"The End" Week: Fear #31!

I thought this had been reprinted, but maybe not? No, it was, as Morbius Revisited #5. Well, I guess we have the original, so here we go! From 1975, Fear #31, "The End of a Vampire!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Frank Robbins, inks by Vince Colletta. (On the Gil Kane cover, the full title reads as "Adventure Into Fear with the Man Called Morbius--the Living Vampire.")

Thanks to the fact I've been blogging forever, we've seen the prior issues #30, #29, and #28...spread out over ten years. Morbius's fiancé Martine has been transformed into a vampire, and has seemingly killed the police commissioner: Martine cops to being a vampire, but only finished off whatever blood was left in the poor sod after the vampire that turned her killed him. Be that as it may, Morbius is horrified, and Martine is a little put out that he finds her "repugnant." (Female vampires are often portrayed as seductive and alluring, Martine seems rabid and bitey.) She manages to escape out a window, as a lab coat tells CIA agent Stroud the vampire blood sample they had tested highly radioactive. Although they didn't think the recent vampire murders had been Morbius's doing, he was still directly responsible, even if something in his blood kept him from disintegrating like they did. But that only meant Martine was doomed.

Stroud hunts down Martine, armed with silver bullets; while Morbius tries to formulate a cure. The silver bullets do as little as the regular ones had, and the hypodermic with the cure is knocked away; worse, the bloodlust strikes Morbius, and he fights as hard as Martine does to keep her newfound power. Stroud gets the hypo, as he and Morbius turn on each other. The three-way fight goes on, until Stroud gets the needle into Martine's neck--followed shortly by Morbius's fangs!

Furious, Stroud pummels Morbius, but he hadn't completely drained Martine. Still, Morbius knows his bloodlust is a degrading, horrible addiction; that he may never be free of. Recovering in the hospital, Martine also knows she may never be able to share his life. Stroud figures Morbius will have to plead insanity to this whole mess and hope for the best, but he's already taken off.

Martine would become a vampire again, at some point--in the 90's book, which I read a lot of yet still don't recall how exactly that happened. Stroud had faced Man-Wolf and Morbius; I don't think he's shown up in years, but I'd love it if those guys still hassled him. I'd also like to find the couple issues of the first She-Hulk series, where she manages to help Morbius beat the rap for murder. I could also use the last issue of that book, since I think that was my first last issue. Some other time, maybe.

Conveniently, the Marvel Value Stamp this issue is Morbius!

I did get Morbius's most recent number one the other day--it's dated 2020, but you could probably find one at your local comic shop. In fact, this shop may have bought a bunch for a discount, and were selling it half-price. And...it was okay? I wasn't real up on where Morby was prior: it seemed like maybe he had his bloodlust under control, but that was probably getting rolled back. Also, the villain is the Melter? Or a Melter? I know the original was killed by Scourge, but he might've been brought back by the Hood; or maybe somebody just found his melt gun. He's very obviously not the big boss, but it feels like it had been forever since I read a Marvel comic with just a plain supervillain like that.