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Post by geneweigel on Apr 18, 2022 19:54:46 GMT -5
This is a pretty cool version of the character with great effects and all. So I give it a B++ for content but a C+ for too much repackaging that it stops making sense. Altogether it obviously should have been better with great scenes and cast but it seems the doctoring made it hiccup too much.
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 19, 2022 8:29:37 GMT -5
Yet another Spider-Man villain movie without Spider-Man in the movie. I don't get it. I didn't get it with VENOM, either, although at least that one had it previously established what Venom was in SPIDER-MAN 3, even if that version is now defined as being within an alternate universe within the multiverse of the MCU.
When I was a kid, I randomly bought an issue of ADVENTURE INTO FEAR starring Morbius (#29, August 1975) without knowing who the character was. It creeped me out but was sort of a cool story. Morbius was being pursued by a human with a pistol into a Hell dimension ruled by a god-like being that had eyes all over his body ("Helleyes"). This issue had oceans of blood, talking crabs, and all sorts of weirdness. And I thought I was buying a superhero comic book!
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 19, 2022 9:19:33 GMT -5
Yeah, he is a lot sicker in the comic books. The vampire magazine with him VAMPIRE TALES (1973-1975) was as bad as a Hammer movie as I recall.
I had saw a later cartoon and it featured him drinking out of his hands with sucker like holes. Was that ever in the comics? I remember watching that and thinking that I got the idea from Morbius subconsciously for a superhero that I created in 1979 but after digging up all these comics over the years it seemed he didn't do that at all. Morbius was a standard vampire unless I'm mistaken. There was a comic that I had with the XMEN pre-Giant Size XMEN change up (MARVEL TEAM UP #4 1972) that continued the Morbius saga with the recaps but I had that as blurred out memory "Get him a Spiderman comic" and it was weird. Spidey plants a smooch on Jean Grey out of nowhere was the memorable highlight. Rereading it the other day it seemed they were going to cure him back then pre-VAMPIRE TALES in that issue but it never followed up.
<<<<<WARNING>>>>>
Movie versus Comic (Trying not to be "spoilery" but watch out):
American not generic European
GF "Martine" is not just a model type but a doctor
The Morbius costume was a treatment suit/No real costume but visually seems there
Assistant Niko, his first kill, is deleted
No Spiderman/Lizard/Human Torch(FF)/XMen like in the first 4 or 5 issues of his appearance
In comic zero qualms about killing everyone/movie has a struggle
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 19, 2022 10:52:37 GMT -5
I never really understood the Morbius concept other than that he was supposed to be a "living vampire" i.e. not actually one of the undead. Evidently, Roy Thomas and Gil Kane wanted to have Spider-Man fight Dracula, but Stan Lee who had moved on to editor by that time wanted a costumed villain. They invented a vampire that came about through scientific rather than supernatural means. They even admitted the idea came from FORBIDDEN PLANET and the character even had the same name as Dr. Morbius (but was imagined as Jack Palance rather than Walter Pidgeon)! That all went over my head as a kid and I just thought it was an odd-looking superhero with his blue and red costume... but it was like a bait-and-switch and I wasn't quite ready for horror comics (just turned seven years old)! The concept is a bit weird since there are supernatural vampires in the Marvel Universe as well, so I never understood how Morbius fit into that framework.
That reminds me -- weren't pseudo-undead introduced into AD&D at some point?* Were they inspired by Morbius the Living Vampire?
*I just looked it up, and they first appeared in the MM2, and were the creation of Frank Mentzer. I never used them as I thought they were a lame idea intended to nerf players with a twist ("You are unable to turn them and holy water seems to have no effect!").
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 19, 2022 12:03:10 GMT -5
I think Mentzer is Arneson "as he should have been" at least in regards to role at the company so its hard to not give Frank a break with all his output. Like I said before, my brother's enthusiasms and air of superiority for anything that I wasn't fervently excited about really drove me to be an anti-Mentzerite. I did use his magic book THE BOOK OF MARVELOUS MAGIC (1985) but that was only because it had "Power Word Gygax" credited. In play it was a little weak. I just talked to Jon Pickens and he was a principal of 2E, so I feel that have to try harder to give Mentzer a break because I feel like I just went off on him for way too long and now that he's "cancelled" I just want to see his best side because I'm definitely not jumping on that bandwagon.
As for pseudo-undead, its only as good as the descriptors. To make an entire thing with no explanation except same as but living and natural. It should have been "pseudo-monsters" with a magical explanation (like a high level spell) to swallow better. Morbius is technically a vampire with need for blood so I don't know if he would qualify as pseudo-undead with the exception that some of the supernatural strengths/weaknesses don't work. "Greater pseudo-undead?"
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