Blade the Daywalker Appreciation 2020

[taozen]

I haven't read a lot of Blade beyond serval guest appearances. Are there any great Blades stories out there? Which are the best?

[Vanguard]

I haven't read a lot of Blade beyond serval guest appearances. Are there any great Blades stories out there? Which are the best?

For right now Id recommend the current Avengers run starting with issue #14. He’s plenty active, especially against Shadow Colonel.

[taozen]

For right now Id recommend the current Avengers run starting with issue #14. He’s plenty active, especially against Shadow Colonel.

I have been reading it. I enjoy Jason Aaron's writing when he does not have too much on his plate. That has been the best Blade related story I have read but I have not read the classic Tomb of Dracula stories involving Blade.

[Vordan]

I have a very weird origin for my interest in Blade. He was one of my main characters in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and that’s why I’ve always liked him since lol. Never seen the movies but maybe I should check them out if you guys think they’re good. Blade is probably going to get an ongoing once we start approaching his movie, who would you guys like to write it?

Powers wise, I think Blade powers and equipment wise should basically be this:

Basically a vampire Witcher is how I see him. Blade has strength, speed, a minor healing factor (mortal wounds for humans won’t kill him but he can’t regrow lost limbs), an enhanced lifespan, and minor hypnosis all sounds like a good deal for me. And of course Blade is packing all kinds of arcane weapons to deal with vampires and any other matter of supernatural phenomena. Swords obviously but also guns, bombs, potions, poisons, anything that will give him an edge.

[Tracks]

Yea they have a pretty good blueprint for world building around Blade with the successful Witcher series and Castlevania

[Agent Z]

@25:36. Thorgi's Arcade gives his ideas for Blade in a MVC game.

[Hypestyle]

^^^ so is there any talk about including Blade in the next version?

[Jabare]

I haven't read a lot of Blade beyond serval guest appearances. Are there any great Blades stories out there? Which are the best?

like @Vanguard said the current Avengers running starting at issue #14 has been pretty great for Blade. It's fun and easily accesible


My recommendations:


Deadpool: Dracula's Gauntlet - Blade is a secondary character in this story but he really shines and its just such a fun creative story. Marvel at its best.

Blade: Black & White Trade Paper Back - this does a great job (probably the best) of collecting Blade's stories from the 70s.

Nightstalkers- after Tomb of Dracula probably the most iconic Blade run of comic stories.


Honorable mention to Tomb of Dracula - I actually don't recommend this as strongly, I think it is collected in Blade: Black & White, but maybe not entirely. Just to see Blade's real comic origins and help fill in the blanks before Nightstalkers. Not as essential as some make it out to be imo. You can infer enough by context and other things, but if you want check it out.


Other fun Blade stories-

Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 (2013-2014)- Trust me pick up this comic it is a lot of fun.

Captain Britain & The MI:13 - this was decent. Blade joins the cast in issue #5. He's got a few spotlight issues but not really the main focus of this story.

Midnight Suns Unlimited - I don't remember this story as well. I think he has a cool moment against Ghost Rider. Check with Tracks or Snoop Dog about this comic

Tomb of Dracula (2004) Mini- Combines our expectations from the Snipes movies with the actual comic character

Black Panther: Bad Mutha (2006) - Hudlin basically just channels Wesley Snipes for this comic.

Crescent City Blue one-shot this one's okay, but you need to read Tomb of Dracula otherwise it is confusing

The Max series again this one is okay, not great. Better than his 2006 solo series which you should straight up avoid

Damnation fun sotry/event. Really a Dr. Strange and Wong story. Blade is a side character but has two fun moments.

