After an almost comical amount of delays, Sony Pictures’ Morbius has finally hit theaters worldwide. The film sees Jared Leto’s titular character accidentally become a vampire after trying to cure himself of his rare blood disease. It's the next installment in Sony's Universe of Spider-Man characters, following their previous entry in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. But was Sony successful in launching another big franchise like Venom?
Well, if the reviews and reactions are anything to go by, the answer is a solid no. While Tom Hardy’s original project also didn’t get the best critical praise, that franchise had the benefit of having an already immensely popular character—Morbius does not.
To make the whole situation even worse, the film included two post-credits scenes that left many fans worldwide frustrated and confused.
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for Morbius.
Shortly after the credits hit the screen, viewers are met with the familiar image of the purple break in the sky as seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but this time above Michael Morbius’ city. Then the shot shifts into a prison cell, where Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes from Homecoming is teleported into this new reality.
Since there are no records of him or his crimes, the courts decide to let him go. This leads to the second scene, where Morbius meets Vulture - who is now in his full robotic garb - in a remote location. Keaton asks Leto’s character if he’d be interested in starting a group to do “good,” all but saying that going after Spider-Man is his goal.
Needless to say, there is a litany of issues with both of these sequences.
That’s Not How The Spell Worked
The first and possibly most important note to make about Adrian Toomes’ post-credits scenes, is how Doctor Strange’s spell does not work that way. Michael Keaton’s villain would not have been shot into another universe.
The magic was specifically meant to send back those people who were not in their native reality. The MCU’s Vulture was already in the right spot, so he would never have been a target for the spell, let alone be catapulted to a different universe.
Going by the logic that Morbius' post-credits sequence establishes, Doctor Strange's incantation should have transferred literally every single person on Earth in the MCU (plus a few stragglers in space) to Michael Morbius' universe as the public had also recently learned Peter Parker's identity at the end of Far From Home. This means that No Way Home should have ended with a completely barren planet, as everyone would now be over partying with Venom and the Living Vampire.
It truly reads as if Sony Pictures never actually watched its own highly successful Multiverse Spider-Man outing. It’s not a great look.
Why Is Toomes Taking This All So Well?
For those that might have forgotten, Adrian Toomes is just a normal criminal. No superpowers, no experience with the supernatural—just someone trying to get by in the wrong ways.
So how is he handling all this so well? The man was teleported into an entirely different reality, and he casually handles it as if it were another day at the office. And how does Toomes know he's ended up in another universe in the first place? The cell offers no indication that he's hopped through the Multiverse, so why would he make a quip about it?
What about his family? The people who made up his entire motivation in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Guess he’s perfectly okay with not having them around. After all, he doesn’t look to be in much of a hurry to go home.
Also, why would he assume his new predicament would have anything to do with Spider-Man? There’s no overt sign that it would, and his previous entanglements with Tom Holland’s webhead don’t scream Multiverse connections.
How Did Toomes Get That Wing Suit?
The second post-credits scene, which plays as if it was written by a six-year-old, showcases Michael Keaton’s villain meeting up with Jared Leto’s Living Vampire. There’s a lot to unpack there, but, the first question to ask is: How did he get a nearly identical Vulture suit?
In the MCU, it’s established that his final flying suit took an immense amount of time to pull together. More importantly, one of the keys to Vulture’s metal contraption is the leftover Chitauri tech from their attack on New York City.
So does this mean a similar event happened in Morbius’ reality? One that Adrian Toomes was able to so quickly get access to its scraps? Maybe the group that Keaton’s baddie wants to gather is just an off-brand Avengers group to take down Thanos. It’s hard to tell if that would be worse or better than Sony’s current plans.
Michael Morbius Wouldn’t Care
Why would Morbius give Keaton’s rando the time of day? Even if Toomes was reading up on the Vampire, it makes no sense for the titular character to even entertain him.
For one, the movie paints the good doctor as a hero, not a villain, and really not even an anti-hero. It seems completely out of character for him to pursue this idea.
Secondly, Morbius has no idea who Spider-Man is—at least from what audiences know. If there was a Spidey he knew about, it would have been smart for the writers to throw something into the film at some point; though clever writing is clearly not something Morbius is very good at.
It’s Okay To Ask For Help
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a nearly airtight continuity since 2008. Now, thanks to Morbius' sloppy mess, all of that could be in danger.
Sony seems dead set on getting their Sinister Six project to finally happen, and it's clear that they aren’t taking the time to step back and figure out a decent plan of attack. If only there was a movie where a big group of villains could go up against an incredibly popular Spider-Hero; maybe even three Spideys? One day.
This reckless handling of both the IP’s characters and continuity is likely not to put Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige in the best of spirits. Maybe he’ll be able to talk Sony off of the ledge before the consequences truly start to reverberate into the MCU proper.
Thankfully, since this is the Multiverse after all, if the creatives wanted to, Morbius could be all but wiped clean from the slate. Write this Michael Keaton off as just a slightly-different Variant, and keep Leto’s hero in his own little pocket of existence with Venom somewhere nearby; damage control at its finest.
Morbius is now playing in theaters worldwide.
