Morbius: Marvel's Grittiest Vampire Story You Forgot | Comic Deep Dive!
Morbius: The Living Vampire Vol 2 4 (2013)
Morbius is back—and he’s not just biting necks, he’s biting off more than he can chew! In this issue, we dive into a bloody turf war in Brownsville, explosive gang politics, and a vampire anti-hero who just can’t stop making everything worse. But this isn’t just another plot breakdown—oh no! We’re unpacking the real-life history behind North Brother Island, spotlighting the Eisner-winning talent behind the scenes, and connecting the dots between Morbius, The Rose, and Marvel’s ambitious 2013 relaunch. Want to know why this issue matters and what made it one of the grittiest turns for the Living Vampire? Then stick around, because this is more than a comic—it’s a full-blown Marvel autopsy. Let’s get into it.
Continuing the story from previous issues, which sees Morbius on the run after his escape from the prison known as The Raft. He makes his way to Brownsville, just outside of New York, in an attempt to lay low. His plans go awry almost immediately when he crosses paths with Noah St. Germain, the ‘godfather’ of Brownsville. After taking a shotgun to the chest and being left for dead, Morbius confronts St. Germain at his compound, complete with gun-tooting gangsters and St. Germain’s very young nephew. Morbius’ blood lust gets the better of him and he kills St. Germain, leaving a power vacuum in Brownsville but, more importantly, leaving Morbius locked in a warehouse full of people trying to kill him. He manages to escape only to be caught again and returned to the warehouse, where he is tasked with saving St. Germain’s life, but fails to do so.
As issue 4 begins we see a flashback of St. Germain, known then as David Bril, a small-time thug with zero fighting skills or muscle mass, a very far cry from the Noah St. Germain who would take over Brownsville. He is taken to North Brother Island where a mysterious benefactor wishes to discuss his future.
Back in the present, Morbius is confronted by angry gangsters who no longer have a use for him now that St. Germain is dead. The angriest of the bunch is Rochelle, St. Germain’s former girlfriend. Morbius tries to plead his way out of the situation but it’s too late, Rochelle wants him dead and is also willing to kill anyone he cares about, namely St. Germain’s nephew, Henry. Rochelle lets Morbius know that she’s got a man watching him at an all night diner, and all she needs to do is give the word.
As Rochelle and Morbius argue the warehouse is raided by mysterious masked men with a helicopter and heavy weapons, they only seem interested in snatching up St. Germin’s lifeless body. Meanwhile back at the diner Henry’s mother arrives and lets it be known that she is not afraid of the armed gangster or anyone else who wants to harm her son.
At the warehouse Rochelle and Morbius, temporary allies, fight off the masked intruders but fail to stop them from grabbing Noah. One of these masked men fries Morbius with electricity from his fingers, and they quickly vanish into the night. Rochelle tells Morbius about the true impact of his actions; Noah may have been a gangster but he was the only thing keeping people with even worse intentions from taking over Brownsville.
Back on North Brother island our mystery man takes ownership of Noah’s body, happy that it did not get into the ‘wrong’ hands. He bemoans the appearance of Morbius on the scene but doesn’t seem too worried. The final panel reveals that our mysterious man is none other than ‘The Rose’.
The story continues in issue 5
This issue was written by Joe Keatinge. Keatinge is best known for his writing work with Marvel & Image, and as the co-editor of Popgun with Mark Andrew Smith. He began his career working with Erik Larsen on Image Comic’s Savage Dragon. He has contributed to anthology titles such as Negative Burn with artist Evan Bryce and Fantastic Comics #24 with artists Michael Allred and Laura Allred, which was part of The Next Issue Project. He won a Harvey Award for his work on PopGun Volume 1 in 2008 and an Eisner Awards for PopGun Volume 3 in 2010.
This issue was penciled and inked by Richard Elson. Elson has worked on other Marvel titles like Thor and Journey Into Mystery during Kieron Gillen’s run writing the titles. He ended up working on almost the entirety of this short Morbius run.
