Issue(s): Morbius #14, Morbius #15
Cover Date: Oct-Nov 93
Title: "Victims" / "The calling"
Credits:
Gregory Wright - Writer
Ron Wagner & Melvin Rubi / Isaac Cordova - Penciler
Andrew Pepoy - Inker
James Felder - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
To the dismay of the Lilin possessing the corpse of Martine Bancroft, Morbius is still hanging on to his human side despite the Lilin inside of him. Werewolf By Night brings him to Morbius' doctor friend, Jacob Weisenthal. But Jacob isn't able to do much. It was an early idea of this series that Weisenthal would treat Morbius like someone managing an ongoing disease, treating the symptoms and managing pain and needs instead of trying to find a cure. I thought that was an interesting twist on things. But with Len Kaminski being replaced by Gregory Wright and, probably, the push to tie all of the Midnight Sons books together, that concept has to fall by the wayside. If Morbius is a "living vampire" suffering from vampire-like symptoms, you can treat those symptoms. But if he's possessed by a demon, forget it.

Morbius freaks out. Werewolf By Night has to fight him to prevent him from killing Jacob.

Morbius then runs out. Jacob says that he wants nothing more to do with this. The Werewolf calls him a coward (because what's more cowardly than not wanting to get in the middle of fight between a vampire and a werewolf?), and then chases after Morbius, in time to find that Morbius has killed a civilian (see? Jacob was right).

And this triggers the arrival of *sigh* D'Spayre.

What's weird is that D'Spayre wants Morbius to fight the Lilin inside him.

D'Spayre tries to force Morbius to relive the distress that Morbius has caused.

But Morbius uses his powers of memorization to cause D'Spayre to feel those feelings instead.

That drives off D'Spayre (and i'm not even trying to understand that encounter). Morbius then tells the recovering Werewolf By Night to keep away, because he (Morbius) keeps reverting between human and Lilin control. So Jack goes to Ghost Rider for help (hey, if you don't count Werewolf By Night, we had an entire issue without a guest star, so it's time).

Meanwhile, Morbius returns to poor Jacob's home. Jacob suggests the old "put on a happy face to chase your troubles away" theory.

And it seems to work.

A little make-up and Morbius is good to go. Seriously, he goes back to work.

Are you @#*&#@ KIDDING ME?! You were murdering people ten minutes ago and now you are just going to do your day job?!

Not only that, but he agrees to go on a date with his secretary, Mandy. Morbius first needs something to eat. Luckily, he lives in "New York City, where violent crimes usually occur nonstop without consequence", so he has his pick of criminals to murder.

Then he shows up at Mandy's place. It turns out that Mandy's idea of a date is different than Morbius'.

It turns out she has a vampire kink.

Christ, Gregory Wright. It's clear you're into some... stuff. You created the sado-masochistic Crippler, after all. But maybe you should have tried writing letters to Penthouse Forum or something and left it out of the comics? Or at least worked it into the story at a time when Morbius wasn't literally a monstrous murdering demon?

Sex seems to fully bring out the Lilin side of Morbius, which is called Bloodthirst.

Bloodthirst attacks and kills an elderly couple and moves on for a night of "carnage" across the city.

Ghost Rider finally shows up.

During the fight, Morbius takes control again. Morbius gives him a penance stare, trying to determine how Morbius got corrupted. And he finds no evidence of a Lilin possession.

But Ghost Rider lets him go.

Man, membership in the Midnight Sons really has its privileges. Morbius has only slaughtered like half the city in these issues. I mean, ok, Ghost Rider, you supposedly need him as part of the nine, but he's killed people and is at least claiming to be under the possession of a demon. How about locking him up somewhere until you need him? Or bring him to Dr. Strange? And Morbius, c'mon! Do the right thing and turn yourself in to the Vault or something.

Anyway, earlier in this issue we saw Martine/Parasite getting orders from Lilith in this issue.

Lilith wants Morbius to remain one of the Nine to weaken their numbers from within, so she doesn't want Martine bringing him in yet.

In the end Martine approaches Morbius again, and Bloodthirst is now back in control and has turned Morbius into some kind of super-deformed moppet.

Regular artist Ron Wagner got help for issues #13 and #14, and Isaac Cordova becomes the artist with issue #15. The art in #15 is generally a disaster.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: At the start of this issue, Werewolf By Night finds Morbius having nightmares in an alley. Werewolf By Night says he's been looking for him for "over a week". Next issue is part of Siege of Darkness.

References:

• Morbius' death and subsequent resurrection in the Midnight Massacre storyline, ending in Spirits of Vengeance #13, is what has caused the acceleration of Morbius' condition.
  
• But he was infected with Lilin blood in Morbius #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I think that this issue should take place during Road to Vengeance. Lilith is in the Midwest this story. She's working with Centurious in the Midwestern town of Holly during Road to Vengeance before heading to New York for the final battle. In Siege of Darkness, she manifests in New York. It makes a lot more sense for Lilith to go from the Midwest to New York instead of having her go from the Midwest to New York to the Midwest to New York for no real reason. Besides, Ghost Rider is worried about preserving the Nine, which works a lot better if he knows Lilith is alive- he thinks she's dead between the end of Road to Vengeance and the start of Siege of Darkness. The problem is that issue 13 takes place after Nakota is reborn at the start of Road to Vengeance and Jack's been looking for Morbius "over a week". Maybe you could sneak a week into Road to Vengeance? (The real answer is this wasn't coordinated very well.)
Ghost Rider seems to be flying in this story just like in Gun Runner 1-2.
"But with Len Kaminski being replaced by Gregory Wright and, probably, the push to tie all of the Midnight Sons books together, that concept has to fall by the wayside". I think Bloodthirst was introduced specifically for Siege of Darkness, since Wright separates him from Morbius 3 issues after Siege of Darkness is over.
"Do the right thing and turn yourself in to the Vault or something". To be fair, Morbius is only free a few minutes before Bloodthirst takes over again.

Every dude ought to have a co-worker like Mandy. Only in the funnybooks, people.

Seriously, though: Those sex panels make this book look like an S&M porn comic. Why didn't they just bring in Howard Chaykin and call it a day? Man, the 90s keep on sucking the more time passes by.

@Michael, as you imply, due to the lack of coordination there is going to be a compromise no matter what, and i don't really want to put a week+ long break in Road to Vengeance. Lilith has a teleporter on her team, and she might have decided she liked hanging out in the Midwest or she left her favorite head sharpener there and had to go back for it.

"she left her favorite head sharpener there and had to go back for it"

Between fnord's review and that comment of his, I'm on the verge of laughing hysterically.

I don't own these issues, but they sound like a train wreck. Morbius fight the Werewolf, Morbius kills an innocent bystander, Morbius fight D'spayre, Morbius scares the crap out of his friend Jacob, Morbius goes to work, Morbius kills a mugger, Morbius has kinky sex with his dominatrix secretary, Morbius experiences a supernatural split personality, Morbius fights Ghost Rider, Morbius makes out with his undead girlfriend... did I miss anything? :)

On a more serious note, these issues do highlight how ridiculous it is to have a character like Morbius having an ongoing series set in a world with heroes who refuse to use lethal force, as well as having those same heroes regularly teaming up with him. At this point how many people has Morbius killed anyway? Letting him live pretty much guarantees that more people are going to die in the future. Working alongside him and telling him "just try not to kill anyone else going forward" is insanity. Okay, so the Midnight Sons don't want to kill Morbius, but how about at least trying to lock him up? Sure, it's the Marvel universe, and he'll probably break out of jail within six months, but at least they'd be making a token effort at stopping him from committing more murders.