Morbius was released on April 1st to middling box office returns, substantial critical derision, and general fan disinterest. Despite this, the film's name has been trending on Twitter for days and most comic book movie fans can't turn to their social media without seeing the immortal phrase "It's Morbin' Time".
So, Morbius wasn't a great film. People didn't have faith in it in the lead-up to its release, and they didn't like it when it finally came out. This isn't new. Statistically, a huge percentage of big-profile comic book movies turn out bad. The surprising part isn't that Sony made a widely panned film out of Morbius, The Living Vampire, the surprising part is that people are still talking about it two months later.
The Morbius meme has gone through several distinct phases with the same underlying message. Before the film dropped, memes about its inarguable quality surfaced and became ubiquitous. Social media users proclaimed their excitement and certainty that the film would outclass the MCU so savagely that Phase 4 would stop in its tracks. Complicating the matter somewhat was the sincere fans proclaiming tepid excitement for the film, but when the faithful day came, the meme evolved.
During the film's brief theatrical window, photoshopped Rotten Tomatoes scores and edited Wikipedia entries became common. The hashtag "morbiussweep" became extremely popular, proclaiming the unstoppable box office domination of the film that was being sorely beaten by Sonic 2. These ironic memes found competition in the social media presence of sincere jokes at the film's expense. A recurring joke arose from photographing the empty theaters showing the film. One could search Morbius on Twitter and be greeted by a tit-for-tat exchange of meme fans blasting each other with ironic appreciation and sincere derision. It would be rare to find one without the other. A meme about Goku and Vegeta choosing a primetime Morbius screening as a safe battleground would be met by a doctored shot of Wikipedia's highest-grossing films list with Morbius at the top.
The film has been out for just over two months at time of writing, and while the memes died down for a brief moment, they're back with a vengeance. The new trend that seems to dominate discussion is Michael Morbius' beloved fake catchphrase "It's Morbin' Time". This twist on The Power Rangers' iconic "It's Morphin' Time" has become a trending hashtag on multiple social media platforms. Alternate versions include "I'm beginning to Morb", but there are many spins on the phrase. It's inspired countless pieces of art, creators have put the phrase into the speech bubble of endless other characters, and several users have edited the film to make him say the line. While it is inarguably fun to say, write, or otherwise evoke "It's Morbin' Time", even that isn't the end of The Living Vampire's meme repertoire.
Indeed, the entire film has become something of a meme at this point. Members of the Morbius Discord server, which exists to this day, have been repeatedly spammed with the entire film, sped up thousands of times. A two-to-four minute clip which contains the entire 104-minute movie has broken containment. There's no way to measure the views on the various iterations, but a considerable percentage of those who've seen Morbius saw it in .GIF format in less time than it would've taken them to watch every trailer. The Morbius meme hive mind has shown no sign of stopping. It crosses over with almost every other fandom, it infects any discussion of entertainment, and, against all odds, it remains very funny.
Unfortunately, it's not all fun and games among Morbius meme fans. A very real threat has begun to emerge across fans and publications alike. Any publicity is good publicity, especially to myopic studio heads who still need the internet fully explained to them by interns or family members. Many live in fear that the Morbius meme hive mind could actually mock the film so comprehensively that the attention will result in a sequel. There's no irony setting on streaming platforms, and there's no box that indicates joking at the ticket booth, so this isn't a complete impossibility. Painstakingly crafting "It's Morbin Time" memes, joking about the film's fake success, and indeed this very article could eventually collectively imagine a Morbius 2 into existence. It's not likely, but even the concern about the memes has become a meme now.
But why did Morbius become the subject of this social media movement? It's a perfect storm of elements that would be almost impossible to recreate. It's a bad movie that was unleashed to theaters amid comic book movie overexposure. The marketing was terrible across the board. It needs real fans to provide a target of mockery and ironic fans to provide the mockery. There's always been something hilarious about confidently declaring oneself a warrior for an obscure or despised comic book hero. Add in Jared Leto's difficult media presence and the memes become inevitable.
It can be hard to determine why things catch on, but this meme had countless reasons. If those with the talent and perseverance keep at it, fans could see Jared Leto say "It's Morbin' Time" on the big screen. It's up for debate whether that's the best or worst-case scenario.