Warning: The following contains spoilers for Morbius.Living vampire Michael Morbius made his comic book debut inAmazing Spider-Man#1 in 1971, and after many delays, he gets his live action movie debut over 50 years later.Morbius, part of Sony’s sharedSpider-Manuniverse, sees the titular character try to find a cure for his blood-borne illness that gets a little out of hand. It’s not unlike his comic book origin story, but the movie melds some modern cinematic takes with the classic comic book elements to give the audience a relatively new story.
Because it does pull from Marvel Comics, there are quite a few Easter eggs and references for long-time comic book fans. Fans looking for some of the Easter eggs spotted in early trailers for the movie, however, might find themselves disappointed. The Spider-Man graffiti present in the trailers, for example, isn’t a part of the movie at all. Nor is the Oscorp logo that was seen on a building in the trailer. That’s not uncommon as cut footage often ends up in trailers, but the rest of these Easter eggs did all make the final cut.
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A School For Gifted Children
When Michael Morbius shows how intelligent he is at a young age, the doctor caring for him decides to get him into a “school for gifted children.” While that phrasing might be harmless enough, he also makes sure to mention that the school is in New York.
Anyone who has read a comic knows that Xavier’s School For Gifted Children, hidden away in upstate New York, is thetraining ground for the X-Men. It hides mutant children in plain sight. It’s entirely possible the phrasing used inMorbiusis a coincidence, but it would be a very big coincidence. It’s more likely a wink and a nod to the fact that Morbius is a Marvel character.
The Daily Bugle’s Headlines
Spider-Manfans will know that theDaily Bugleis the publication that Peter Parker works for as a photographer for a very long time in the original comic book series. It’s also a very widespread publication in Marvel Comics, and even exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,owned by J Jonah Jameson.
The newspaper is spotlighted a few times in the movie, and while the headlines are usually concerned with Morbius, there are a few other headlines hinting at otherSpider-Mancharacters running around town. Rhino, Black Cat, and Chameleon all get their own headlines. Rhino featured inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2,Black Cat was supposed to get her own Sony movie(and still might), and Chameleon was justcast for the upcomingKraven the Huntermovie. Using these particular villains in the paper might be a hint at just which universeMorbiusexists.
Horizon Labs
Though most of Morbius’ funding comes from his friend Lucien, he’s also the director ofHorizon Labs, according to promotional material for the movie. The name of the company is only mentioned a handful of times in the movie, but its logo matches the Horizon Labs where Morbius briefly works in the comics as well.
In the comics, he gets the designation Number 6 because he works in Lab 6. He secretly uses the resources to work on a cure for his condition, much as he does in the movie here. Funnily enough, Lab 7 is occupied by Peter Parker in the comics, and all of the room numbers shown for Horizon Lab patients on the floor occupied by Morbius in the movie start with a number 7. It’s possibly just another coincidence, or it’s another nod to hisSpider-Manconnections in the comics.
A Russian Card Player
Morbius and Lucien maintain a friendship from the first day they meet while in a medical facility as children well into adulthood. Lucien is showcased as more of a troublemaker than Morbius long before he’s revealed as the movie’s villain, and one such scene includes him having employed bodyguards because he angered a Russian man while playing cards with him.
This might seem like a line that can be easily written off, but it’s important to note that one family that does enjoy a good underground card game with other wealthy members of society is the Kravinoffs.Kraven the Hunter is a member of the Kravinoff family, and his Sony movie is currently filming. Like the Chameleon in the paper, this would tie the two movies together.
The Murnau
When Morbius and Dr. Martine Bancroft decide to experiment at sea, the cargo ship they do their work on is a great reference. In the comics, there’s a ship employed by Horizon Labs as well, used when the lab is shut down in New York, but it does have a different name, theZenith.
The name of the ship is changed here because it’s another Easter egg.Murnauis a nod to FW Murnau, who is credited with directing the first vampire movie,Nosferatu,in 1922. Officially, the movie is not an adaptation of Bram Stoker’sDraculanovel because of the complicated copyright claims at the time, but the novel, the movie,andMorbius, all feature a vampire of sortswho kills everyone on board the ship. In Morbius’ case, he doesn’t kill Martine, but that’s a comic book nod as he also jumps off a ship to avoid killing her in his origin story in the comics, but there, she’s his secretary instead of an equal partner in his research.
Pain At An Eleven
At one point, Lucien is asked to rate his pain on a scale of one to ten. He chooses an eleven. While that’s an indicator of him being in excruciating pain because of his condition on a regular basis, it’s also a nod to actor Matt Smith’s previous role in another franchise.
Matt Smith played BBC’sDoctor Whofor four years. The number of his particular incarnation of the Doctor? Eleven.
The Thing In San Francisco
The strange case of victims being drained of blood is compared to the weird case FBI Agents Stroud and Rodriguez saw in San Francisco. San Francisco iswhere theVenommovies primarily take place. That makes it likely that Venom, Morbius, and Kraven all reside in the same universe.
Stroud is also a Marvel comic book character. In the comics, however, he works for the CIA, not the FBI. He also hunts Morbius, but also ends up teaming up with Morbius and Martine a couple times to fight other entities completely.
A Classic Hulk Line
The hunger for blood almost gets the better of Morbius while he’s in police custody. He admits that he’s getting hungry to Rodriguez and Stroud, saying, “you won’t like me when I’m hungry.”
This is a play off of a particularly well known Hulk line, “you won’t like me when I’m angry.” It’s a nod to both characters transforming when their base instincts get the better of them.
A Bat Infestation
Unlike the newspapers in the movie, the news broadcasts don’t offer up a lot of Easter eggs. They do, however, offer up a little bit of foreshadowing for one of Morbius’ more interesting abilities in the movie - and one that sets him apart from Lucien.
A news crawl following the confrontation between Morbius and Lucien that takes them into a subway station mentions that the subway has been shut down due to an infestation of bats. This is a nod to Morbius’ connection to the bats. He mentions how they welcome him instead of attack him earlier in the movie, but this is the first sign that he can actually call them to him like he does later in the final battle against Lucien. The bats followed him through the subway, which is why it ends up infested.
Martine Opens Her Eyes
Lucien uses the particularly cruel trope of capturing Martine to lure Morbius into the open. He injures her so severely that, by the time Morbius gets to her, her death is inevitable, but… not exactly. Martine opens her eyes following the fight between Morbius and Lucien and takes a big breath despite Morbius having drained her blood at her own urging before she died.
It’s important to note that Martine also had a bit of Morbius’ blood in her system as it went right into her mouth while she was speaking to him, which presumably, makes her another living vampire. This is a twist on her comic book story as she ends up as a more traditional vampire. Martine even attempts to bite Morbius at one point in the comicsso he’ll be a traditional vampireand they can live out their immortal lives together, but that doesn’t end up happening. Presumably, if a sequel moves forward, Morbius will learn of her resurrection.
Those Credit Scenes
While the trailer scene featuring Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes is cut from the movie, Toomes does appear in the two credit scenes. The first establishes that this incarnation of Toomes is the same one from the MCU. For some reason, theevents ofSpider-Man: No Way Hometransport him to a whole new universe. It’s entirely possible that’s because Sony isn’t too keen on sharing Spider-Man with Marvel anymore, but it’s also possible it’s because Sony wants to build their own Sinister Six, as they previously tried to do intheAmazing Spider-Man 2’spost credit scene.
Not only does the scene indicate a loss for the MCU of the Vulture, but it also appears that this version of Toomes is using the technology that theAmazing Spider-Man’sVulture would have used. When he flies out to meet Morbius in the middle of nowhere, he’s wearing wings that look remarkably like the ones encased in theAmazing Spider-Man 2’scredits. It’s possible the design is just an Easter egg nod, but it could also mean that Sony is actually building its villain universein Andrew Garfield’sSpider-Manuniverse.
Only time will tell if the Easter eggs pay off in the future or not.
