#Or just wanna talk Morb

[madhattersez]

I finally got my hands on something I've been looking for (for a reasonable price) since I was just a lowly little level 12 hornball - A "Marvel Swimsuit Special!"

This is the second issue in the series (though the third book of its kind), and it was released in 1993 when... times were different.

The coolest thing about them (other than the totally radical '90s hunkeroos and baberinos in general) is the amount of really talented artists that submitted pieces - So many industry-leading folks putting their spin on the self-aware, low-brow, tongue-in-cheek project.

This first image was by Joe Jusko, a super popular cover artist at the time. I remember his Conan covers the most.

I'll eventually scan the whole thing in high quality, but for now, I'll take some preview pics to show you some of my favorite and/or goofiest pages:

Here is Domino, looking like we might need to race her to a Dermatology appointment. She's apparently tacky enough to wear a swimsuit with a domino print on it.

And check out Cable in the back - Sun's out, cyberbun out! He's ready to catch some waves on a totally-worth-the-money-and-production-time rocket-powered machine gun surfboard.

I really appreciate this artist's commitment to all the "Liefeld pouches" here. I hope they're waterproof, or all those Tic Tacs inside 'em are gonna get ruined. :(

Penciling by Chris Batista, ink by Hector Collazo, coloring by Mark McNaab.

Let's kick off the "after the jump" part properly with this glorious image of Pip. Because this is certainly what people bought this book for.

It just so happens that this fuzzy little asshole narrates the entire issue, so he's to blame for the inherently sexist captions on all the pictures.

Jesus Christ, he's got two big toes on each foot.

Pencilking by Darick Robertson, ink by Andrew Pepoy, coloring by Tom Smith.

I love me some Cloak and Dagger.

Tandy looks as gorgeous as ever. Surely she owns stock in boobie tape by now.

Tyrone, however, is getting so much sand stuck to him right now... I don't think he digs being used as a beach blanket. I'm... not even sure he's ever had to wash his cloak before today! Yikes. He's all like:

Penciling by Joe Madureira, ink by Terry Austin, and coloring by Gregory Wright.

I can't stop laughing at how much Thunderstrike looks exactly like the Genetic Freak, Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner in this picture:

The work is entirely by Lou Harrison. It may not surprise you to learn he's also a Fantasy artist.

I've always had a thing for Silver Sable, and this page is just fantastic.

That being said, my favorite part is Sandman sitting there, looking like a dope, shaped like a sand castle. Which, while it seems silly, was probably the most challenging and detailed thing I've ever seen him do with his powers. Worth it for the shot, I suppose!

Line work and ink by Steven Butler, a favorite of mine. He did penciling for the "Silver Sable and the Wild Pack" series (which got me attached), but he's also known for designing the Scarlet Spider suit. Coloring by Gregory Wright.

If you thought I wasn't going to Morb out on this post, you were undead wrong.

Just look at that ridiculous batpackage. Also... Is he really serving a cape over a leather jacket, but with absolutely no pants? Damn, dude.

Penciling by Gary Barker, ink by Jimmy Palmiotti, coloring by Tom Smith.

I can spot Adam Hughes' work a mile away, wow. I guess I didn't realize he was doing work for Marvel this far back.

A fierce-as-ever, short-haired Natasha who looks like she got slammed so hard against a rocky wall that it cracked, got up, emptied out the rest of her clip, and still had enough time and energy to pose during a reload.

Black Widow, bay-bayyy. ♫

Oh my god, Ghost Rider is just so naughty. Wearing nothing but his birthday bones.

This scene just looks like it smells awful.

Artwork by Tristan Shane.

Shulkie in a metal bikini (function over fashion?), bursting out of the lava from an active volcano. You wanna talk "hot tub?" Sure, this gets a feature.

Penciling and ink by cover artist Steve Geiger, coloring by Paul... Mounts.

Deezamn, Bishop. Never seen guy looking so buff before.

Instead of just Bishop, this looks like Hank McCoy and Bishop had a child together. Does he have any other mode than "arm vein p-pop?"

