Morbius, the Living Vampire

Morbius the Living Vampire
Artwork for the cover of Legion of Monsters: Morbius vol. 1, 1 (July, 2007 Marvel Comics). Art by Greg Land.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October 1971)
Created by	Roy Thomas Gil Kane
In-story information
Alter ego	Michael Morbius
Team affiliations	Midnight Sons A.R.M.O.R. Legion of Monsters S.H.I.E.L.D.
Notable aliases	Dr. Morgan Michaels, Nikos Michaels
Abilities	Expert biologist and biochemist Enhanced physical attributes Flight Hypnotism Accelerated healing factor Reliance on consuming human blood

Morbius the Living Vampire, a scientist named Dr. Michael Morbius PhD,MD, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and originally designed by penciler Gil Kane, the character first appeared as an antagonist in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971). Morbius went on to become a heroic, tragically flawed protagonist in his own series and other titles. Morbius is a man suffering from vampiric abilities and physical traits resulting from a biochemical experiment, as opposed to supernatural means.

Morbius debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover-dated Oct. 1971) following the February 1971 updating of the comic-book industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, that lifted a ban on vampires and certain other supernatural characters. It was the first issue of Marvel Comics' flagship Spider-Man series written by someone other than character co-creator and editor-in-chief Stan Lee. Lee, busy writing a screenplay for an unproduced science fiction movie, bequeathed the series to his right-hand editor, Roy Thomas. "We were talking about doing Dracula, but Stan wanted a costumed villain. Other than that, he didn't specify what we should do," Thomas said in 2009, adding that part of the character conception came from an unspecified science-fiction film of Thomas' youth, depicting a man turned into a vampire by radiation rather than magic. Thomas said the name "Morbius" was not deliberately taken from the antagonist Doctor Morbius in the movie Forbidden Planet.