Morbius is incredible… in Marvel's Midnight Suns. No, really! I know we spent the entirety of last summer pretending Morbius was awesome, but I mean it this time. It’s really Morbin' time, baby. Firaxis figured out the best way to play off of the meme is to actually make Morbius as cool as we were all pretending he was.
Dr. Michael Morbius joins Midnight Suns as the third DLC character in the ongoing Mephisto vs. Dracula (vs. Doctor Doom?) storyline. After confronting Sin with Deadpool and helping Venom overcome Lilith's control, we head back into the sewers to track down Morbius to get his take on this whole Vampire situation. I guess Spider-Man just forgot he's close acquaintances with a vampire until now, which is honestly pretty on brand for this incarnation of Spidey.
When we arrive at Morbius' lab we discover the Vampyre have ransacked it and stolen an experimental serum that allows vampires to walk in the sun. Enraged, Morbius agrees to join us to stop Dracula from turning his brood of nightcrawlers into an army of daywalkers.
Like the two previous DLC campaigns, this one is only three missions long, but it manages to fit in a lot of character work. The central team drama is between Blade and Morbius, since Blade doesn't trust the Living Vampire, and as we eventually learn, is projecting a lot of his own insecurities onto Morbius. We also get some more details on Sin when we learn about her history with Morbius, which ties things back into the Deadpool chapter nicely.
This is the most self-contained of the DLC chapters so far, and even though it doesn't perfectly close the book on Dracula and his involvement with Hydra, we're not left with much to go on for the Storm's fourth and final chapter. It would have been nice to get some setup to get everyone excited for the finale, but I guess a playable Morb is exciting enough.
Venom was a lot more powerful than Deadpool, and Morbius feels like the strongest DLC character yet. A lot of his abilities inflict Bleed, unsurprisingly, which makes him synergize well with Blade, and consequently makes Blade’s support-style abilities a lot stronger. Morbius' passive ability, Bloodlust, is similar to Captain Marvel's Binary ability. After three attacks, Morbius can activate Bloodlust, giving him a large amount of Block and adding Bleed to all of his attacks. He remains in Bloodlust until he loses all of his Block, so if you can build your team around him to mitigate incoming damage Morbius can do a lot of work very quickly.
Another reason Morbius is great now is that Jared Leto isn't involved. Jake Green, who also voices Eddie Brock, does a great job conveying Morbius' controlled rage that bubbles beneath the surface. When he finally loses control during the second mission it's one of the most emotionally resonant moments in the game. Morbius fits in perfectly with this team of misfits, and as always it was a lot of fun to talk to everyone and see their reactions to a new housemate.
It's bittersweet to near the end of Midnight Suns' DLC campaign and to know this is the last story we're likely to see, but at least Morbius adds some longevity to the game. With his Laboratory upgrade, you can make fine tune adjustments to individual character stats for the first time. I've already started increasing Scarlet Witch's power to give her a bigger radius on her hexes and I plan to add resistance to the Hulk to help him stay on his feet easier - that boy is surprisingly squishy. Every stat increase comes with a minor stat penalty, but that helps give weight to your choice and better define the character builds you can create now.
Sony may have gone ass up on the movie, but Morbius always gets the last laugh in the end.