Fear #24 (October 1974) was towards the beginning of Morbius, The Living Vampire's 12-issue run as lead character of the horror anthology. It's the only one I happened to read when it first came out--snatched off the 7-11 comic rack because Blade the Vampire Slayer was on the cover.
I knew about Morbius from his appearances in Spider Man. Michael Morbius was meant to be an anti-villain. Shortly after the Comics Code lifted its ban against showing vampires, Morbius was a doctor searching for a cure to the rare blood disease from which he suffered. He ended up turning himself into a "Living Vampire"--not a supernatural creature, but an altered living human being with certain vampire-like powers and an occasional overwhelming urge to drink the blood of the living. He's meant to be an anti-villain, driven by his blood lust to occasionally kill someone and feed on them, but otherwise not intending to be evil. Not that this would be much comfort to those he kills. I've often thought that the effort to make Morbius sympathetic always fell a little short, since the moral thing to do would have been to turn himself in before he killed again. Heck, Larry Talbot knew that much.
Not long after Morbius popped up, "real" vampires (primarily Dracula) also turned up in the Marvel Universe, which led to the appearance of the coolest vampire hunter this side of Peter Cushing's portrayals of Van Helsing. Blade the Vampire Slayer--in his orginal incarnation as a guy using wooden throwing knives to taken down vamps--was awesome. So seeing blade on the cover made this a "must have." My comic book budget was limited, so I wish I could remember what I gave up to get this one. I might simply have not bought a soda or a snack. If I passed on another comic, I don't remember which it might have been. Looking through a list of the other comics that came out that week, I know for certain I bought Kamandi, Tomb of Dracula, Amazing Spider Man and the Giant Size Spider Man. But over the years, I've acquired too many back issues & read too many reprints of stuff from this era to remember for certain what I originally owned.
Anyway, this issue (written by Steve Gerber and drawn by P. Craig Russell) starts with Morbius on another planet, escaping from barbarians and--along with an alien he's befriended--taking off on a rocket ship to return to Earth. When they arrive, they crash in a city street. This is witnessed by Blade, who finds the now-dead alien in the wreckage. Morbius couldn't contain his blood lust during the trip home.
What follows is a chase/fight scene that is just a minor incident in Morbius' overall story arc, but it fun and clever in its own right. Blade sees Morbius gliding from one rooftop to another. Since the vampire didn't sprout bat wings, Blade reaches the conclusion that Morbius is an alien vampire.
Morbius hears Blade refer to real vampires. Morbius lives in a world in which the supernatural exists, but not everyone realizes this. He assumes real vampires are a myth and that Blade must be visiting from Crazy Town. But Blade's throwing knives are real.
I like the way the action is choreographed, with the point-of-view rapidly switching back and forth between the two characters. Events flow along smoothly and it breaks up the thought/dialogue baloons enough to keep it from being too wordy.
Finally, Blade manages to tackle Morbius on the roof of a church. He forces the vampire to look up at the cross mounted nearby, figuring this will keep him helpless until the sun rises.
Um, no it doesn't.
Morbius escapes, leaving a very confused Blade behind as he moves on with his regularly-scheduled story arc.
The mistaken assumptions made by both Morbius and Blade are perfectly reasonable in context to the universe in which they exist. So, along with the action, that makes this issue entertaining and unique.
Next week, it's been too long since we've visited with Turok, Son of Stone. So we'll drop in on him.
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