Penciling by Dwayne Turner, ink by Mark Farmer, coloring by Gregory Wright.

Ah, one of the more famous '90s Psylocke images that wasn't done by Jim Lee.

This centerfold was used in lots of comic store ads for several years after this issue came out. I remember seeing posters in the shops themselves. Trading cards of this picture are one of the most costly to collect.

It's beautiful, and the colors/lighting/shading are all fantastic.

Penciling and ink by the wonderful Art Thibert, creator of the Raft max security prison and inker of some of the most iconic X-title covers.

Coloring by Paul Mounts, who did the coloring in hundreds and hundreds of just Marvel comics alone - I didn't mention that earlier because I was snickering at his name earlier in the She-Hulk feature. My bad.

Well, this wouldn't be Tumblr without a cat picture, yeah? Or a catgirl picture, I suppose.

This is the most adorable scene in the book. Just Tigra innocently taking a cuddle nap with some... um... wow, I don't know what the fuck those things are. Snuggle up anyway!

Penciling and ink by Amanda Conner, coloring by Gregory Wright.

Huh. Of all the characters in this book, I really didn't expect to see Dr. Cooper... Either which way, the swimsuit under the detective get-up is pretty choice, honestly.

This is, of course, another Adam Hughes line art joint. Ink by Mark Farmer, coloring by Gregory Wright (who did a lot of these, huh?).

What's this? A parody ad that you'd more expect to see in an issue of "What The--?!" that only '80s kids will understand? Yup, totally.

This was in the back of the book and doesn't fit the theme at all, but it gets a mention because of the weird inclusion and also to stall time until I had the final image ready, because I needed time to prepare...

THIS.

This is the one.

How could I not end this little "show and tell" without this beauty right here?

Here, we have remorseless killer Frank Castle flexing his best end-of-catwalk pose in front of a... wrestling match between a bunch of lady demon dinosaurs battling... for his affection? To tip him American cash? Or maybe all those hearts come from their love of beating each other up? I'm not here to judge.

And then there's a sign for 75 cent hotdogs, but it's been covered with another sign for... $20 tooth brushes? What in the shit is going on here?

There is one thing I do know, though. The artist wants you to think that The Punisher has at least $2.75 worth of hotdog under that massive crotch skull.

#marvel swimsuit special #marvel comics #marvel #rare comics #rare #swimwear #comic book art #rogue #cable #cloak & dagger #she hulk #the punisher #tigra #psylocke #ghost rider #bishop #black widow #morbius #silver sable #big poppa pump

[bullrunpicnicker]

hi bull ^_^ # 77 or # 27 for the ask game ? :3

hiiiiii im going to do both, okay? :3

77. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter?

you didn't specify which fic so im just gonna talk about cracking open a cold one because i wanna talk about it. im still in the morb zone mentally. fav scene for that beast is def the whole sequence of gordon freaking out and trying to vampire proof his room and benrey 'menacing' him. the idea of gordon setting up this terrible plan to keep him away (after inviting him!) and benrey immediately interpreting this as a kink scene is insanely funny to me and so fucking fun to write lol

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

i loveeeeeee writing characters interacting and bouncing off each other and talking past each other and having feelings at each other. its so fucking fun and rewarding. least favorite is actually writing lol. im very bad at sitting down and doing the damn thing. im always planning and thinking about writing but its hard to actually Do it

#bullrunshit #morb fic

[duskkodesh]

If y’all gonna be jumping in the Morbius tag because you’re thirsty for a certain cast actor at least read about the character first. Those of us in the Michael Morbius fandom (all six of us and a shoelace) would love to have some more people to talk to. 

So, without further ado under the cut, my Recommendations for people who’ve never read Morb before:

Amazing Spider-man 101, 102

The first is his first appearance and the second is story resolution and backstory ala dream sequence. He was created by Gil Kane and Roy Thomas in 1971 while Stan Lee was off handling something else. They wanted to do a vampire but in Spidey’s science based world they wanted him to fit with other science-based villains. There are some articles that say he was made science-based to get around the Comics Code Authority. This is false, the comics code had already been repealed.

