MORGAN DAWKINS
MORGAN DAWKINS
Real Name: Morgan Dawkins
Identity/Class: Human vampire;
possibly pre-modern era
Occupation: Predator
Group Membership: Vampires of Earth
Affiliations: None revealed
Enemies: Horace Grimstone
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed; possibly Bronx, New York (see comments)
First Appearance: Vampire Tales#7/2 (October, 1974)
Powers/Abilities:
Like most vampires, Dawkins has superhuman strength
(typically enhanced human) and required regular blood meals to survive;
further, feeding on a human victim would turn that victim into a
vampire, depending on the extent of the feeding and other
circumstances. Many vampire victims take three days to revive as a
vampire, but Dawkins' victim Grimstone revived in less than 24 hours.
He presumably had the standard vampire vulnerabilties, including religious icons (presumably
proportional to the strength of the wielder's faith), garlic, sunlight,
and a wooden stake through the heart.
Dawkins also demonstrated the ability to transform into a bat, an ability that is often ascribed to vampires with greater than average abilities.
While many vampires are unable to enter a building unless he or she has been invited, Dawkins dove through and shattered the window without any such invitation. Perhaps Grimstone's strong desire to be a vampire was sufficient to call to him?
Dawkins was not observed to speak; he may be mute for some reason, but most likely he simply chose not to speak in the five panels in which he appeared.
Height: Approximately 5'9"
Weight: Approximately 140 lbs.
Eyes: Red (original color unrevealed)
Hair: Reddish brown
History: 
(Vampire
Tales#7/2) - Morgan Dawkins suddenly burst through the window of the
blood storage room, grabbed the room's guard, Horace Grimstone, and
then bit into his neck and drank a large volume of blood via his
jugular vein. Satisfied, Dawkins turned into a bat and flew off into
the night.
(Vampire Tales#7/2 - BTS) - Drawn by the sound of shattering glass, hospital staff members rushed in and found Grimstone. Recognizing his severe anemia, they quickly prepared somed blood transfusions for him. Though they would have been in time to save Grimstone, the guard had delusions of being a vampire and had been drinking a unit of blood each night and replacing it with iodine-colored water. Grimstone died, but revived that night as a true vampire.
Comments: Created by Doug Moench and Billy Graham.
Dawkins' real name was revealed and he had a nicely refurbished image in the Vampires: The Marvel Undead handbook. I'm including the original, unrefurbished image for your viewing enjoyment.
While unconfirmed, it may be that Dawkins' story took place at the time it was published, rather than being part of the sliding time scale...that would put it in October, 1974, or 26 years before the transformation of the Fantastic Four...as of 2015, anyway. That would be my preference.
Dawkins would presumably have been destroyed by the Montesi Formula, in Dr. Strange II#62, but would also presumably have been restored via the prophecy spell in Blade III#12.
Grimstone worked at Metropolitan General Hospital in the Bronx, but it is unconfirmed that Dawkins had a base around there. It's possible some trip brought him a great distance. Maybe Dawkins lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania...who knows!
This story, like a few others, uses the terms blood and plasma
interchangeably. However, plasma is the protein rich fluid in
blood...plasma by itself doesn't have any significant numbers of red or
white blood cells, and wouldn't be used to transfuse someone who was
anemic (unless you were trying to replace clotting factors, though
modern medicine generally uses cryoprecipitate for that).
They also have all of their blood stored at room temperature, which
decreases the time period over which it can be stored and used
dramatically...blood is a great medium for bacterial growth.
Iodine is generally brown...dilute iodine could maybe make water look
like plasma, which is straw-colored, but anything dark enough to look
like blood would have been really brown, rather than dark red. Perhaps
this iodine was colored more red for some reason.
Oh well...comic book science...
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Morgan Dawkins should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
Vampire Tales#7/2, pg. 7 (crashing through window);
pg. 8, panel 1 (unrefurbed face);
panel 2 (biting Grimstone's neck);
panel 4 (bat-form)
Appearances:
Vampire Tales#7/2 (October, 1974) - Doug Moench (writer), Billy Graham (artist), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Last updated: 02/26/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!