Adventure into Fear with Morbius the Living Vampire #24 (1974)

I was fully prepared to hate any story focusing on Morbius, but I have to say: These are pretty good comics.  In this issue, Morbius returns to Earth after his space adventure in the first several issues of his run in Fear, and eats the pilot of the spacecraft.

Because, remember, Morbius is a vampire.  And kudos to Steve Gerber for never forgetting that.  Blade happens to find the spacecraft, sees an alien with two toothmarks in its neck, and figures Morbius is a space vampire invading Earth.

In the ensuing fight, we learn Morbius is immune to standard anti-vamp weapons like stakes, and therefore he gets away from Blade.

In the “epilogue,” we see intergalactic “Caretakers” watching Morbius from above as he kills a normal guy on the street for blood.  Like I said, Gerber wasn’t afraid to show Morbius as a murderer.  The Caretakers decide that his apparently sociopathic survival instinct makes him the perfect choice to lead “The Children of the Comet.” That will be next issue.

Loved this comic–it’s one of my favorite single-issue stories of all time. Full list here.

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