Vampire Tales 1-4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11. 

This is a more teen targeted black and white magazine Marvel did in the 1970′s and featured a lot of occult stories, articles, and some amazing art. This was Morb’s first set of appearances after his intro and his first played as the protagonist. When thrown back into Spidey comics he tended to go back to villain but this established him as a sometimes unorthodox anti-hero. The originals are a bit hard to get but Marvel reprinted all these as three softcover books.

Giant Size Werewolf by Night 4

This one was an intertwining tale about he and Martine with appearances by Werewolf by night who later in the 80′s becomes a close friend of his. It’s highly recommended for both backstory and art.

Marvel Premiere 28

This is the first credited appearance of the Legion of Monsters. It’s used loosely here but later becomes an honest to god team withing the Marvel universe.

Marvel Preview 8

A double feature with Blade. This issue is notable for art by Sonny Trinidad who did a lot of art in Vampire tales. His stuff is beautiful.

Spectacular Spider-man 38 - Savage She-Hulk 11-12

The arc where he turns human again and he stays that way for most of the 80′s, fading into the background as Marvel really focused more on their heroes.

Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme 10,11,14-17

Here’s the arc where he becomes vampire again. It has some notable art and his first encounter with a lot of sidecast that will become lifelong friends for him. 

Strange Tales Dark Corners, Blade vol1 2,3

A short story arc of Morb trying to help Martine’s family and getting caught in a fight with Blade. Unfortunately the Blade title was canned so the last thing we see is Blade and Morb fighting. It must have worked out because they’re both fine later in other issues. 

Morbius the Living Vampire 1-13

His first complete title series! (he headlined Adventures into Fear for a while but I exempted it from this list for an odd convoluted plot and action that happens more around him than him actually propelling any plot forward.) It was a success at the time, going for 32 issues but honest to god the first 13 are the best as the staff changed after that. Keep in mind the 90′s were a gritty grimdark time in comics and it is RIDDLED with forced crossovers.

Marvel Zombies vol3 Marvel Zombies vol4

Each of these was four issues and full of gore so be warned. In volume four his personality is spot on and the art is fantastic!

Amazing Spider-Man 679.1, 688,689,690,691

A sad arc for Morb but riddled with well written appearances and a plot to which he is integral. This led into his second solo title series which honestly crashed a bit and I’m not recommending (despite the fact I liked some of the new characters.)

Punisher 11-17 Frankencastle arc

If you love old cheesy scifi this comic was just loaded with stuff you’ll dig! Good art too and a fantastic visual style.

Legion of Monsters 1-4 mini series

Campy art and an interesting plot means this gets on the list for sure. This is also a four part story and just plain good pulpy stuff.

#Morbius The Living Vampire #Morbius #Michael Morbius #Good starter list #Obviously there's loads more #But I can't list everything #But if you have continuity questions or anything I'm always here #Or just wanna talk Morb #Just be aware when the movie comes out I'm gonna dissect it like a six graders biology project

[vegalocity]

Another one? BakuPeach?

Hell yeah

which one tags the other in pictures of cute animals

Momoko, usually particularly spikey or fluffy animals so she can do the ‘is this u’ joke. Though he will send pictures to her they’re usually disguised as ‘you will not BELIVE what this fucking cat just did to me, leaped right into my lap like i’m her fucking owner and kept staring at me and yOWLING’ but she knows better, she knows he’s really saying ‘look at this cute cat, she really liked me’

which one injures themself while trying to impress the other

.....Katsuki may or may not have overexerted his quirk once or twice for Momoko to get an impressive picture, but that wasn’t to impress her! She wanted him to be her model for her art project about modern history and she wanted hers to be on Hero Culture. He just wanted to give her a good shot! The fact that this happened very recently after he realized he was into her was COMPLETELY unrelated. His arms hurt for hours afterward but he sure as fuck didn’t let her know that, nor would he ever admit to it. 

which one carries the other on their shoulders when they get too tired to walk

I honestly don’t think either is one much to carry the other in casual setting.

