on sale this week, written by Vita Ayala with art from Marcelo Ferreira and covers by Ryan Brown.
In the new series, a cure for Morbius' vampirism may be in reach, but the path is filled with dangers, according to Marvel's solicitation text.
Meanwhile, the “Morbius” film is set for release on July 30, 2020, starring Leto alongside Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson, Adria Arjona, and Jared Harris. Daniel Espinosa directs.