One night Morbius had Nikos subject him to an electrical shock treatment in an attempt to stimulate the creation of more blood cells in his system. The electrical shock somehow acted as a catalyst for the chemicals from the bats that were in his bloodstream, which then wreaked a radical change in Morbius’s body. Within moments, Morbius was transformed into a being resembling in many respects a supernatural vampire: he now had superhuman strength, fangs, and an animalistic lust for blood to replace the dissolving blood cells in his body.

Unable to control his vampiric needs, Morbius attacked Nikos and killed him by strangulation. He was about to drain his friend’s blood, but the shock of seeing Nikos dead by his hands caused his bloodlust to subside. Morbius was horrified by what he had done and what he had become. Then he began to feel him self becoming overwhelmed by a desire to attack his fiancée and drain her blood. Before this drive could overpower him, Morbius tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the sea. But the man’s fear of death forced him to the surface, by which time he was wholly in the grip of his vampiric urges.

Morbius led a nightmarish existence over the following years. He attacked numerous victims for their blood, killing many of them. When his normal personality would return, he would be racked by feelings of guilt. Morbius desperately sought a cure for himself, but all of his attempts failed. Moreover, no matter how firmly he vowed never to attack or kill another victim, his vampiric drives sooner or later overwhelmed him. In the course of his dreadful career, Morbius battled Spider-Man several times and even traveled to such exotic locales as a planet orbiting Arcturus and the dimension of the Cat People.

Finally, Morbius encountered and fought Spider-Man at a mansion at Southampton, Long Island, New York. Atop the mansion’s tower, Morbius had bitten Spider-Man and was beginning to drain his radioactive blood when he was hit by a bolt of lightning. Either because of the lightning, Spider-Man’s unusual radioactive blood, or both, Morbius lost his powers and regained his human form. Morbius retained his fangs, but he no longer required the blood of others to survive. Although he had been cured of his original degenerative blood disease, he still suffered from a compulsion to attack others and drain their blood. This compulsion was not psychological but physical in nature, resembling a drug addiction.

Morbius found work in neuro-radiology at UCLA, and there synthesized a serum that he believed would cure him of his compulsion for blood. Unfortunately, Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk, was then suffering from a degenerative disease that not only led to her growing inability to control her transformations into the She-Hulk, but also was causing a cellular breakdown that would eventually kill her. Morbius let Walters take the serum instead, and it not only cured her disease, but gave her complete control of her transformations.

In gratitude, Walters acted as Morbius’s attorney when he was put on trial for his murders during the time he was a pseudo-vampire. Walters proved to the court that as a pseudo vampire, Morbius had been unable to control his compulsion to kill for blood. The jury found Morbius guilty only of involuntary manslaughter, but the judge nevertheless sentenced Morbius to serve three to five years in prison. However, he suspended the sentence until Morbius could synthesize another serum and completely cure himself. After doing so, Morbius went to prison. Paroled after a short time for good behavior, he has since moved to the Los Angeles area where he works as a scientific researcher by an undisclosed firm.