Review- Morbius: The Living Vampire Nos. 9-15 and Nightstalkers No. 9

Morbius: The Living Vampire Nos. 9-15 and Nightstalkers No. 9 (Marvel, cover dates May- November, 1993)

Writer: Gregory Wright (Morbius 9-15)

Artists: Ron Wagner (Penciler- Morbius Nos. 9-14), Mike Witherby (Inker- Morbius Nos. 9-12), Don Heck (Inker- Nightstalkers No. 9), Andrew Pepoy (Inker- Morbius Nos. 13-15), and others

My God the '90s sucked for comic books. Issue 9 was part two of a three part crossover with Dr. Strange Nos. 52 and 53. Issue 10 is Part one of a four part crossover with Nightstalkers, which continues in Nightstalkers No. 8 (which I also don't have), but at least I have Issue 11 as well as Nightstalkers No. 9. Issue 12 was part four of the Midnight Massacre crossover event. Collecting this series via back issues is frustrating and aggravating, as you often don't know which issue continues into which one until you are reading it. You would literally have to sit there on the Internet and map out a reading/buying order. I know that I wish that I would have.

Len Kaminski left the title, and the writing quickly goes south. I can forgive the dated nature of older comic books, even crappy dated stuff that the '90s brought us, but crappy writing is always crappy writing, regardless of when it was written. The artwork also begins to suffer, as co-pencilers and co-inkers are brought in, and after issue 12 the original art team of Ron Wagner and Mike Witherby is done. Witherby's replacements are all substandard, the result of the deluge of titles being offered from all publishers at this time stretching good creators too far. Many of the pros who worked on comics in this time frame couldn't get hired today because the industry has contracted so much. 

Morbius becomes closer to an undead vampire in these issues. The further he descends, the cheesier it gets. I cringe in fear of what the next 17 issues will bring. Like I stated in my review of the first eight issues, at least these were all dirt cheap as back issues. The sad thing is that I would happily snap up this dreck in a trade paperback or, better yet, an Omnibus hardcover. 

My love for Morbius goes all the way back to my early years, beginning with Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man No. 38, which my Mom bought for me at Farmer Jack back in the Fall of 1979. I was 6 years old, and I still own that issue. When I campaign for Morbius collections, I am normally thinking about the '70s Adventures Into Fear run and Vampire Tales (which we thankfully have in those weird sized “graphic novel” trade paperbacks). It has also been nice to see Morbius appear in The Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up Marvel Masterworks hardcovers.

Sorry kids, but there is no OCD zone for single issue comic books. Oh, all right...I like the slightly thicker pulp paper used during this time. There!

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