Issue(s): Fear #24
Cover Date: Oct 74
Title: "Return to terror!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
P. Craig Russell - Penciler
Jack Abel - Inker

Review/plot:
Morbius is a weird footnote of a character for Marvel, in that he was created to circumvent the CCA rules forbidding the use of vampires, but then soon after his introduction the CCA rules were relaxed, making him unnecessary. This issue, a confrontation with Blade, a hunter of 'real' vampires, addresses that to some degree.

But first we must travel to the solar system of Arcturus and see the resolution of the plot involving mutants, androids, and barbarians!

And this too, shows how Marvel tried to distinguish Morbius from other vampires; by focusing on science and science-fiction themes instead of horror. When i first read this issue, i didn't really know what was going on here (due to my attention wandering during a full-page text recap of recent issues)...

... but even now having read it, it is pretty out there. A far cry from what was going on in Tomb of Dracula.

One aspect of Morbius that is pretty interesting is that he sometimes can't prevent himself from killing, especially if there's a pretty lady around. He's no super-hero.

After crash-landing back on Earth, Morbius kills his mutant partner and drains his blood. He just straight up kills Lord I, the guy that he was bringing back to Earth to fight against the Caretakers. He just can't help himself!

Blade reasonably assumes the Earth is being invaded by space vampires.

Blade continually uses weapons against Morbius, like wooden weapons and the cross, that have no effect on him.

Morbius thinks Blade is crazy because he has never seen a real vampire and doesn't believe they exist.

Morbius escapes Blade and kills another innocent bystander for food. The Caretakers observe Morbius over a computer screen and decide that "he is the logical choice... to lead the Children of the Comet."

Morbius' bodycount is higher than Dracula's, and yet he's the star of this book. Madness! But nice art by P. Craig Russell.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: A little bit of time passes between the end of last issue and the beginning of this, but Morbius shouldn't appear in any other comics in between. Morbius was also starring in a feature in the b&w Vampire Tales at this point, and issues #2-8 take place between this issue and the next one.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Morbius' solo series in Vampire Tales, written by Don McGregor, was even more violent.

"Hey, great! Morbius!" said nobody, ever.

LOL you say that and yet this year fnord's currently on (1992) will see Morbius get his own ongoing as well as his own Marvel Tales-type series reprinting the old stories. To say nothing of all that Midnight Sons mess to come. Plus, as I recall, he had a larger-than-deserved presence on the '90s Spider-Man cartoon.

It would have been interesting for later writers of Blade to take a cue from the Hammer Films cult classic (made in 1972, but not widely released in 1974) CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER, written and directed by Brian Clemens, writer and creator of the classic British TV export "The Avengers". One of the plot points of the film is the vampire the pot-smoking, gypsy-loving, time-hopping hero is hunting drains life force to keep eternal youth, while the victims die from accelerated old age. Considering Morbius' origin as a "science vampire", it's neat to see Blade faced against a non-traditional "bloodsucker", and it would present new challenges to hunt down vamps who don't fall under the traditional umbrella.

Judging from the second scan, Gerber and Don McGregor must have had an ongoing contest with each other to see how many words can be squeezed into a comics page. Neither scribe would ever be confused with Ernest Hemingway!

@Brian Coffey: Funny you should mention Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. He was just in a four issue miniseries by Dan Abnett & Tom Mandrake published by Titan Comics.

@Ben Herman- Even before that, the Kronos character was adapted in the British comic THE HOUSE OF HAMMER (issues #1-3, late 1976-early 1977), in addition to a 2011 novelization by Guy Adams simply entitled KRONOS.