The CIA recruits Morbius to stop a rogue agent who is killing other CIA agents in New York. The agents kidnap the (now vampiric) Martine Bancroft and using her to conscript Morbius–and also set up Morbius for killing the dead agents. So Morbius has to find the rogue agent both to clear his own name and to save his beloved.
Vic Slaughter is also hunting the agent.
When their paths cross, Vic and Morbius fight–and Spider-Man intervenes. There’s a bunch of back-and-forth fights, Simon Stroud also gets involved–also tracking the killer agent. In the end, the agent commits suicide (for very unconvincing reasons that I’m not going to get into), Martine is rescued, and Morbius surrenders himself to the authorities…
…Who then turn him into an asset.
This is a solid action story, but the ending doesn’t make sense. It also looks like it’s changing the comic–making it a “Morbius as CIA agent” book–but it’s not. He’s back to his old ways next issue.
The cover to #22 is cool:
