How Exactly Does Dr. Michael Morbius Get His Vampire Powers in ‘Morbius?’

Morbius fever hit the nation (meaning it was barely seen by fans), and with it, came a new origin story for a Spider-Man character. Dr. Michael Morbius has a rare blood disorder that he has dedicated his life to finding a cure for. With the resources from his friend Milo (Matt Smith), Michael begins to dig into a cure using vampire bats, and thus, turns himself into a vampire.

But why did he turn himself into a vampire?

Well, what happens is that as he’s using the vampire bats to try and create a cure, he accidentally becomes a vampire in the process. Which does make it seem as if vampire bats could turn real-life humans into vampires (which is not the case), but in the context of Morbius that’s exactly what happens. He’s “cured,” but that means sudden new abilities, and also, that he has to sustain himself on blood.

And you know, if it were me, I’d do a little more experimenting on what would suffice for blood. Michael sure doesn’t. Michael never tries to drink, like, a cow’s blood or anything like that. He just goes all-in on human blood, and honestly, that’s on him. (He does try artificial human blood, but it doesn’t work for very long, and buddy, maybe do a buffet of other blood and see what works?) Yeah, I get that it’s an unfortunate surprise to become a vampire, but drinking human blood seemed to be a real “first option go-to” for him.

Being a “bat” man

Outside of getting his powers from them, Michael also has a connection to the bats. They don’t attack him as they do the other humans in the movie. Which, okay, I’ll buy that the bats sense he’s one of them, makes sense. Except…that same courtesy isn’t passed on to Milo when he comes into contact with the vampire bats. The thing about this movie is that it isn’t exactly that clear why the bats like him. That same connection should exist for Milo. So, are the bats just going off of personality or something? Is this like a swipe right or left situation and they didn’t like the look of Milo’s profile? Who knows? Sure!

Other Perks of Being a Vampire

Michael’s power comes from human blood, which, in this world, means he can exist in the sun and do all the things that people think vampires can’t do (I honestly cannot remember if he can see his reflection or not, and I’m not sorry about that fact, but I think he can?).

So, all in all, Michael Morbius gets his powers from the vampire bats that he’s doing experiments on and somehow has an unquenchable thirst for blood that he just accepts. And at the end, he decides to just live with it. Or something. And if he did try other kinds of blood before humans, I don’t remember it, and truly, all of us who saw this movie can’t be held accountable for remembering details like that. We suffered through Morbius.

(image: Sony)