Blade the Vampire Hunter Appreciation 2019

[phantom1592]

Yea, he really writes a power down Blade. And I realize part of the problem with his and some older Blade stories is that his enemies are either entirely too easy for him (random vampires) or completely outclass him. There really are only a few fights that I've seen where Blade has to exert considerable effort and/or creativity to come out on top.

Either way, I don't think book was bad, just a bit forgettable, which sucks cause these really are two of my favorite characters.

Honestly I'm always in favor or a powered down Blade. If anything the Blade I fell in love with WAS the old Tomb of Dracula through Nightstalkers and even into Vol 2 of his own book... His powers were essentially "Immune to Vampire Bites" and can 'smell supernatural'... everything else was guts and willpower. Post Daywalker/movie status The push to make him some kind of vampire god has REALLY dropped my interest in him. Admittedly I hated just about everything about Guggenheim's run, but having a powered down Blade where he is back to skill and luck as opposed to overpowering the supernatural enemies... is pretty much where I want him. 'Classic Blade'.

[Tracks]

Honestly I'm always in favor or a powered down Blade. If anything the Blade I fell in love with WAS the old Tomb of Dracula through Nightstalkers and even into Vol 2 of his own book... His powers were essentially "Immune to Vampire Bites" and can 'smell supernatural'... everything else was guts and willpower. Post Daywalker/movie status The push to make him some kind of vampire god has REALLY dropped my interest in him. Admittedly I hated just about everything about Guggenheim's run, but having a powered down Blade where he is back to skill and luck as opposed to overpowering the supernatural enemies... is pretty much where I want him. 'Classic Blade'.

The only reason I think Blade needs to be powered up is because of the nature of stories these days. Like if Blade were a character in a different line of comics, sure. But you have to convince fans that the stories matter and the repercussions of these stories matter, and that's easier the stronger the character is.

Like even in the Guggenheim story, how many enemies did he beat with skill? pretty much just draconis. and i don't think it's a coincidence he took advantage of blade's powers in that story.

[XPac]

Honestly I'm always in favor or a powered down Blade. If anything the Blade I fell in love with WAS the old Tomb of Dracula through Nightstalkers and even into Vol 2 of his own book... His powers were essentially "Immune to Vampire Bites" and can 'smell supernatural'... everything else was guts and willpower. Post Daywalker/movie status The push to make him some kind of vampire god has REALLY dropped my interest in him. Admittedly I hated just about everything about Guggenheim's run, but having a powered down Blade where he is back to skill and luck as opposed to overpowering the supernatural enemies... is pretty much where I want him. 'Classic Blade'.

I'm fine with him being powered up NOW because he's a freaking Avenger, and he's dealing with higher end threats than just vampires.

But for a long time I honestly thought his power ups were somewhat unecessary. If he could beat vampires without superhuman powers, then giving him super human powers to he can beat the same people he could beat anyways seemed somewhat pointless to be in all honestly.

[Jabare]

Honestly I'm always in favor or a powered down Blade. If anything the Blade I fell in love with WAS the old Tomb of Dracula through Nightstalkers and even into Vol 2 of his own book... His powers were essentially "Immune to Vampire Bites" and can 'smell supernatural'... everything else was guts and willpower. Post Daywalker/movie status The push to make him some kind of vampire god has REALLY dropped my interest in him. Admittedly I hated just about everything about Guggenheim's run, but having a powered down Blade where he is back to skill and luck as opposed to overpowering the supernatural enemies... is pretty much where I want him. 'Classic Blade'.

that doesn't work in the current Marvel Universe where they've scaled up Luke Cage, Captain America, Winter Soldier, Powerman and basically every hero under the sun from their base original levels.

If Blade is just operating solo vs a villain, some big bad, fine or has some human characters. But if he's basically got the same stats as Jimmy Olsen its a non-starter for me. He's bringing nothing to the table and neither are vampires half the time outside of Dracula when they are written as cannon fodder. I'm cool with a human getting a drop on a vampire or outsmarting them at times, but your average vampire should be much stronger than a human. If its some Scooby Doo type story and you want to turn them into cannon fodder Storm Troopers fine, but otherwise vampires should be a magnitude stronger then your average human.


When you see a vampire your heart should drop and the only thing you should be thinking about is getting the heck out of dodge. Unless your the Thing, Sentry or some other tier one hero a vampire or multiple vampires should be a force to be reckoned with. They've been around for centuries manipulating everything from behind the scenes they are magnitudes stronger than your average human. There should be different types with different strengths and powers. Jason Aaron actually did a pretty decent job with the Shadow Colonel and his team. If that crew ran into Punisher or Daredevil they'd crush them in a second.


So if you're gonna have Blade interacting with other characters and making him and vampires relevant he needs to be held to a certain standard. If you want him in live action and are just gonna tone everyone down to make the more ground (*cough* low budget *cough*) fine

[Tracks]

The more I re-read, the more I appreciate how much art brings a story to life. The story was fun if only as a vehicle for the very cool action sequences we got.

https://imgur.com/a/I6LsOBs

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.38.53 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.39.08 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.39.24 AM.jpg

[Agent Z]

Honestly I'm always in favor or a powered down Blade. If anything the Blade I fell in love with WAS the old Tomb of Dracula through Nightstalkers and even into Vol 2 of his own book... His powers were essentially "Immune to Vampire Bites" and can 'smell supernatural'... everything else was guts and willpower. Post Daywalker/movie status The push to make him some kind of vampire god has REALLY dropped my interest in him. Admittedly I hated just about everything about Guggenheim's run, but having a powered down Blade where he is back to skill and luck as opposed to overpowering the supernatural enemies... is pretty much where I want him. 'Classic Blade'.

It's not like they made him a Kryptonian. He's around Spider-Man's level at most.

