The Amazing Spider-Man #101

The code lets the vampires back in

The Comics Code Authority, the industry's self-censorship board, had long kept vampires out of code-approved comics. In February 1971 the code was revised, and among the changes was a lifting of that ban on vampires and certain other supernatural characters. The revision followed a challenge led by this very title: in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May-July 1971), Stan Lee and Gil Kane ran an anti-drug story at the request of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The code refused to approve it, Marvel published those issues without the seal, and the response helped force the update.

The Amazing Spider-Man #101, cover dated October 1971, introduced a vampire under the revised code. Its copyright registration, adjusted by indexers, puts the on-sale date at July 13, 1971; Wikipedia gives the publication month as August 1971. It was a 36-page, fifteen-cent comic, printed by World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois, and it carried the code seal.

It was also a changing of the guard. This was the first issue of Marvel's flagship Spider-Man series written by someone other than Stan Lee, who was busy writing a screenplay for a science-fiction film that was never produced. Lee handed the book to his right-hand editor, Roy Thomas.

Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and a scientific vampire

Thomas later recalled that there was interest in having Spider-Man fight a vampire, possibly even Dracula. 'We were talking about doing Dracula, but Stan wanted a costumed villain,' he said in 2009. Part of the idea came from The Vampire, a 1957 film Thomas had seen as a boy, in which a man becomes a vampire through science rather than magic. Thomas and Kane decided a scientific vampire suited the science-based Spider-Man better than a supernatural one. Kane based Morbius's look on the actor Jack Palance. Thomas said the name was not deliberately taken from Doctor Morbius in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.

In the story, Michael Morbius is a biochemist dying of a rare blood disease who tries to cure himself with experimental chemicals, electroshock and vampire-bat samples. The treatment turns him into a 'living vampire' who must drink human blood. Like the Lizard, he was conceived as a tragic figure rather than a simply evil one; the story arc introduced his fiancée, Martine Bancroft, and revealed that his first victim had been his best friend and colleague, Emil Nikos.

Roy Thomas, born November 22, 1940, would succeed Lee as Marvel's editor-in-chief in 1972 and co-created characters including the Vision, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Ghost Rider. Gil Kane was born Eli Katz on April 6, 1926, in Riga, Latvia, and had co-created the modern Green Lantern and the Atom at DC. He penciled The Amazing Spider-Man #96-105 among other runs, and died in Miami on January 31, 2000.

Six arms and a beach house

The issue picks up from #100, in which Peter Parker, wanting to give up his powers for Gwen Stacy, drank a formula of his own making. Instead of losing his powers, he grew four extra arms. Unable to show himself in public, he hides at Dr. Curt Connors's vacation home to look for a cure.

Morbius, meanwhile, has been picked up adrift at sea by a passing boat. After mysterious deaths aboard, he kills the crew, goes overboard and washes ashore at the same house. The story's opening caption admits its own title needs explaining: 'Yep, that's our title--and we'll get around to justifying it in a page or three!' The cover line has Morbius sneering, 'Fool! It will take more than a freak with six arms to stop--a vampire!' The fight ends unresolved, the Lizard appears, and the story continues in #102.

To identify a first printing: the original is cover dated October 1971 and priced 15 cents. A 1992 second printing has a blue title on a silver background and says on its cover that it reprints the first appearance of Morbius; CGC labels it a second print. Marvel also issued a facsimile edition in April 2021.

From cult villain to movie spike

In February 2019, as news spread that Jared Leto would play Morbius on film, a collector's census count showed 2,317 copies graded by CGC, with 63 at 9.6 and 31 at 9.8. Prices for high-grade copies rose as the film approached release; a sales report described CGC 9.8 copies breaking the $20,000 barrier in 2022.

The top sale in the sources is $26,400, paid at auction on June 28, 2022, for a CGC 9.8 with white pages. The same figure was paid on April 2, 2023, for a CGC 9.8 copy identified as a 'Double Cover' example, a production variant collectors track separately. A CGC 9.8 sold online for $31,000 in October 2024, according to a sales tracker, but that listing could not be confirmed further.

