Marvel closed out another week of Next Big Thing press calls by showcasing the newest series to spin out of Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man run. Following on the footsteps of Venom and Scarlet Spider, Morbius: The Living Vampire is set to launch in January and introduce a new status quo for the troubled scientist and occasional superhero. Writer Joe Keatinge and editor Sana Amanat were present to discuss the details of the new book.
Morbius: The Living Vampire #1 cover
To start things off, Keatinge made it clear that readers interested in diving into Morbius' adventures should check out December's Amazing Spider-Man #699.1 first. Keatinge said, "I would highly recommend people who are stoked about Morbius check that out, because we're kind of laying the ground work for who Morbius is in Marvel NOW!"
Amanat revealed the Morbius will escape from his current prison in The Raft in that issue, setting the stage for his fugitive status in the ongoing series. She said that the series explores Morbius "on the run as a fugitive, and also as a vampire. What happens when you're on the run as a fugitive, and you're really hungry? How do you lay low and still feed? It's a picture of what Morbius is getting into as he hides out. And even though his intentions are to disappear and not get close to anyone, of course the opposite ends up happening."
With that in mind, the series will feature some sort of new supporting cast, though Keatinge was reluctant to reveal too much. "I'm sure down the line we'll get to familiar faces, but I wanted to focus on who is this guy now, what is his deal and how he's on the run trying to resist sucking blood all the time. Who can directly relate to that aspect of it?" The Legion of Monsters and Dracula were brought up, but again, Keatinge downplayed the idea of those characters appearing in the series right away.
Morbius: The Living Vampire #2 variant cover
One of the central themes of the discussion was that Morbius is not a straightforward horror series, and in some ways not really a horror series at all. Keatinge noted a desire to explore the question, "What other horrors are there beyond traditional monsters in the Marvel Universe?" As far as bucking the usual vampire trends, Keatinge said, "[Morbius] is a vampire, but a vampire to me is not really a genre. You can do a lot of things with that. Superheroes is like a super-genre. You can make a romance comic work. You can make a sci-fi comic work -- all in superhero comics." While the series will be set in New York City, Keatinge hinted that "It's specifically a part of New York that I don't believe we've ever even seen in a Marvel comic before."
Keatinge compared the process of trying to make Morbius more relateable as a protagonist to the evolution of superheroes from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. Aside from his hunger and fugitive status, Morbius will deal with "the struggles of self, trying to do good, overcoming addiction and a lot of big, heavy things."
He also said, "One of the aspects I really love about this character is the relentless striving to do good. He's not a villain, and he's not really a hero. He's always striving to do right, but it continuously goes really, really wrong. This internal bloodlust situation is really preventing him from being the person he wants to be." Later he said, "He makes Peter Parker look like the luckiest guy in the Marvel Universe."
Morbius: The Living Vampire #3 cover
When asked if Morbius would be receiving an update to his familiar costume as so many Marvel characters have recently, Amanat said that a new suit would be coming around the issue #5 mark. Early on, however, Morbius' look will be comprised of whatever clothes he can scavenge, as evidenced by the issue #3 cover above. The series will be influenced by the fallout of Avengers vs. X-Men, but as Morbius escapes imprisonment before Amazing Spider-Man #700, the events of that issue and the Superior Spider-Man relaunch won't be immediately reflected in Morbius: The Living Vampire.
Amazing Spider-Man #699.1 hits stores in December 2012, while Morbius: The Living Vampire #1 launches in January 2013. Scroll down for a look at Rich Elson's interior art from Morbius #1.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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