Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1. Man-Wolf and Morbius

(Cover from 1974.)

"Man-Wolf At Midnight!"

Written by Gerry Conway.

Drawn by Gil Kane.

Inked by Mike Esposito.

Lettering by John Costanza.

Colours by Linda Lessmann.

Morbius is back in town - and he's decided to take control of the Man-Wolf.

Why? I couldn't say. While the sight of a vampire and werewolf heading off together down the street's an appealing one, Morbius' plan is to get an ESU professor to give him a total blood transfusion and cure him of his vampirism. Why he needs the Man-Wolf for this, I don't know. Maybe he needs his lupine lackey to distract Spider-Man while he visits the prof but why does he expect Spider-Man to turn up? Spidey wouldn't even have reason to suspect he was in town, let alone that he was about to pay the professor a visit. By blundering around New York at street level, with the Man-Wolf in tow, all he's doing is guaranteeing he'll be spotted.

Then again, Morbius isn't the only one acting irrationally. Spider-Man clearly realises Morbius wants the professor to cure him. At this point, anyone with a functioning brain and sense of social responsibility would offer Morbius all the help he could in order to end the threat his vampiric state poses.

So, what does Spider-Man do?

Everything he can to wreck Morbius' plan! And then, when he succeeds, he seems to think he's achieved a victory, happily ignoring the fact he's preserved the existence of a menace and guaranteed that more innocent people will die.

It's not the first time our hero's acted like this. He did the same when confronted by the Molten Man's attempts to cure himself in Amazing Spider-Man #133. Interesting then that that encounter gets a name-check in this tale. Maybe we have to accept Spider-man really is as big a menace as J Jonah Jameson has always said he is.

The story's entertaining enough but it seems to me the main problem is that its "Giant-Size" tag's completely unearned. The story's too short. When it comes, the ending really is abrupt. It seems like we're about to get another ten-or-so pages of action, as Spidey tracks down and defeats Morbius - and the Man-Wolf, but, instead, from out of nowhere, we get an epilogue. The end of the tale came as such a surprise I genuinely had to check I hadn't turned two pages at once and missed something. Nothing's resolved and the tale seems to serve merely as a means of bringing back John Jameson's furry alter-ego. While I've no objection to his return, the fact he's shown as a mere patsy for Morbius, and no great threat to Spider-Man, does mean you're given no reason to feel excited that he's back.

Speaking of mysteries, I'm still baffled as to how Morbius worked out from a story in the Daily Bugle that the Man-Wolf is in fact John Jameson, and it does seem a remarkable feat for him to just happened to have found the only drunk in New York City who saw the climax of Spider-Man's first fight with the Man-Wolf. In the next panel, Morbius says that finding the gem that causes Jameson's condition was the only bit of luck he needed in the whole plan. Really? Some might say that finding the only person, in a city of some ten million people, who happened to have the information he needed took a fair bit of good fortune.

It's hard for me to comment on the artwork. It's by Gil Kane so I assume it's fine but I'm using a copy of Essential Spider-Man Volume 6 and the quality of reproduction's terrible. It genuinely looks like the it came out of a fax machine. I know the Essentials are supposed to be cheap and cheerful but you can't help feeling it wouldn't have killed Marvel to have got someone in to touch-up the inking so it at least looked publishable.

Amazing Spider-Man #102. Morbius & the Lizard

"VAMPIRE AT LARGE!"

(Cover from November 1971.)

Written by Roy Thomas
Drawn by Gil Kane
Inked by Frank Giacoia
Lettered by Artie Simek

What happens:
During his fight with Morbius, the Lizard's flung into an electrical device which knocks him out. As he lies unconscious, Morbius tries to drink his blood but Spider-Man stops him and the vampire flees. However, Morbius' bite has had an odd affect on the Lizard because now he has Curt Connors' mind. Spider-Man and Connors reason that Morbius' system must contain an enzyme that caused the change and that it might also be the cure for Spider-Man's condition. Armed with this knowledge, they set off after the vampire.

They catch up with him in the city and, after a fight, manage to gain a sample of Morbius' blood. But the living vampire flees, taking the hard won sample with him. Spider-Man gives chase and his quarry falls into the river where he begins to drown.

But, as Morbius sinks, Spider-Man manages to snag the vial of blood, with his webbing. Fortunately for him, the enzyme works and, within seconds of taking it, his extra arms are gone.

The Verdict:
This is billed as a double-length issue, one of a whole range published that month as Marvel looked to gain a lead on their rivals DC. The experiment was short-lived, dumped after just one month and, in retrospect, it was probably not a bad thing the policy was ditched. This does seem too slight a tale to be told over so many pages. The scene in the TV newsroom feels like pure, out-and-out padding, and the flashback scenes revealing Morbius' origin could easily have been done more succinctly.

Much as I love him, Roy Thomas really is stretching our faith in dumb luck with this issue. The fact that Morbius' blood just happens to contain the enzyme that's the only thing that can cure Spider-Man's current condition is stretching it but then Spider-Man's luck in accidentally snaring the vial - when he's trying to snare the drowning vampire - is pushing things way too far. Thomas tries to get himself off the hook by later implying Spidey was subconsciously more interested in saving the serum than in saving Morbius but it really doesn't wash. Over-all it's a disappointing end to what, last issue, had started out so promisingly.

Amazing Spider-Man #101. Morbius and the Lizard

(Who wouldn't want to read a comic with a cover like this? From October 1971.)

"A MONSTER CALLED MORBIUS!"

Written by Roy Thomas.
Drawn by Gil Kane.
Inked by Frank Giacoia.
Lettering by Artie Simek.

What happens:
Peter Parker soon realises that his only hope of curing the affliction that's given him six arms is to seek the help of Curt Connors, the scientist who grows an extra arm when he becomes the Lizard. He phones the man, who agrees to loan him the use of an isolated house he owns which has a fully equipped lab.

But, when Spider-Man gets there, he's attacked and knocked out by Michael Morbius, a living vampire who's just come ashore after killing everyone aboard the ship on which he was previously hiding. As Morbius closes in for the kill, Curt Connors walks in - and the threat posed by Morbius causes him to transform into the Lizard. When Spider-Man regains consciousness, he finds The Lizard and Morbius squaring up for a fight - with him as the prize!

The Verdict.
So Spider-man goes all Hammer Horror as he finds himself in a creepy old house with what's basically Dracula in a costume. Even Morbius' method of arriving - by ship - echoes that of Vlad himself. Still, despite that, Morbius is a distinctive creation in his own right and there is something genuinely threatening about the vampire. It's a tale that's always felt not quite like other Spider-tales, which might be down to the fact it was written by Roy Thomas and not Stan Lee; and, if you stop to think about it for even one moment, there's an inherent ludicrousness to the story as we get the tale of a six-armed man, a human reptile and a vampire all stuck together in a haunted house. Probably all it needs is a guest spot from Abbott and Costello to make it into a Universal creature feature.

Either way, never the most conventional of artists, Gil Kane's in his element with his portrayal of the scenes in and around the old house and you have to love the single-panel page where the vampire flings our helpless hero from a balcony.