Colorist Antonio Fabela has collaborated with major publishers like Marvel and DC Comics, contributing to titles such as “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Superior Spider-Man,” “Lucifer,” and “Thanos.” Fabela’s distinctive coloring style has significantly enhanced the visual storytelling of numerous series. Beyond his coloring work, he engages with fans on social media platforms, sharing insights into his creative process and showcasing his latest projects. His contributions continue to influence the comic book industry, inspiring both readers and aspiring artists.
This issue’s striking cover art was created by David López. López started his comics career in his native Spain before moving to the American market in 2002. He is best known for co-creating and illustrating the first volume of Fallen Angel, co-created by writer Peter David, and published by DC. López is also known for his lengthy run on DC’s Catwoman and his work on All-New Wolverine.
Eisner award winning letterer Clayton Cowles worked on this issue. Cowles graduated from the Joe Kubert School just four years prior and immediately began working on big names titles like Daredevil, Star Wars, and Batman. He has worked with Marvel, DC and Image Comics
Editor Sana Amanat has worked on comics such as Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel. Amanat is known for co-creating Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, the first Muslim-American superhero with a solo Marvel Comics series. Amanat runs the annual Women of Marvel panel at Comic Con and does work to make Marvel characters more diverse. Since 2014, Amanat has also co-hosted the Women of Marvel podcast, the podcast has released over 300 episodes.
Editor in Chief at that time was Axel Alonso. Alonso would be Marvel’s EIC until November 2017. In the late 90’s he worked at DC, under their Vertigo line, on titles like Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Hellblazer, and Preacher. In 2000 he went to work for Marvel Comics as a senior editor. In 2011 he was promoted to Editor in Chief, replacing Joe Quesada.
So who exactly is Morbius? Created by Roy Thomas and designed by Gil Kane Morbius, made his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #101 in October of 1971. Prior to 1971 the Comics Code Authority, the comic industry’s self-censorship board, banned the use of creatures like Vampires or Werewolves in comics. However loosened regulations now gave Marvel an opportunity to introduce more supernatural-type characters into their stable. Roy Thomas had wanted Spider-Man to fight the actual Dracula, which he eventually does, but Stan Lee wanted a costumed hero instead. So the concept of Michael Morbius was created.
Michael Morbius is a biochemist who contracts a rare blood disease. He tries to cure himself by using a combination of experimental chemicals, electroshock therapy, and genetic samples of vampire bats. An experiment gone wrong mutates him into a “living vampire”, a life form with abilities and traits resembling actual vampires.
The Rose’s base of operations is on North Brother Island, which is a very real place. The North and South Brother islands are a pair of small islands located in New York City’s East River between the mainland Bronx and Rikers Island. North Brother Island was once the site of the Riverside Hospital for quarantinable diseases but is now uninhabited. The Island has about 20 acres of land. In 2007 it was designated as a sanctuary for water birds. Public access is prohibited but permission is occasionally given to researchers and journalists.
In 1915 Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary, was confined to the island hospital for over two decades until she died there in November 1938. Researchers estimate that Mallon had contaminated “at least one hundred and twenty two people, including five who died”.
Speaking of The Rose, who is this character? Simply put, The Rose is an alias of several villains in the Marvel Comic Universe, the first rose was Richard Fisk the son of Wilson Fisk AKA The Kingpin. The second Rose was a rogue police officer named Sergeant Blume, who was looking for revenge on The Kingpin after the death of his brother, another policeman.
Jacob Conover was a reporter at The Daily Bugle who was under the control of crime lord Don Fortunado. Adopting the persona of The Rose he was able to rule the streets of New York for a time while The Kingpin was not in the picture.
The Rose from this run of Morbius is Dr. Phillip Hayes, a former gene-therapy researcher at Phelcorps labs who is fired after an accident. He utilizes a synthesized drug called Ebony to enhance his test subjects.
In 2022 Screen Rant included The Rose in their “Top 10 Spider-Man Villains who are smarter than they seem” list.
The action in this issue takes place in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Brownsville is predominately a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The area that would become Brownsville was first used by the Dutch for farming, as well as manufacturing stone slabs and other things used to construct buildings. Since the late 20th century, Brownsville has consistently held one of the highest poverty and crime rates of any neighborhood in New York City.
This issue features the “Marvel NOW!’ Branding on the cover, this was Marvel’s name for the relaunch of several comics that debuted in October the year prior. Several new #1’s were relaunched including this title. Marvel NOW was described as a shifting of the Marvel Universe following the conclusion of the “Avengers vs. X-Men” storyline, it entailed changes to both the publishing format and the universe to attract new readers. Marvel NOW went through several waves before coming to an end in May 2015. A second Marvel Now!, Marvel Now! 2.0, debuted in 2016 following the “Civil War II” storyline, it was then followed up in 2017 by Marvel Legacy.
Despite the serialized format of this new run of Morbius, I liked this issue, even if I was missing quite a bit of context at first. I am a big fan of Fabela’s work and I find his pairing with Richard Elson art works really well for the style and tone they were going for. Joe Keatinge’s writing is realistic and grounded in reality, which helps when your protagonist is a living vampire who is also a famous biochemist . We need a little bit of reality when working with this version of Michael Morbius.
The two main story beats in this issue are the action at the warehouse and the drama at the 24 hour diner, they are both tied together as a result of Michael’s bad decisions and impulsive actions. Which is going to be a recurring theme in this series.
As I mentioned this short run of Morbius is highly serialized, telling the entire story of his time in Brownsville and was most likely a worldbuilding effort to give Michael a base of operations. Unfortunately this title was cancelled after 9 issues so we never got to see the outcome of this storyline. Morbius would continue to pop up in other series for a while, usually as a sometimes friend or foe to Spider-Man. In 2019 a new series was announced simply called Morbius, this run only lasted 5 issues and was cancelled due to the COVID Pandemic.
I’ve seen issues for sale on Ebay ranging from $3.99 to $24.99, MyComicShop.com has issues for sale at $3.00 and Price Charting is listing mint or near mint issues selling for as much as $23.
2013 was a year of continuing reinvention for Marvel Comics. The year earlier they announced the Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Marvel NOW! launches and a line of digital comics and Marvel AR, an application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers. By April of 2013 Marvel and parent company Disney began announcing massive joint projects that covered all manner of Disney-owned IPs.
2013 was a strong year for comic sales as a whole, both Marvel and DC continued to see year over year increases in sales. In fact the entire year saw some months perform so well they beat records from the 1990s. Of the 4 big publishers in 2013, Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse, Marvel dominated with over 50% of all units sold.
The top selling Marvel titles were Superior Spider-Man, Avengers, All New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Age of Ultron. The top 5 Marvel comics sold that year were all number ones from Marvel’s ReEvolution Initiative: Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Superior Spider-Man #1, Infinity #1, X-Men #1 and Age of Ultron #1 with a combined 1 Million units sold or 4% of all comics sold that year.
Ads were still popular in comics in 2013, although severely limited and most had comic themed tie ins. The Iron Man 3 MCU film was promoted on the cover, there was also a full page advertisement inside. Dr. Pepper also ran 2 ads, on the inside cover they featured Dr. Pepper TEN, a diet version of their drink. The back cover featured a Captain America themed ad for the drink.
Continuing the Iron Man theme, Marvel was promoting the Blu-Ray & Ultraviolet release of Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore animated movie. Meanwhile Iron Man is featured front and center in an ad for Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers #6.
Esurance and Star Trek into Darkness were running an ad to win tickets to see the film. Meanwhile the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo or C2E2 was selling tickets for the April 2013 event. C2E2 is still going strong and is planning their next event for March 2026.
Marvel was promoting Scarlet Spider #17, the start of the ‘Wrath’ storyline, featuring Wolverine. Finally a new series of Trading Cards called ‘Marvel’s Greatest Battles’ illustrated by Pablo Marcos, Anthony Tan, Andy Price, Cezar Razek, Charles Hall, Matias Streb, and others.
This week I wanted to feature a comic shop in Brownsville, I found one nearby in Brooklyn called Anyone Comics, if you are in the area I recommend checking them out on 831 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn or visit anyonecomics.com.
So there you have it—Morbius: The Living Vampire #4. A gritty, blood-soaked slice of Marvel NOW! storytelling with gang wars, vampire ethics, and a crime boss mystery straight off a forgotten island. This issue may have flown under the radar, but now you know why it deserves a second look.
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