 I mean if Momoko’s hurt and trying to play it cool he’ll definitely lift her up like one would a child and refuse to put her down until they’re in a relatively private area so he can yell at her about trying to walk on--what is that, it’s that a fucking broken Ankle?! HANASAKI MOMOKO DID YOU BREAK YOUR FUCKING ANKLE AND STILL TRY TO WALK ALL THE WAY TO THE FUCKING RESTAURANT ON YOUR OWN?!

Alternately, Momoko will exude that Wedding Peach Strength when Katuski’s being... Katsuki. And is really just blowing this whole thing out of porportion. So she’ll lift him up and carry him to a couch in the dorms where they’ll proceed to talk about this problem like grownass adults. And he’s totally not enjoying this and actually loves being carried by his tiny Girlfriend but could never get the guts to say that. He totally didn’t go off like this on purpose hoping that she’d carry him and honestly isn’t particularly mad about this at all. No siree.

which one puts pizza rolls in the shopping cart when the other isn’t looking 

Momoko. They’re both pretty damn good cooks so it’s not like either of them NEED something quick and easy; something that Katsuki always points out when he finds the damn things, but yOU KNOW SOMETIMES YOU JUST DON’T WANNA PUT IN THE EFFORT

which one sends the other useless fun facts at 3 am

Momoko has a tendancy to stay up late, and so she sends the most lighthearted kinda funny stuff late at night, and then two hours later when Katsuki wakes up it’s actually pretty nice to see in the early morning. So he tends to respond to them right then, for Momoko to wake up to.

which one feeds stray animals

Momoko, but like, in that way that Katsuki knows that she really wants to take one home, but the dorms DO NOT allow more than one pet per student and MOMOKO THAT IS AN ENTIRE LITTER OF KITTENS WE’RE TALKING THEM TO THE SHELTER NO I DON’T CARE THAT THEY’RE ADORABLE YOU’RE ALREADY NOT ALLOWED ANY MORE PETS, ISN’T JAMA-P ENOUGH?!

which one sleeps in really weird positions

Katsuki. Momoko is your average cuddler, but Katsuki’s a ‘all limbs everywhere he’s lucky he doesn’t fall off the damn bed’ sleeper. In fact Momoko’s body weight atop of him is sometimes the only think KEEPING him from falling out of bed.

which one opens all the jars/bottles

Katsuki again. Momoko CAN open most jars on her own but that’s no fun. See, ganted her status as a Magi, most people expect her to rely entirely on her magic and be weak. She plays into that ‘weak helpless girly girl’ first impression so people can be shocked when she’s just as capable of fighting as her BF is.

which one spontaneously bursts into song for no reason

Momoko. It’s like living with a Disney princess sometimes. Thankfully by the point they actually live together it’s been long conditioned into him to expect it from her. though there are some times, those times are very far and inbetween, when Momoko is just really down, but like, it’s not something with a source, she’s just got the morbs one evening. Jama-P’s been bunking with Yuri lately, it’s just the two of them. And quietly, just loud enough for her to hear, he starts a duet. it’s probably something from a movie they’ve seen a million times, something that he knows even if he never fills out the melody himself. Those days are hold the dearest in Momoko’s heart. a secret only the two of them will ever know.

which one buys the other really weird birthday cards

Momoko, it’s mostly a prank. Just some silly child birthday card, barbies, Paw Patrol, the age is crossed out in sharpie and replaced with his actual age. Katsuki doesn’t give her fancy cards in revenge. they’re practically Vulcan in how plain and basic they are, just a white card that says ‘It is your birthday’ and in the inside it’s just ‘sincerely Katsuki’ It’s completely expected nowadays and no one is surprised anymore, but they’re never gonna stop. they’ll be married for twenty years and still do this shit to eachother.

