PARTNERS IN DANGER
Chapter VI

Felicia Hardy once again claims the spotlight, her growing bond with Spider-Man shadowed by secrets she cannot share. She almost reveals her truth, but Peter stops her — intimacy denied, love restrained by fear. Unlike the comics where she rejects Peter Parker, here it is Peter who holds back, knowing that devotion would place them both in danger.

Into this fragile moment steps Michael Morbius, Felicia’s former suitor, discovered by Debra Whitman and brought partly back to human form. His return rekindles old feelings, yet tragedy looms, for just as Felicia finds her lost love, fate conspires to take him away again.

The supernatural intrudes upon Spider-Man’s world, reshaping battles of science into struggles against darkness. Morbius embodies this intrusion, a figure caught between humanity and monstrosity, love and curse.

Around them, the theme of belonging deepens — Felicia torn between past and present, Peter caught between caution and desire, Morbius trapped between life and death. Each relationship becomes a mirror of sacrifice, showing how love can be both salvation and doom.

At its heart, The Awakening is about the return of what was thought lost — lovers, secrets, and shadows. Airing in the wake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it proved one thing: vampires were cool, and in Spider-Man’s world, they carried tragedy as well as allure.

Debra Whitman and her team recover the hibernating body of Michael Morbius, hoping to restore him to human form. Their experiment falters in a surge of power, forcing them to delay. Before they can try again, Morbius awakens when Shocker and Herbert Landon attempt to abduct him.

It is revealed that Landon himself founded the Herbert Foundation, secretly funding the research that uncovered Morbius and sought his cure. But the vampire rises once more, resuming his desperate hunt for plasma, his hunger unchecked.

Landon and Shocker seize Morbius, delivering him to the Kingpin. Together they seek to unravel the mysteries of Neogenics by dissecting his altered form. Yet Spider-Man and Black Cat intervene, breaking into the fortress to halt their scheme.

Morbius is freed amidst the chaos. Black Cat, armed with a weapon from Whistler, steels herself to end his rampage. But when the moment comes, she falters, unable to strike down the man behind the monster.

Kingpin and Shocker escape into the shadows, but Landon is not so fortunate. Morbius drains his plasma and flees, leaving devastation in his wake and the city once more haunted by his cursed hunger.

Flash mentions that Morbius tried to kill him and Debra Whitman in Duel of the Hunters.

In a nice nod to continuity, Morbius asks Felicia to meet him in the rebuilt clock tower. The tower was destroyed by the Punisher in Enter the Punisher.

Thwip Quip: “It wouldn’t be a party without the big guy, would it?”

Partners | The Vampire Queen