Ultimate Spider-Man #95: Morbius Part 1 discussion (spoilers)

[DIrishB]

DIrishB is literally the timeline god. He has the only correct timelines of the Ultimate Universe and the TV show LOST on the internet.

****in' right I do.

All admit defeat when up against DIB and timeline continuity.

Don't forget when up against me and general funk...I got even Rick James beat on that...only George Clinton trumps me, and thats only because of the multi-colored hair, which in itself is a "gimme" because I ain't got none, sucka!

He's like Doctor Who, only sexier.

That'd be a good sig.

I agree with the sentiment this arc was set up well. Nice tough on Blade - did he always look exactly like the movie Blade in the UU?

Yup...course this is only his second appearance.

And what is this other comic where they showed the flashback scene earlier?

Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special #1...it was basically an epilogue to the Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series, which is probably why its collected with them in the TPBs and Hardcover.

No, not really. Some pics of Blade's early looks:

http://hometown.aol.com/Kingmo69/Bladetvs.html

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/gallery.asp?img=5&gallery=tombofdracula_volume2

http://www.comiclink.com/./itemdetail.asp?back=/items.asp?id=3903&FROM=&TO&id=641994

He meant has he always looked that way in the Ultimate Universe.

Yes. The USM Super Special was included in the third trade volume of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and is also planned for the upcoming collection of the entire UMTU series.

Indeed.

 

[ProjectX2]

Wow, I didn't know about the UMTU TPB. I might get it, since I've only got digital copies of those comics. Thanks for that, Seldes!

 

[Seldes Katne]

I agree with the sentiment this arc was set up well. Nice tough on Blade - did he always look exactly like the movie Blade in the UU?

He meant has he always looked that way in the Ultimate Universe.

Oops. You're right. Sorry, I must have been having a senior moment.... :arrgh:

Wow, I didn't know about the UMTU TPB. I might get it, since I've only got digital copies of those comics. Thanks for that, Seldes!

You're welcome. I'm ordering a copy for my (public) library as well. We had copies of the original trades, and some [unladylike expletive deleted] stole them.... :evil:

Getting back to vampires for a moment, a poster over at CBR called littleredhat is floating a theory that vampires might be trace-able in the UU to the Ultimate Ancients, introduced in the UFF annual. S/He's tying in the ancient ruins found by Dr. Molevik, as well as Atlantis and possibly Thor. Not offering a lot of detail, just the basic idea: Ultimate Ancients, one big story, vampires.

Legends of vampire-like creatures seem to date back at least 4,000 years on our Earth (to the time of the ancient Babylonians) -- if you don't count the idea that the original vampire was Lilith (Biblical Adam's alleged first wife before Eve) -- so littleredhat's idea is by no means impossible.

 

[Zombipanda]

Hey, I'd read it. I don't dislike Dr. Strange, I just think there needs to be some tweaking involved in this character's origin before he really fits this particular universe. How does he do all that magical stuff? Even if there just some kind of internal consistency to it (like the magical theories and classes in Harry Potter, for example), that would at least lend an air of legitimacy to it. (I confess that I did laugh when he made the comment about it being too much to expect mystic scholars to log their findings in alphabetical order -- any alphabetical order. :lol: )

UFF really does "push the envelope" in the UU, although it works for me because I'm familiar with scientific theories and speculation on the topics of alien intelligence, alternate dimensions and so on. Many of those have been the subject of science fiction for years. However, I can see where readers might have a problem accepting some of this as realistic.

And there's plenty of magical theory out there well. Some of it incredibly interesting, but still just theory. I don't think of the UU as particularly "realistic" but more "modern". I think if you mixed in elements like chaos magic, psychedelic magic, gnosticism and urban shamanism into the mix, you could create a magical structure that's fitting for the Ultimate Universe. I don't think the true nuts and bolts of magic should be explained (because then it's not really mystical). There should be serious magic theory mixed in there, but their should still be a heavy air of mysticism.

Maybe it's not that far-fetched. Wasn't Morbius suffering from some sort of blood disorder in the regular Marvel Universe? (I'd never even heard of this character before this issue, so I'm no expert here….) And he managed, through his research, to end up in a state where he had a number of vampiric qualities, but wasn't one of the undead? Something like that, anyway. If this version of Morbius follows a similar pattern, it's possible that he's done experimentation with blood. We've seen samples of Peter's blood taken in a couple of places in this series (most notably at the beginning, when Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius were examining it.) There may yet be a tie-in. We'll find out in a few issues.