#ship headcanons meme #Bakupeach #letters to vega #that second to last one got me in the feels for a second #sailor-brunette

[duskkodesh]

Terribly Out Of Character Morbius Appearances:

By popular request! WILL include alternate universe non-616 because I dig some of those!

Strange Tales #3 2009

This HAD to be the first thing I brought up. Trying to chomp on people and further going on after this panel to explain that he now believes he’d been given his powers divinely with the purpose to kill. There is NO part of this story that is on character except he actually speaks a little Greek. It’s a shame though because I LOVE the pop art style.

Giant Size Super Heroes Starring Spider-man #01 1974

This one is canon but really was just an excuse by the writers to use Morb and Jameson together. Vampire werewolf combo meal! This is before the late 90′s when suddenly vamps hated werewolves for some BS reason? I blame Underworld... anyways Morb has an evil plot and decides using Man-wolf here. He plays classic mad power character to a T, which would be forgivable if he hadn’t just come out of the Vampire Tales run where he was obviously mentally okay and a good guy.

Spider-Man #13 1991

Okay yes, he gets repentant later in this story arc but I’m calling this out. The story is bad, the art is bad, and Morb has never been this prone to power trips. If anything he seems a little self-degrading at times. Him twisting a whole lot of people to his will and just stupidly thinking they could know the guilty from the innocent? Nah bro. Story could be tweaked to fit but he just doesn’t seem right.

Nightstalkers #8 1993

Hot take here, any 90′s crossover where he’s not being written by the team in his own book (And even half the time then...) he’s OOC terribly. I’m talking Ghost Rider, Nightstalkers, Darkhold, and some of the Midnight Sons Unlimited. 80% is rubbish and it seems like they read a one paragraph bio of him then decided to write it. He’s OOC more than he is IC in these issues and it would take me a month to list them all.

X-Man #24 1997

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN. Anyone that knows me knows this is my most HATED issue of anything. Wanna see Morb run around acting like a bad Dracula impersonator, written by someone who clearly never even read his bio on Marvel dot com? You must want X-man #24! Once again the art is great! LOVE IT but the writing is so cliche villain that I have no idea why they used Morbius when Marvel legit has a Dracula running around! Maybe that nerd couldn’t be bothered to turn up for such a lackluster script.

Spectacular Spider-man vol. 02 #14 2004

Okay, I may have been too harsh on X-man because after it there’s this one shot story about a paraplegic Spider-fan who sits on rooftops all day watching the city. I guess they needed a villain for it and someone tossed Morb in except he decided to dress like Count Orlock for some reason and try to eat an innocent guy that can’t even move or speak to defend himself. This is just... this is bad. This isn’t canon because I refuse to acknowledge it as canon.. Fuck that.

Legion of Monsters: Morbius 2007

Let’s go right into this. What the hell, Marvel? Just... what. The. Hell? Morb is on point for crashing with the homeless addicts and starving himself but talking to an invisible bat was... something they pulled out of their ass. And turning an OD’d girl? Nah man. He’s smarter than that. Also his ability to truly turn anyone raises a lot of questions as he’s not really a vampire and it’d only really been done once before in canon. I don’t know if this is 616 or not, honest to god it’s a wreck and I’m calling out Greg Land on the cover for tracing other people’s shit. 

Exiles #55 2005

Okay. This is AU so all my complaining about previous entries? Done. I freaking love these issues. I love darkity dark lord evil bat Morbius. It makes my soul giddy. Possibly because the team is thrown into this medieval fantasy D&D universe and that’s where he resides. I love the art, I love the premise. Sue me, I don’t care. He’s terribly OOC and it’s GOOD. Real Morb would have been like the town apothecary... damn that’d be cool too. MAKE IT HAPPEN MARVEL! I’d buy a D&D Marvel AU comic!

And that’s 8 OOC appearances and enough for now. There’s LOADS more I could tack on later so maybe I’ll do a part 2 in the future.

#Michael Morbius #Morbius The Living Vampire #Morbius #Comics #Marvel Comics