Issue(s): Fear #25, Fear #26
Cover Date: Dec 74 - Feb 75
Title: "And what of a vampire's blood?" / "A stillborn genesis"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Plot on issue #25
Doug Moench - Script on issue #25
Doug Moench - Writer on issue #26
Frank Robbins - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
Basically, Gerber has moved on mid-story and Moench takes over without any real direction as to where Gerber was headed (in the same way that Gerber first picked up the story from Mike Friedrich). It works out pretty seamlessly, though, with the resolution of the Daemond/Caretaker War.

It starts with Morbius encountering Tara again. Tara is the girl who can project a form that she will grow into in the future, that of a warrior.

She wants to lead him to the Caretakers, before war between them and Daemond breaks out. But Daemond attacks, sending demons after them. One of the demons is Martine, Morbius' fiance. She has been transformed into an old hag. Tara stops Martine and she reverts to her human self, but - in one of the scenes that i love about these early Morbius stories - Morbius can't help but bite her beautiful neck and suck her blood.

Tara stops him from killing her, and then he refuses to go with Tara to the Caretakers, instead wanting to stay and tend to Martine.

The Caretakers, watching from afar, consider this an act of betrayal and send their genetically modified super-beings after him.

Before they reach him, however, Daemond strikes again, and captures Morbius.

Tara seemingly dies. But as war breaks out between the Caretakers and Daemond, she returns and revives Morbius.

She reveals that she is also a genetic creation of the Caretakers, and that she is a psychic vampire. She is threatening to end the world.

The Caretakers and Daemond join forces (Tara reveals that Daemond was once a Caretaker himself) to try and stop her but they are unable to and she destroys them. She then demands that Morbius kill her before she ends the world and, as much as he wants to resist, his bloodlust forces him to drink from her neck.

This story was so strange and at least a little bit confusing, but it bizarrely made me feel like i was reading something profound. I've had issue #26 since i was very little, and i always thought it was really cool but figured i was missing out on the rest of the story and that's why i didn't really understand what was going on, but getting issue #25 didn't help very much. I've since picked up the entire series and determined that it really is very cool; it's among my favorite things that Gerber was involved with. A nice blend of horror and science-fiction, a very unusual lead character who can't help biting people, a wild, wild story, and an array of interesting artists, starting with Paul Gulacy and ending here with a story that really fits the style of Frank Robbins, who i don't normally like very much.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• There's a full page recap full of scenes from the past few issues of Fear, beginning with Fear #20.
  
• Morbius' origin, as depicted in Amazing Spider-man #101, is referenced.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Interesting you should touch on Tara, given my post here:

http://fanfix.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/%E2%80%A6the-connection-between-omega-the-unknown-and-james-michael-starling/

Gerber probably dropped this series due to lack of time. When he sent the plot to Frank Robbins, he described a splash page showing Morbius as a silhouette against a night sky with a shadow looming over him. Robbins called him and told him that he was asking for an all-black page.