Blade also has a 1999 comic that is a .......interesting. The art style is very 90s. I'm not gonna recommend it off the bat, but its interesting look up a few images and see if its up your alley. He also appears sporadically in a number of titles over the years. Specifically if you want to see how Marvel makes him more like the Snipes version you need to read this Spider-Man story arc, where he gets bit by Morbius and gets the jaywalker upgrade. Although Marvel may have retconned this based on some text from the 2006 series. Its not that important end fo the day Blade is Blade.

i think Blade's got close to 500 Marvel comic appearances since the 70s, so sometimes its a treat to track down some of his random appearances. For example, he has this awesome appearance in Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man that is a must read even tho it is brief. Mark Millar also wrote an Ultimate comics Blade story. I'm not to big on it but might be worth checking out. Avoid the Curse of the Mutants story, avoid at all costs its really bad.

[Tracks]

I think you nailed it. captain britain & mi:13 is more just a good overall book with Blade in it, and he has some good emotional moments in it.

midnight sons is similar to night stalkers, which more characters. this is honestly the one run I haven't read much of. just a few issues.

[Vanguard]

I agree with @Jabare on the Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet issue. That is really the only fight I’ve seen where Blade pretty much dominated. I won’t spoil it for you, but you’ll see why it wasn’t total domination by the end.

[Jabare]

I kind of hope this is just clickbait, because I'm not feeling it, but I'll withhold judgement, becaue I honestly don't know what they will do with the Blade movie. I just have a feeling it will be very different from the original movies

Marvel Reportedly Plans To Race-Bend Major Character In Blade Reboot
https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/...-blade-reboot/

[Tracks]

They do get a lot of stuff wrong. If they were to change Deacon Frost like that, I have a feeling we'd probably get a completely re-done origin story, kinda similar to Scarlett Witch in the MCU.

[Agent Z]

I kind of hope this is just clickbait, because I'm not feeling it, but I'll withhold judgement, becaue I honestly don't know what they will do with the Blade movie. I just have a feeling it will be very different from the original movies

Marvel Reportedly Plans To Race-Bend Major Character In Blade Reboot
https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/...-blade-reboot/

We Got This Covered is notoriously unreliable.

[BlackWind]

The anime version of Frost, IMHO is still the highest point he has ever been. If his primary motivation isn't in some way to ensure that vampires are at the peak of the totem pole among supernatural monsters, or overthrowing the traditionalist Europeans with his own brand of new age vampires, then it'll have to be something damn good for me to be into it.

[The One and Only]

Never understood the hate for the X-MEN arc Curse of the Mutants fun story featuring the vamps under new leadership by Xarus, Son of Dracula. Which kicked off in the Death of Dracula one-shot. Also the corporate vamps, the Mystikos Sect, developing light bending technology enabling the vamps to walk in the sunlight unburned. Decent story, and also love the one-shot tie-in, X-MEN:SMOKE & BLOOD where the X-Men's brain trust, the X-Club, is trying to develop a cure to vampirism.

Anywho, for some Blade story recommendations at the top of my pointy head that involved Blade teaming up with others against vampires would be:

GAMBIT Vol.2#4-by Fabian Nicieza and Steve Skroce. Featuring Gambit and Blade teaming up in New Orleans to deal with a vampire mesmerizing the children of the Antiquary Guild to raid their hidden storehouse of information.

Peter Parker:SPIDER-MAN#7-8-by Howard Mackie ,and John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson on art. Blade and Spider-Man get involved in a gang war in New York involving the vampire Hunger, and the Kingpin's search for a weapon that's supposedly capable of dealing with the vampire. Which turns out to be Morbius who bites Blade ,and makes him a bit more of a full fledged vampire. Which leads to the oddball BLADE series by Bart Sears.

MIDNIGHT MASSACRE-June/July event in the Midnight Sons line during Blade's time with the Nightstalkers. Thanks in part to the spell that Dr. Strange cast upon Blade while he spent time in a mental institution. Which switched his mission of vengeance against vampires to the entirety of the supernatural. So driven against the occult, he located a spell from the Darkhold which would enable him to wipe out the supernatural from the face of the Earth. Reading the spell it turs him in the Demogorge. A being that absorbs the mystic powers of any one he kills. And after killing Hannibal King and Johnny Blaze, Brooks goes by the name Switchblade.