In the 616 universe, Morbius suffered from a rare blood disease and tried to find a cure using vampire bat blood. and as a result, he turned into a vampirish type thing.

interesting theory on Urich already being a vampire though. I'll have to check out those back-issues.

 

[Lynx]

In the 616 universe, Morbius suffered from a rare blood disease and tried to find a cure using vampire bat blood. and as a result, he turned into a vampirish type thing.

interesting theory on Urich already being a vampire though. I'll have to check out those back-issues.

It'd also be a nice lead-in to the Clone Saga if Morbius had experimented on himself either as an Oz employee or some other genetics corporation company.

Since everything seems to be tied together, according to Bendis, a random vampire story right before the big wrap-up arc would be kind of pointless.

 

[Zombipanda]

hm.... So far we know Tarantula, Spider-Woman, and Scorpion are coming. Morbius' change in 616 comes from experimentation with bat blood. What if these labs are just injecting their subjects with the irradiated blood of random animals? maybe mixed with the Parker sample?

 

[Lynx]

hm.... So far we know Tarantula, Spider-Woman, and Scorpion are coming. Morbius' change in 616 comes from experimentation with bat blood. What if these labs are just injecting their subjects with the irradiated blood of random animals? maybe mixed with the Parker sample?

I'm actually starting to think it may be SHIELD. . .

I get flashbacks of Banner telling Pete about the Conspiracy. Maybe SHIELD is using Parker to not only be a catalyst for their own genetic experimentation, but to shut down or lead them to their competitors.

Peter shut down Osborn and Octavius. Peter shut down Hammer. Peter stopped Doc Conners and Carnage. Peter stopped Hobgoblin. Peter led SHIELD to the Tinkerer, etc. Perhaps Ben Reily was an undercover SHIELD agent. All of them posed a threat to SHIELD. And the Clone Saga is SHIELD trying to get rid of their last loose end: Peter.

Combined with what Millar is doing in the Ultimates 2, this would paint Nick Fury as one of the biggest "villians" in the Ultimate Universe. . .

 

[Zombipanda]

I'm actually starting to think it may be SHIELD. . .

I get flashbacks of Banner telling Pete about the Conspiracy. Maybe SHIELD is using Parker to not only be a catalyst for their own genetic experimentation, but to shut down or lead them to their competitors.

Peter shut down Osborn and Octavius. Peter shut down Hammer. Peter stopped Doc Conners and Carnage. Peter stopped Hobgoblin. Peter led SHIELD to the Tinkerer, etc. Perhaps Ben Reily was an undercover SHIELD agent. All of them posed a threat to SHIELD. And the Clone Saga is SHIELD trying to get rid of their last loose end: Peter.

Combined with what Millar is doing in the Ultimates 2, this would paint Nick Fury as one of the biggest "villians" in the Ultimate Universe. . .

Interesting.... I don't buy that SHIELD is intentionally using Parker to do their dirty work. Hobgoblin's rampage seemed to be a genuine mistake, and SHIELD only stumbled onto Vulture/Tinkerer by a mistake on the Wild Pack's part. And Oscorp? It was voluntarily giving its weapons over to the government. They had a contract in place.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if SHIELD is running their own experiments on Peter's blood. It would certainly go hand-in-hand with the hard-on Fury has for the super soldier program... and the Annual showed tht he has an immense amount of foresight and manipulation. I really like the idea of Reilly being an undercover SHIELD agent. I'd never really thought about his ulterior agenda, and that would make a lot of sense. It could be a seriously cool twist.

Then again, this is Bendis, so what's probably going to happen is this. Scorpion appears in the first issue of the Saga. Spidey defeats him and uncovers nothing. Then there's four issues of him going to school and swinging around the city with interior monologue. Then one issue where he fights Tarantula, Spider-Woman, and Spider-Girl. Then in the last issue, we discover it was actually all manipulated by some unimportant corporate big-wig. Yay Bendis!

