Weeks Ago, During Spider-Island…[1]

Uatu Jackson looks out the window at Horizon Labs and watches as New Yorkers web-slinger across the city and thinks that this is the greatest day of his life. He is watching with his colleagues: Grady Scraps, Bella Fishbach and Sajani Jaffrey. They are excited because Mister Fantastic has arrived to help with the spider-plague and is working with the mysterious sixth member of their think tank.

Uatu is in awe when Reed Richards and Max Modell emerges from number 6’s lab. He is also envious of Peter Parker when he offers up a blood sample to Mister Fantastic, wishing it was him.[2]

Now

Spider-Man web-slings to Horizon Labs trying to keep positive so he doesn’t jinx what is already a good day. Arriving at the lab, Spider-Man crawls through the ventilation system in order to get to Peter Parker’s private lab. As Peter is changing out of his costume someone buzzes at the door. Once changed, Peter answers it and greets Uatu Jackson who finds it suspicious that Peter is in his lab since he never saw Parker show up. Peter makes up an lie by saying he had been working all night. Peter then changes the subject to the math equations that he promised to help the young scientist with. However, Uatu is inquisitive about Peter’s strange comings and goings and the fact that he apparently works in his underwear while listening to music so loud he can’t hear explosions elsewhere in the lab.[3] Uatu has concluded that Peter is either homeless or that his girlfriend kicked him out, which Peter denies.[4]

This whole time, Peter is working on a new invention that he intends on using to skin the Rhino. The device suddenly comes to life and starts spinning. A piece breaks off and cuts Peter’s thumb before imbedding in the side of the ventilation shaft. Peter decides to put his work aside and finally help Uatu. As they leave, Peter dismisses his wound as no big deal. However, the blood that is on the piece of shrapnel is detected by the mysterious sixth scientist who is working in his private lab. That’s because this mystery scientist is actually Morbius the Living Vampire.

The Next Day

Both Uatu Jackson and Peter Parker arrive at Horizon Labs and witness Max Modell emerging from the lab, looking upset. While Uatu wishes he could know what was going on in lab six with a sense of wonder, Peter’s spider-sense goes off warning him of something dreadful. After the lab door closes they both hear something on the other side scratching against it and both agree they should find out who is in there.

They being pooling ideas until they have a list of potential candidates but can’t figure out who it might be.[5] When Uatu tosses a ball at Peter, he catches it with ease and reminds himself to be more careful before he blows his secret identity.

Later, Max Modell returns to lab 6 with samples of his own blood for Morbius to try and create a form of artificial plasma, which not only will help the Living Vampire with his blood lust but also be a huge help for the medical industry. Morbius has also been working with the cure he helped develop for Spider-Island and theorizes that it could also potentially cure himself and decides to drink it. As he drinks the serum, neither Michael Morbius nor Max Modell are aware that Spider-Man is spying on them from the lab.

Unfortunately, the cure only makes the Living Vampire’s blood lust even stronger. Seeing that Max is in danger, Spider-Man comes out of the ventilation system to save him. As Spider-Man and Morbius fight, the vials of Max’s blood is knocked onto the floor and the exposed blood puts Morbius into a frenzy. The fight takes them out into the hallway frightening the janitor. When the cleaner runs into Uatu who is delighted to hear that Spider-Man is fighting a vampire. Jackson rushes back into his lab where he has been working on various weapons and armor to combat supernatural threats.

Not far away, Spider-Man is struggling against Morbius who continues to relentlessly attack him.[6] Max tries to get them to stop fighting but his pleas fall on deaf ears. That’s when Uatu arrives and stuns Morbius with ultra-violet projectiles shaped like crucifixes. This gives Spider-Man a breather, but he warns Jackson that Morbius isn’t a traditional vampire. The pair manage to incapacitate Morbius long enough for him to burn the serum out of his system, ending his frenzy. With the battle over, Max tells the gathered scientist that Michael Morbius will be working them for the duration but this does little to dispell everyone’s fears now that the secret of scientist #6 has been revealed. Modell is upset because Spider-Man caused this to happen. He deduces that Peter Parker gave the web-slinger the access codes and assures Spider-Man that he will be increasing security after he talks to Parker and warns Spider-Man that if he wants to come into the lab in the future to do so by going through the lobby like everyone else. Spider-Man is speechless and thinks about how he just made his life a lot harder.

Once back in his lab, Morbius thinks about how he put all of his work to cure himself at risk. No longer finding Horizon Labs safe, Morbius decides that it is time ot leave and exits out through a tunnel into the sewers. There he tracks down the Lizard, the one creature that might hold the key to his salvation.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Morbius the Living Vampire, Max Modell, Uatu Jackson, Grady Scraps, Bella Fishbach, Sajani Jaffrey, Mister Fantastic

Continuity Notes

1. See Amazing Spider-Man #666-673.

2. This scene takes place during the events of Amazing Spider-Man #668.

3. Peter gave this excuse to cover up the fact that he changed into Spider-Man to fight the Hobgoblin when the villain attacked Horizon Labs in Amazing Spider-Man #649.

4. Peter does confirm that he has recently been dumped however. He had been dating Carlie Cooper since Amazing Spider-Man #647. She broke up with Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #673 because she found out that he was Spider-Man and didn’t like the fact he was keeping secrets from her.

5. Uatu mentions an “Evil Beast”, whom Peter doesn’t know. This is a reference to the Hank McCoy from Earth-295, aka the Age of Apocalypse. First seen in X-Men: Alpha #1, the so-called “Dark” Beast escaped to Earth-616 in X-Men: Omega #1. Peter acts as though he doesn’t know who the Dark Beast is even though he met him as Spider-Man in X-Men (vol. 3) #7-10. He’s likely playing dumb for the sake of his secret identity here.

6. Spider-Man recalls how he previously gave Morbius a sample of his blood to cure a werewolf. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #622. At the time, Morbius was trying to cure the Werewolf by Night who had been infected with a zombie virus. See Marvel Zombies 4 #1-4.

Topical References

• One of the pictures on Peter and Uatu’s list of scientists that could be working in lab six includes a photo of Stephen Hawking. This should be considered topical since Hawking has been dead since 2018.