Writer: Vita Ayala
Art: Marcelo Ferreira, Francesco Mobili, Roberto Poggi, JP Mayer, Scott Hanna
Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 18th, 2020

Morbius #5 gives you a throwback to the great monster books that we so rarely see now. Vita Alaya has given us that classical literary protagonist. The tortured scientist in the vein of Shelley’s Frankenstein or Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll. Morbius remains first and foremost a man struggling with the monstrous nature of his affliction and that is something that will be timeless in storytelling.

With Morbius fighting for his very humanity after his ego and impatience led to yet another lab mishap (Seriously Michael, how many times do you need to mutate yourself before you follow scientific method!?). But it led to a team-up with a face from his past, ok yes she wanted to kill him but bigger fish people and Spider-man continued to play the Robin to Morbius’ vampiric Dark Knight.

And honestly, the injection of levity from the Webhead took what would have been a lot of dry writing and made it work. It made it emotive and human. Go into any stressful situation and there’s always that one guy. You know the type, makes jokes about everything even if it’s not the right moment. And artistically, Spidey was needed too. He added vital pops of color in what would have been a very muted color palette, which is the price you pay for making a vampire monster book I guess.

Final Thoughts

Overall, its a solid book and a good continuation into humanizing the monstrous Doctor. It didn’t add anything new, but it didn’t need to. It was entertaining, it was funny, and it had monster fights. What more do you need from a book about a living vampire for Blade’s sake…? Sure, seeing more from the Marvel Vampires would be nice but that might happen down the line, right? Maybe some blood or something a bit less cookie-cutter? Ok , so it’s not great but it’s better than some vampire stories in pop culture.