Raven's Haven: Vampires

Showing posts with label Vampires. Show all posts

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Morbius the Living Vampire (2013) # 1-9, Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 699.1

(I originally read these comics in mid November 2016)

After escaping from super-prison the Raft in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man # 699.1, occasional, mostly reluctant Spider-Man antagonist Morbius the Living Vampire settles in the slum area of Brownsville, New York. He soon crosses punk gang leader Noah St. Germain who has mysterious backing, gets blasted in the chest with a shotgun, recovers (obviously) and befriends a street urchin. From here, Morby is gradually established as Brownsville's protector.

I was halfway through reading this series when it dawned on me I didn't care about the story or the cast. And I'm a Morbius fan. The real Morbius, that is. Though he's still prone to the occasional bout of throat-ripping, make no mistake this is a watered-down, prettified version of the character. (He even lacks the pug nose that Gil Kane originally endowed him with, no doubt so he could draw up-the-nostrils shots from any angle.) The comic as a whole is bland, choosing to depict Michael as a hoodie-wearing bum and playing down any horror aspects. His fellow slum residents (mostly noble minority types, of course) are also far too accepting of a chalk-white, red-eyed bloodsucker amongst them for it to remain credible. Things take a super-heroic turn halfway through with the reveal of St. Germain's benefactor (SPOILER: It's the Rose. Or a Rose, whatever...) and a two-issue guest spot from the Superior Spider-Man. It's around this time Morbius gets an updated costume, no doubt another low sales-inspired concession to traditional, super-hero storytelling. It's too little too late, though, and the series was prematurely truncated after the ninth issue. Writer Joe Keatinge at least gets to wrap everything up neatly and even allows a little ray of hope to penetrate the roiling, black sky of our tortured protagonist's life, but I wouldn't be tempted to seek out more of his work based on this. However the art, mostly by Richard Elson, is very attractive. It's just a shame he never got to illustrate the Morbius I know, ie, the one presented on the first issue cover to (blood)sucker in the horror freaks.

Morbius the Living Vampire lacks bite. ...Yeah, I said it.

As an extra, here's Ed McGuinness' variant cover for Morbius the Living Vampire #1.

Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 699.1 and Morbius the Living Vampire (2013) # 1-9 are collected in:

Softcover:

Morbius the Living Vampire: The Man Called Morbius (US)

Morbius the Living Vampire: The Man Called Morbius (UK)

Morbius the Living Vampire (2013) # 1 is collected in:

Hardcover:

Marvel Now! Omnibus (US)

Marvel Now! Omnibus (UK)

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

The Curse of Dracula (1998) # 1-3, Blade (1998) # 1-3, Journey Into Mystery (1952) # 520/521, Blade (1998), Blade: Sins of the Father (1998), Spider-Man Unlimited (1993) # 20, Marvel Team-Up (1997) # 7, Morbius in Dark Corners (1998) # 1

(I originally read these comics in mid November 2016)

'The Curse of Dracula' doesn't come close to recapturing the magic of Marv Wolfman's and Gene Colan's previous Dracula collaboration (and shame on you if you don't know what that is), but is worth reading. As before, Wolfman assembles a band of disparate individuals, all damaged in their own ways, to pursue the vampire count. This Dracula is younger and sexier than the Marvel incarnation and has his eyes on political power as he exerts violent influence over a senator's campaign for presidential office. The story is gorier, Wolfman is less wordy than he was and Colan is looser (and dare I say, sloppier), his art reproduced directly from his pencils. I'll admit to being less of a fan of 'Gene the Dean' than I used to be; his 'scatter the panels on the page and see how they land' approach to layout isn't always to the benefit of story clarity.

Jim Shooter was right.

ANYWAY.

At approximately the same time over at Marvel, vampires were having something of a renaissance. Besides Morbius returning in the pages of Peter Parker, Spider-Man (see here), Marv Wolfman, Christopher Golden and Don McGregor were creating a temporary nexus for the company's Undead. Gene Colan's back for the 1998 Blade one-shot, subtitled 'Crescent City Blues', which sees the vampire hunter decamp to New Orleans on the trail of Deacon Frost, who is muscling in on that city's organised crime. Writer Golden clearly knows his Marvel horror history and Blade's fellow 'Tomb of Dracula' survivor Hannibal King and Brother Voodoo also appear in a wordy adventure that was nevertheless Colan's last association with all three of his co-creations. This leads straight into Spider-Man Unlimited # 20, also by Golden, which follows vampire PI King as he teams up with the webslinger to track Simon Garth, the Zombie, who's in the thrall of Lilith, Dracula's errant daughter.

