Written by Dan Slott and Chris Yost
Illustrated by Matt Clark– Morbius the Living Vampire returns!
– The perfect jumping on point for the hottest comic around!
Do you GET THE POINT? Perhaps you need to get two points, as in the points of Morbius’ teeth! That’s right, a fan favorite anti-hero/villain returns to the fold in this jumping on point! How exciting is that! But does this book make you want to jump ON the series, or does it make you want to jump OFF the nearest ledge?
The only way you can find out is to jump past the cut!
I have to hand it to Marvel, lately they’ve made it a lot easier to know when a good time to jump on would be, and they’re not afraid to use this strategy when they need to give people a hint that now is the time to jump on. This is the second .1 that has been published since the initiative was first introduced, but I believe it’s the first to star Peter as opposed to Flash Thompson as Venom.
And as entry points go, Slott and Yost wrote a clever story that not only gives people new readers a perspective they can relate to, but it introduces a new character for that perspective that long time readers can attach onto; and one with a believable relationship to Peter and the crew at Horizon Labs. Perhaps the name “Uatu” was a tad on the nose, given the fact that for most of the issue, he observes what’s going on, only to act on what he sees late in the issue, but the joke is appreciated, especially when he’s wearing a “Big Damn Hero” shirt; which, if I’m assuming correctly, is a reference to the late, lamented, gone-before-it-should have-left TV show, Firefly.
Those kinds of nerdy references are one of the most appreciated things about the book, as a matter of fact. Fairly recently, there was an issue with the Future Foundation that struck a chord you might normally hear on the mega-popular British Sci-Fi television show Doctor Who. I even remember asking Slott how much he wanted to write an episode of that show based on that episode, and you would not be surprised to know he really wants to. It’s the little things like that which help cement this book in nerddom, as if being a comic isn’t nerdy enough. The book is notably nerdier since Dan took over.
One of my favorite parts of the book was actually the re-introduction of the character Michael Morbius. A favorite of mine since I was a child, he’s largely gone mostly unused, despite a smattering of appearances here and there, he’s mostly gone into obscurity, but thanks to Slott and Yost, he’s back and his arc, who also re-introduces another iconic Spider-Man villain whom I won’t spoil here, gives his character a compelling arc to work through. I can’t wait to see how his arc progresses, especially in relation to that character with whom he shares a tragic connection of sorts.
The art, rendered by Matt Clark, however, is a sort of mixed bag. While most of the characters look and move well (Morbius included), Morbius just looks strange throughout. He doesn’t give off a vibe that one would be scared of, but more of one where they would wonder why the Gothic Voldemort was drooling and looking hapless as opposed to, you know, scary. There are also some minor issues with the way Peter dresses at work. It’s always been casual at Horizon Labs, but the jeans he’s wearing are so baggy that even JNCO would have found too baggy in the 90’s. Is he trying to hide his costume or is he late for tonight’s KoRn concert? I always pegged Peter for a “Weird” Al fan myself.
In closing, this book is a lot of fun. Slott has always captured to spirit of your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler with a great amount of ease, and always cranks up the nerd to 11 when he’s writing. And despite a few…questionable choices in the art department, it’s mostly pleasing to look at. The biggest issue I have with the book is that it ships THREE TIMES this month, and that hurts a guy in the wallet, especially when two of them will be $3.99. While this issue is a much more palatable $2.99, it makes it more difficult to budget for this book. How about a break Marvel?
Final Verdict: 7.0 — Buy (but consider if you can afford to fork over the money for two $4 books. Sure $8 is inexpensive in theory, but it can wreak havoc on someone’s comics budget)