After the film, prices fell back. A CGC 9.8 with white pages sold at auction for $19,200 on January 15, 2025, an off-white to white 9.8 brought $9,900 on April 30, 2025, and another sold for $11,590 on July 23, 2026. A 2024 market report noted that the most recent CGC 9.6 sale, at $4,500, was less than half its pandemic-era high.

The living vampire's long life

Morbius fought Spider-Man again in Marvel Team-Up #3-4 in 1972, starred in the black-and-white magazine Vampire Tales from 1973 to 1975, and got his own color feature in Adventure into Fear beginning with #20 (February 1974). The 1992 'Rise of the Midnight Sons' crossover relaunched him as a lethal antihero in Morbius the Living Vampire, which ran 32 issues until 1995.

He was a recurring character in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Nick Jameson. Sony announced a live-action film in November 2017 with Jared Leto in the title role; originally set for January 28, 2022, Morbius was released on April 1, 2022, and the character then became the subject of numerous internet memes.

The numbers

Cover price

15 cents

Pages

36; the story runs 20

Print run of #101

No verified figure; the title averaged 520,862 printed and 307,550 paid an issue in the period reported in #108's statement of ownership

Census, February 18, 2019

2,317 graded by CGC; 63 at 9.6, 31 at 9.8

Highest grade

CGC 9.8; no 9.9 or 10.0 sale reported

Timeline

1. Apr 6, 1926

   Gil Kane is born Eli Katz in Riga, Latvia.

2. Nov 22, 1940

   Roy Thomas is born.

3. Feb 1971

   The Comics Code Authority revises its rules, lifting the ban on vampires.

4. May 1971

   The Amazing Spider-Man #96 begins the anti-drug story published without the code seal.

5. Jul 13, 1971

   The Amazing Spider-Man #101 goes on sale, per adjusted copyright records, cover dated October 1971.

6. 1972

   Roy Thomas succeeds Stan Lee as Marvel's editor-in-chief.

7. Feb 1974

   Morbius begins his own feature in Adventure into Fear #20.

8. 1992

   A second printing of #101 appears, with a blue title on a silver background.

9. Sep 1992

   Morbius the Living Vampire launches during 'Rise of the Midnight Sons.'

10. Jan 31, 2000

    Gil Kane dies in Miami.

11. Nov 2017

    Sony announces a Morbius film starring Jared Leto.

12. Feb 2019

    The CGC census shows 2,317 copies graded, 31 of them at 9.8.

13. Apr 2021

    Marvel publishes a facsimile edition of #101.

14. Apr 1, 2022

    The film Morbius is released.

15. Jun 28, 2022

    A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $26,400.

16. Apr 2, 2023

    A CGC 9.8 double-cover copy also sells for $26,400.

17. Jan 15, 2025

    A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $19,200.

18. Jul 23, 2026

    A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $11,590.

The world in 1971

• Jun 13, 1971

  The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers.

• Jun 30, 1971

  The Supreme Court rules the Pentagon Papers may be published.

• Jul 5, 1971

  The Twenty-sixth Amendment, lowering the voting age to 18, is certified.

• Jul 26, 1971

  Apollo 15 launches; its crew are the first to drive a lunar rover.

• Aug 15, 1971

  President Nixon ends the dollar's convertibility to gold and freezes wages and prices.

• Sep 9, 1971

  The Attica Prison uprising begins in New York.

• Oct 1, 1971

  Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Amazing Spider-Man #101 is number 46 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (44 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• It was the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man not written by Stan Lee, who was busy on a film screenplay.
• Marvel first considered having Spider-Man fight Dracula, but Stan Lee wanted a costumed villain.
• Gil Kane based Morbius's face on the actor Jack Palance.
• Spider-Man spends the issue with six arms, the result of a formula meant to remove his powers.
• The code revision that made Morbius possible came in February 1971, only months before the issue went on sale.
• A 1992 second printing, with a silver cover background, says on its cover that it reprints Morbius's first appearance.