Marv Wolfman, meanwhile, contributes Marvel Team-Up # 7 and another excursion into the world of vampires for Spidey as he teams with Blade to foil a plot that allows them to walk in sunlight. Then picking up the reins from Golden, he continues the adventures of Hannibal King in two issues of 'Journey Into Mystery', at this brief time an anthology title. King takes on a case that turns out to be more than it seems as he teams with a glamorous CIA agent to thwart an attempt to swell the Undead's numbers via the triggering of chemical weapons. The story's average and Karl Kerschl's art unattractive, but it does provide character development for King as he's tested beyond his limits.

The second Blade one shot published in '98 is by Marc Andreyko and Bart Sears and is a prequel to that year's movie, though you wouldn't know it till the last page and it's easy enough to imagine it takes place within the main Marvel U. The story's fast-moving and action-packed as Blade is hired by the daughter of a vampire mob boss to take down his operation and neutralise a gang war. Bart Sears' art is stylish and Blade looks cooler than he ever has previously.

Don McGregor's Blade series under Marvel's short-lived 'Strange Tales' banner is a frustrating beast. Preluded in the 'Dark Corners' twelve-page Morbius strip, it sees Blade unwittingly become embroiled in an elaborate plot towards his own destruction that takes in Morbius' wife's family and inevitably brings the two into conflict. Disappointingly, and I'd forgotten this, the series was cancelled with the third issue and the plot never resolved. That's unfortunate, as though Brian Hagan's art is bland, McGregor had something going on. Blade and Morbius next crossed paths in Peter Parker Spider-Man (1999) # 8 and their encounter here was never alluded to.

As an extra, here's Bart Sears' back cover art for the 'Blade: Sins of the Father' one-shot.

The Curse of Dracula (1998) # 1-3 are collected in:

Hardcover:

The Curse of Dracula (US)

The Curse of Dracula (UK)

Softcover:

The Curse of Dracula (US)

The Curse of Dracula (UK)

Blade (1998) # 1 is collected in:

Softcover:

Blade the Vampire Slayer: Black & White (US)

Blade the Vampire Slayer: Black & White (UK)

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Marvel Team-Up (1997) # 8-11, Dracula: Lord of the Undead (1998) # 1-3

(I originally read these comics in early/mid June 2016)

So, I read (or re-read) some second rate, late-'90s Marvel stuff that I bought at the time. First up is the doomed continuation of Marvel Team-Up after Namor supplanted Spidey as the featured star with issue # 8. This short run written by Tom Peyer and Glenn Herdling is pretty execrable. Having returned from the 'Heroes Reborn' world with his mind fragmented and having lost his ability to breathe underwater, the erstwhile "Avenging Son" resorts to desperate measures to thwart a coup in Atlantis. Each issue is suffused with enough anti-business, pro-environmentalist drek that it reads more like ultra-leftist propaganda with super-heroics as an afterthought. The art's shit, too. Avoid unless you're a similarly-minded, filthy commie.

Glenn Greenberg's 'Dracula: Lord of the Undead' is better. Dracula returns to his castle in Transylvania after years in America only to find his ancestral home ransacked. In trying to track down his stolen treasures, he is led to England where the "last descendant" of Dr. John Seward (even though he has children, oops), a blood specialist, works to develop a vampire-destroying virus for a mystery employer. Unfortunately, it has unforeseen side effects for humans too. Greenberg's story is unremarkable but readable (and we fans of Marvel's Drac will take what we can get). 'Tomb of Dracula' alumnus Tom Palmer is around to polish up Pat Olliffe's occasionally gruesome pencils, but the result is never more than just adequate. Memorable for a very large-breasted and leather-clad depiction of Dracula's daughter Lilith, if you're into that kind of thing. And who isn't?

Monday, 12 September 2016

Batman/Predator I-III (1991-'98), Batman/Aliens I and II (1997-2003), Superman and Batman Versus Aliens and Predator (2007), Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves (2008)

(I originally read these comics between late April/early May 2015)

I must confess to being neither a Predator nor Aliens fan. I am however a Batman fan, and he's the common link between these series. The final series here I chose to tack on the end as it seemed thematically similar.

These are a grouping of comics I chose to read before I made a habit of writing reviews, so there isn't one. I've no doubt I'll revisit them at some point, though.