Obligatory issue #3 Spider-Man appearance!
Morbius: The Living Vampire #3
Marvel Comics (November, 1992)
WRITER: Len Kaminski PENCILER: Ron Wagner INKER: Mike Witherby COLORIST: Tom Smith LETTERER: Janice Chiang EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
Morbius demands Spider-Man give him some of his blood, which caused the vampire mutation to go into remission once before. For obvious reasons, Spidey doesn’t like the way Morbius asked and since his method of contacting Spider-Man was dropping a corpse in front of Peter Parker last issue, the wall-crawler is more interested in bringing Morbius in. However, some guy names Stroud (people who know Morbius’ story probably knows Stroud better than I do, since the comic makes him sound like Morbius’s enemy) wants to kill Morbius outright. And another player, Doctor Payne, has his own plans for the living vampire.
What they got right: While the 90’s art style still forces its way into this book more than last issue, it still isn’t terrible. The issue is mostly Spider-Man versus Morbius and while you feel sorry for Michael you also realize why Spider-Man is acting like he is.
What they got wrong: We get three flashbacks; one from Michael as he gets a check-up, one with Spider-Man to show him talking to the cop looking at Morbius’ case, and one with Stroud. Each time the narrator has to make a “smart” comment about the flashback, and it appears to be in Stroud’s “voice”. So how did he know (I’m guessing in his report) to flashback to the other two characters? And is he the narrator throughout the story? I can’t really tell.
Recommendation: Like the previous issue (I’m assuming these were part of a collection of comics), this isn’t a bad issue (for the 90’s) but not one in a genre I’m interested in. It might be worth a look for you but it isn’t for me.
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