Previously on the tales of Spider-Man, Morbius was imprisoned for losing control of his blood lust. When that happened he became at odds with everyone who he’d been able to build a relationship with over the years. Recently during Spidey’s battle with Doc Ock he was able to escape. Now he’s living on the streets in a the gangland area known as Brownsville trying to lay low. That was working great until he got into a little argument with the gang’s leader at the end of the first issue and took a shotgun blast to the gut which laid him out.

The thing is though is that Morbius is a living vampire. While he’s technically alive still the keyword here is ‘vampire’ so it’s going to a bit more than a shotgun blast to put him down. He also doesn’t get all of the super natural benefits that the ‘true’ vampires of the Marvel Universe luck out with.

All Morbius has been trying to do since going out on the lamb is do the right thing. He wanted to stay out in the quiet and is harassed by the local drug dealer. He sees people with problems and tried to help them even when it risks exposing him to the world. Now here he is laying on the ground with a shotgun wound and is helped by a young starving artist, who probably doesn’t know what starving actually means when one is addicted to blood.

I think the thing that is most interesting about this entire issue is that for the most of it Morbius doesn’t really do much. The artist does an amazing job of keeping him standing in the background as he finds out a young boy has been kidnapped by the drug dealer who shot him. He stays in the background while they track down the same drug dealer. He even stays in the background while the young starving artist who tried to help him after being shot gets hit by another woman.

At that point though he’s finally pushed to cross a line. The drug dealer calls him a meth head and while Morbius is addicted to something he shows exactly what it is in the last panel of the issue in a rather violent way.

Morbius isn’t some sparkly vampire. He isn’t some emoish gothy wanna be. He is a vampire that was once a man and is clearly sick of holding himself back.

I’m not sure how they are going to go with a continuing story line on this comic. My only guess is that it will take a Punisher or Dare Devil vibe to continue as being out of the main stream events going on. Will it work? We’ll see. I like the longer angle when they are able to pull it off. Dare Devil was able to successfully for years with occasional crossovers but The Punisher has had a stale concept for awhile. There hasn’t been enough character build up or evolution yet to get me really hooked but I’m willing to give this one at least a third issue. Hopefully they can find a draw to keep this interesting past just a local gang problem.

Writer: Joseph Keatinge
Cover Artist: Mike Deodato