Blade- The Legendary Daywalker Appreciation 2022

[Jabare]

All the Vampire strengths, none of their weaknesses












The Grandfather of the modern Marvel superhero movie. Inspiration for the Matrix.


From Tomb of Dracula to the Matrix


Modern origin
Eric Brook's mother was attacked and killed by a vampire while pregnant with him. Blade soon found that he was blessed or cursed with being part vampire. A dhampir. He has their quickness, strength, agility, healing, but is unaffected by sunlight or their other weaknesses (garlic, silver, etc.). Plus he is immune to the venom of his blood-sucking brethren.

Blade has trained over the decades in ways to combat the supernatural in defense of mankind. He can match any nosferatu in a way no human ever could. He is the Legendary Daywalker. All their strengths, none of their weaknesses.



recommendations: (tell me what I forgot and I'll update the list)

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.

Avengers (2018) #14 - #47- Blade is officially an Avenger and there is a cool vampire arc for a few issues

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-

Spirits of Vengeance- team up with Ghost Rider, Satana and Hellstrom. It's a quick, but fun story.

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

Wolverine vs Blade (2019): Great art, the story is okay

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

He's in this Darkhold series, but it hasn't concluded yet, so I'll wait to recommend it



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 but might be worth checking out. Avoid the Curse of the Mutants story, avoid at all costs its really bad.

[Frontier]

Happy New Year to Blade and fans .

[Tracks]

Defiled Blade obliterates a giants head with one sword slash. Interesting that the Darkhold didn't seem to make anyone more powerful, just made them evil. Suggests that Blade holds back his vampiric impulses. Which is consistent with his worst nightmare is him becoming the lord of vampires.

[Jabare]

such a good anime for Blade. It pulled heavily from the movies, but it still worked. This is not the best highlight video from the anime. the middle two fight scenes are not the best Blade moments, but it's okay




In other news:
-Michael Jai White is voicing Blade in the Midnight Suns 2k game
-the Blade Movie development was in talks before Shang Chi

[Hypestyle]

I hope he gets another solo mini series this year. really excellent art is needed.

[Jabare]

I feel like they are just going to have him pop up in events or team ups. Will see what happens after the movie.

Also the videogame is out this year

ep 3 of the anime

[rizwan]

nice comic boook