Morbius Epic Collection: The Living Vampire

Morbius joins the Epic Collection program with this first installment; it's also the Epics' first real foray into Marvel's seventies horror period. Never one of Marvel's major characters, Morbius is another one that benefits from the format, with a bunch of material drawn from all over (covering the years 1971-1975) and collected into a chronological narrative.We have his first appearance as a Spider-Man villain, and further tussles with ol' webhead in Marvel Team-Up and the Giant-Size Super-Heroes special. After that, Morbius doesn't just get one solo series... he gets two! He simultaneously appears in (Journey Into) Fear, a regular colour comic and part of Marvel's regular line, as well as Vampire Tales, one of their mature-reader-aimed black and white anthology magazines.The Vampire Tales material is probably more like you'd expect from a comic based around a vampire, as Morbius battles against vile and violent demon worshippers in stark monotone. It's definitely a lot less kid-friendly than the comics, with blood and even the odd hint of nudity (although not anything too shocking by today's standards). It's certainly different and maintains a doomladen tone with the guilt-ridden bloodsucker struggling against foes who are even worse; it's definitely the high point of this volume.The Fear stories are a lot less successful, not helped by a succession of writers churning through the book. Here, Morbius finds himself battling catpeople, travelling to alien worlds and getting caught in the middle of a frankly baffling feud between hyper-advanced aliens and an evil sorcerer. If that sounds pretty weird... that's because it is. It's an already odd tale made even stranger by having a protagonist that regularly stops to murder passers-by.Extras include five pages of house ads, an editorial, eleven pages of original art and thirteen pages of covers from related trades and reprints. It's a book of two halves, and frankly one of those halves isn't great, but it's worth picking up if you're curious about Marvel's black and white magazine era and its more violent, bloody tone.

Morbius couldn't be regarded as one of Marvel's top characters but I've always had a soft spot for him and it's great to have these stories from 1971-1975 collected together in just over 400 pages. There's his appearances as an enemy of Spiderman, when Spidey had those bonkers extra arms. This is a fun storyline which also throws in the Lizard. Then there are his own stories headlining Adventure into Fear and the lovely black and white stories from Vampire Tales. If you like this one, you'll also want to get the 2nd volume Morbius - The End of a Living Vampire to complete the collection