 

[Victor Von Doom]

I bet this isn't even that serious. I'll bet that Ben was bitten by vampire and the vampire will be killed by either Peter or Morbius and Ben will go back to normal.


All this will chalked up to an interim filler arc similar to that 2 issue stunt where Peter and Wolverine switched bodies. All will go back to normal.....or as normal as a teenage kid with super spider powers can be.

 

[DIrishB]

I bet this isn't even that serious. I'll bet that Ben was bitten by vampire and the vampire will be killed by either Peter or Morbius and Ben will go back to normal.


All this will chalked up to an interim filler arc similar to that 2 issue stunt where Peter and Wolverine switched bodies. All will go back to normal.....or as normal as a teenage kid with super spider powers can be.

I agree. I'm thinking Morbius will somehow cure Urich of any vampirism.

 

[Seldes Katne]

Sure, it probably isn't going to be that serious. It's a two-issue arc, and likely just serving as filler. But hey, the conversation about it is fun and the speculation is interesting, and it passes the time until the next issue is out. I wonder if any of these writers ever look at fan speculation on boards like this and think, "Man, wish I'd thought of writing it like that...." :lol: (Given the current state of lawsuit-happy people who've actually been known to sue creators for anything that even remotely resembles their ideas, I'm guessing the answer is mostly "no", but there really have been some creative theories and speculation posted on these boards. It's one of the things that makes it worth stopping by and reading posts.)

And there's plenty of magical theory out there well. Some of it incredibly interesting, but still just theory. I don't think of the UU as particularly "realistic" but more "modern". I think if you mixed in elements like chaos magic, psychedelic magic, gnosticism and urban shamanism into the mix, you could create a magical structure that's fitting for the Ultimate Universe.

Cool, new research topics! I'll have to look into those when I have a few minutes.

I went back and looked at some of the trades of USM, and noticed that Ben Urich seems to favor an all-black ensemble of turtleneck sweater, jacket and trousers. That's what he's wearing when we first meet him, and it's also the most common outfit for him. (I suspect it's easy to draw and color, so I probably shouldn't read too much into the color choice.) My personal favorite outfit is the purple and black one he's wearing when the fake Spider-man robs the bank back in whatever issue that was, but I like that color on almost anyone, so....

 

[Aebriol]

I am sure people that work in the industry is just like anyone else ... some of them reads stuff on the net, others don't . But they might have a policy about identifying themself Or not ... I dunno.

 

[Zombipanda]

Look at any of Grant Morrison's weirder comic book stuff, or William S. Burroughs.

 

[thee great one]

This was so much better than the last issues. I'm excited. The Mary-Jane thing was a nice touch.

B-

 

[supermusli]

I´m no fan of Blade, but this story starts ok... better than the Deadpool arc for sure.

Didn´t like the coloring though. Have they changed colorist yeat again? I really liked the one they used in Silver Sable - wish they could keep him/her. The constant change of colorist and/or inker is actually starting to get into the way of my enjoyment of this book. The right inker and colorist makes Bagleys art look great. The wrong one makes it looks... sloppy.

 

[Goodwill]

As long as Ponsor is away from this title, I'm all for whoever other inks Marvel can find.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

I thought this issue was kick ***. Again, I love as much MJ angst as I can get and Morbius seems so cool. It's always good when they make nods to team-ups or in this case, the super special. Was that Ultimate Man-Wolf?

5/5

 

[ultimatedjf]

I thought this issue was kick ***. Again, I love as much MJ angst as I can get and Morbius seems so cool. It's always good when they make nods to team-ups or in this case, the super special. Was that Ultimate Man-Wolf?

I thought it could be, but then I realized he turned into bats. (Those panels were a tad confusing.) Also, the solicits didn't suggest anything, especially since John supposedly died in #49. But, yeah, he can talk, so anything's possible.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

I thought it could be, but then I realized he turned into bats. (Those panels were a tad confusing.) Also, the solicits didn't suggest anything, especially since John supposedly died in #49. But, yeah, he can talk, so anything's possible.

John thus far has nothing to do with Ultimate Man-Wolf. I didn't really pick up on the wolf turning into bats just thought they were sort've following the scene around for a cool background look. But who knows.

 

[Zombipanda]

.....

I think the wolf was just another vampire.