The tales and myths of blood-sucking vampires have existed since time immemorial. They have made their way into pop culture, including comics that have their own versions of these legendary monsters. Marvel’s Morbius, the Living Vampire, was its own iteration that combined science and mythic arts, and debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in October 1971. Since then, the character has made regular appearances in comics, shows, and even a standalone film.
Similar to his on-page debut, Michael Morbius first appeared in the fan-favorite Fox Kids show Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The success of the animated show gave the showrunner John Semper the space to experiment and introduce obscure characters such as Morbius, and it worked out in favor of Marvel fans.
However, not everyone liked this version of Morbius, such as DC’s legendary animator Bruce Timm.
Bruce Timm Felt Morbius Was Lame in Spider-Man: The Animated Series
The DC and Marvel rivalry goes way back, even before the conception of the MCU and DCEU (now DCU). This sometimes also extended to the media creators, like the time Stan Lee mocked Superman. Bruce Timm, the progenitor of cult classic animated DC shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, did something similar, which was more directed towards the network than the series itself.
Addressing how ridiculous studio cuts are sometimes, especially when it comes to vampires and blood, Timm told sciencefiction.com in an interview:
“The only thing that I can think of really, and it’s not a big thing, definitely not something I lose sleep over, but I had an idea to do an episode where Batman got turned into a vampire temporarily. There’s a character in the comics called Nocturna! And it didn’t get much past the idea phase, we floated it past Fox Kids and they said “Nope! No Vampires!” and I said ‘well what if he wasn’t really a Vampire?” and they said “No Vampires!”
He was then reminded of Morbius in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and he continued:
“Yeeeeah, but they did that really lame one right? He had like suction cups on his hands? So that was fine. Like if I wasn’t going to do it properly, I wasn’t going to do it. That’s probably the only thing that I can really think of because everything else we kind of got to do what we wanted to do!”
The subtle jab at both the animated series and Fox Kids’ censorship shows Timm’s strive for authenticity. However, the show’s creator John Semper disliked this behavior.
John Semper Didn’t Like the Batman Writers’ Attitude
The problems between Batman: The Animated Series writers and the censorship by the studio were already widely known in the 90s; Batman Beyond: The Return of The Joker was a glowing example of one such mess. However, Spider-Man: The Animated Series creator John Semper shared different beliefs than Timm and his team. Talking to a Marvel Animation fansite, Semper said:
“We’ve already done it. I am in the middle of expanding it, because it was so successful that we decided to stretch it for two more episodes. I have a good relationship with Broadcast Standards and Practices, in that I recognize that what they’re trying to do is important, and philosophically I am not opposed to what they’re trying to do. I think there were writers on BATMAN who decided that they were going to wage war against Broadcast Standards and Practices. I think that’s an unproductive attitude.”
Sticking to the censorship did bring out surprising results for Morbius, who developed suckers in his hands and drank plasma instead of blood in the show. Despite the conflicting ideologies between the creators, both animated shows were highly successful. The contrast only brought out quality content for comic book enthusiasts, and turned out to be a win-win for all the kids who tuned in to watch their favorite cartoons after school every day.
