SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE

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.

But the ghoulish Morbius was next level. With his “ghost