[XPac]

that doesn't work in the current Marvel Universe where they've scaled up Luke Cage, Captain America, Winter Soldier, Powerman and basically every hero under the sun from their base original levels.

If Blade is just operating solo vs a villain, some big bad, fine or has some human characters. But if he's basically got the same stats as Jimmy Olsen its a non-starter for me. He's bringing nothing to the table and neither are vampires half the time outside of Dracula when they are written as cannon fodder. I'm cool with a human getting a drop on a vampire or outsmarting them at times, but your average vampire should be much stronger than a human. If its some Scooby Doo type story and you want to turn them into cannon fodder Storm Troopers fine, but otherwise vampires should be a magnitude stronger then your average human.


When you see a vampire your heart should drop and the only thing you should be thinking about is getting the heck out of dodge. Unless your the Thing, Sentry or some other tier one hero a vampire or multiple vampires should be a force to be reckoned with. They've been around for centuries manipulating everything from behind the scenes they are magnitudes stronger than your average human. There should be different types with different strengths and powers. Jason Aaron actually did a pretty decent job with the Shadow Colonel and his team. If that crew ran into Punisher or Daredevil they'd crush them in a second.


So if you're gonna have Blade interacting with other characters and making him and vampires relevant he needs to be held to a certain standard. If you want him in live action and are just gonna tone everyone down to make the more ground (*cough* low budget *cough*) fine

The thing is, in the MU at least vampires aren't THAT strong. Even high end vamps are like 1 tonners at best. Historically at least. There's been a few Dracula feats which potray him as stronger, but normal human beings have been fighting vampires for centuries.

So you can make a pretty descent arguement that against vampires at least, Blade never needed the upgrades. He did just fine without them. Again, now that he's an Avenger it's a different story. I'm fine with the upgrades NOW given he's functioning on a whole other level.

[Tracks]

Speaking of upgrades, the boy-thing is the kind of upgrade I think Blade should have more or. He's strong enough, fast enough, and can heal fine when writers remember. I wish they would get more creative with his gear. Either through technology or magic, or both. I think he could actually benefit from working closely with T'Challa/Wakanda because they blend magic with science pretty well.

I'm also curious to see what else boy-thing allows Blade to do. I just know Aaron is building towards a confrontation with Dracula. I could see him manifesting a final fantasy style massive sword, or something like that.

I also remember in Damnation, man-thing helped Blade heal even quicker when he got hit by Mjolnir, so maybe Boy-thing can help out in that regard too.

[Cville]

I loved this one shot. The violence the art and the dialogue. All positives for me.

[Gav]

Wait... If Blade was flirting with She-Hulk, does that mean he and Spitfire aren't an item anymore? Because if that's the case, I'm disappointed.

[phantom1592]

I'm fine with him being powered up NOW because he's a freaking Avenger, and he's dealing with higher end threats than just vampires.

But for a long time I honestly thought his power ups were somewhat unecessary. If he could beat vampires without superhuman powers, then giving him super human powers to he can beat the same people he could beat anyways seemed somewhat pointless to be in all honestly.

I'm not sure I give 'being an avenger' that much Cred. There have been a LOT of 'highly trained humans' on the Avengers. Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Black Widow, etc. Having an expert hand to hand, close weapons/marksman on the team has been a staple for years. He doesn't ALSO need to be a Vampire King.

I just liked him better when he was AGAINST all things Vampire... not 'the best one of them all'. If anything his upgrade made Hannibal King and even Morbius pointless and upgrades that steal the schtick from another character are my least favorite of all.

[Rosebunse]

I'm not sure I give 'being an avenger' that much Cred. There have been a LOT of 'highly trained humans' on the Avengers. Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Black Widow, etc. Having an expert hand to hand, close weapons/marksman on the team has been a staple for years. He doesn't ALSO need to be a Vampire King.

I just liked him better when he was AGAINST all things Vampire... not 'the best one of them all'. If anything his upgrade made Hannibal King and even Morbius pointless and upgrades that steal the schtick from another character are my least favorite of all.

I don't know, truth is, being against all vampires just sort of turns him into the Punisher, especially when ypu consider that not all vampires are really bad or evil.

Besides, Morbius and Blade are different enough for the teo of them to exist together. It's Hannibal King who gets shafted here.

[Jabare]

I re-read the one-shot again and it's fine. The art is still gorgeous and the story works, no plot holes. The only gripe I have is how I wish the prophecy to kill Varkis made a lil more sense. There could have been a throwaway line of dialogue to tie everything together and explain why that combo attack was able to kill him instead of a normal one.

Wait... If Blade was flirting with She-Hulk, does that mean he and Spitfire aren't an item anymore? Because if that's the case, I'm disappointed.

They haven't been portrayed alongside each other in years, so I imagine it won't be acknowledged again unless some writer wants to bring it up. Still, they could be together or on break, we don't know.

I think the She-Hulk thing was being blown out of proportion. He starts off by staying she stinks and segues into a joke about sensing the blood on her. He's on his way to take care of business so he's not really hitting on her/trying to pick her up. She-Hulk seemed down tho lol. But Blade was like no I got things to do, maybe next time and bounced with Boy Thing.

[snoopdogg]

The more I re-read, the more I appreciate how much art brings a story to life. The story was fun if only as a vehicle for the very cool action sequences we got.

https://imgur.com/a/I6LsOBs

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.38.53 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.39.08 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-07-11 at 10.39.24 AM.jpg

I wonder if Blade still uses an adamantium sword yet being that one seem to hold up to Logans claws during that exchange.

Actually Blade seemed more skilled there as they both were blocking each others attacks for a while then Blade landed a lethal blow.

[Hypestyle]

has blade had any temporary power upgrades from any superhumans that he has bitten?