THE MARVEL UNIVERSE mutated in the 1970s. While the previous decade belonged to the bright, quirky superheroes that had defined the company – marquee brands such as Spider-Man, the Hulk and Captain America –a new generation of icons followed, wilder and darker than the last. Barbarian heroes, cosmic adventurers and, lurching from the shadows of crypts, graves and otherworldly swamps, a sudden infestation of horror characters.
Anticipating this new midnight aesthetic was Morbius the Living Vampire, introduced in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1971. There had always been a macabre edge to the web-slinger’s foes: the Green Goblin dripped pure Halloween, right down to his trademark pumpkin bombs, while a pinch of the uncanny accompanied Mysterio, a faceless master of nightmarish illusions whose entire schtick felt like a one-man Haunted Mansion.