Blade Appreciation 2018

[Jabare]

Generally speaking I feel this is unnecessary. Blade has the tools to win fighting normal vampires and werewolves with standard weapons. He's like the Witcher he'll have the right tools for the job nd when he doesn't he'll improvise or rely on his skill and strength. That makes for entertaining stories.

I'd only break out a magic sword, or something special for those rare occasions he's fighting Dracula or a Demon, Fallen Angel, etc. Or you bring it out for one of those heroes vs hero fights where written like to really prop up everyone and make the readers super excited.

[Tracks]

Generally speaking I feel this is unnecessary. Blade has the tools to win fighting normal vampires and werewolves with standard weapons. He's like the Witcher he'll have the right tools for the job nd when he doesn't he'll improvise or rely on his skill and strength. That makes for entertaining stories.

I'd only break out a magic sword, or something special for those rare occasions he's fighting Dracula or a Demon, Fallen Angel, etc. Or you bring it out for one of those heroes vs hero fights where written like to really prop up everyone and make the readers super excited.

I think at a certain point blade fighting unnamed vampires just isn't entertaining anymore and, like you're noting, for him to take on larger threats he has to get creative with this equipment or power set. Which just haven't seen that all too often.

The one piece I think writers often miss about what made Blade so entertaining for audiences was he seemed like an unstoppable force against the greatest predators in the movie universe. He was, almost single handedly, collapsing vampire empires.

That same dynamic doesn't exist in the comics. Vampires aren't the greatest predators in the Marvel universe, no matter how scary writers can try to make them. There are always greater demonic or supernatural threats. It's also already been joked about in a few different stories that Blade has the vampire population under control, but it's pretty often these days we see Blade overmatched against any threat greater than a standard vampire.

In the Falcon story, Falcon has to save him from a vampire ambush that the story says would have killed him. In Damnation, the whole premise is that the group of heroes are pretty overmatched relative to the supernatural threat they're facing. In that secret empire mini-story, Blade gets overwhelmed with an ancient vampire pretty quickly. This happens in a lot of stories, but because he's so often a side character writers don't feel the need to get creative with Blade, they get creative with the main characters. Makes most of his stories these days (outside of one or so every year) pretty boring.

While scaling up his powers or equipment might change the original character, it'll maintain the theme that made the original character and movies so interesting. Tim Seeley *almost* got that, but also replicated the idea that Blade is overmatched and needs some type of outside assistance. I think most writers are operating with the movies in mind and ignoring the fact that we now have over a decade of comics that have treated Blade as a very beatable, pretty stagnant character in terms of what threats he's able to address. I have a feeling this Avengers story might do the same, but who knows.

[Tracks]

Off that, looks like there's a massive vampire event coming in the spring. Seems like that recent issue of Domino was setting up for it.

[Jabare]

fair points.


Not one Blade mention in any of the solicits ugh

[Tracks]

fair points.


Not one Blade mention in any of the solicits ugh

I have a feeling they kept him out of the solicits to prevent the spoiler of him joining. He's not on any of the covers, but a few of the solicits keep mentioning a startling new avenger or something.

[DragonsChi]

I don't feel that Blades powers should be upgraded. Just possibly his sword. A slight edge their in his signature weapon can change a lot of things for him.

I also don't think he should just face Vamps and monsters. Let him fight Doctor Doom, Carnage, and other Big Name villains that might loosely relate to his supernatural/monster killing vibe sometimes. Mix some of that in with what he already is doing and the character might get some momentum.

In Priest, his claws are made of anit-metal vibranium. The suit is woven with the normal stuff. And his daggers made of energy. It might be using Vb for hilt.

I'm pretty sure it's been stated that Anti-Metal is just another form of Vibranium from the arctic/savage land or something.

[Jabare]

Doctor Doom and Blade already have a history together. They are allies at best and neutral at worse. Blade saved Doom's mother, Victor is indebted to him.


Also why would you ever want Blade to face Doom his comic plot armor is as strong as it comes in the Marvel Universe that asking Blade to take an instant L.

Carnage is not up Blade's alley. That's extraterrestrial. I'm cool with Blade popping up in Spider-Man, but he should really be in the Dracula, Doctor Strange, Brother Voodoo, Santana etc. corner. If you want him to face off against the Mandarin, Baron Mood, Morgan Le Fey, Magik etc. fine. Wendigos stuff like that

[DragonsChi]

Doctor Doom and Blade already have a history together. They are allies at best and neutral at worse. Blade saved Doom's mother, Victor is indebted to him.


Also why would you ever want Blade to face Doom his comic plot armor is as strong as it comes in the Marvel Universe that asking Blade to take an instant L.

Carnage is not up Blade's alley. That's extraterrestrial. I'm cool with Blade popping up in Spider-Man, but he should really be in the Dracula, Doctor Strange, Brother Voodoo, Santana etc. corner. If you want him to face off against the Mandarin, Baron Mood, Morgan Le Fey, Magik etc. fine. Wendigos stuff like that

Their joint history is why I suggested it. I also don't think it's an instant L for Blade. The usual song and dance of Doom getting away will probably be applied but that does not mean it couldn't be handled well, while making Blade look like a champ. It's been done before not like it can't be handled that way again.

I think part of the reason Blade is not as popular as he could be is because he is shoe horned in a conner of the Marvel Universe that audience's don't care as much about anymore. The Supernatural as a whole lost it's "star" power a long time ago. The only way I see of getting that back is by bringing in elements that are popular, so people can then take/renew interest in the Supernatural genre.

Bring in dudes like Carnage, who for all intensive purposes is a monster, and throw in some Vamps or whatever supernatural else and all of a sudden people are picking up a book for Carnage but are staying because they see how bad ass Blade is. Or they gain interest in whatever Vamp plot is going on with the story at the time. Now you have a customer who is came for one thing and staying for another. If Marvel rinses and repeats this process with loosely connected ideas that could fit with Blade, that are already popular, eventually Blade will have a host of other villains and characters that people are interested in that relate to him. Just due to the nature of story telling. This method could also renew people's interest in the supernatural as a whole giving Blade a foot hold on the Marvel Landscape.

To add yes Mandarin, Baron Mood, Morgan Le Fey, & Wendigos ect. would/could be included into this. These are the type of villains he should face as well as some well known/popular ones just so he can build up and become a mainstay. Introducing his own villains all while doing so.

[Michael Watkins]

he needs to face Hydra more. they pad their numbers with necromancy, afterall. I just think it'd be cool to see him sword fight with Gorgon or face one of the more colorful/monstrous members of the group. pretty sure that Baroness Blood is already aligned with the group.

[Rumble]

I think they should upgrade his weapons. The movie for the era that it was in made me feel like they were pushing him in that direction with the diversified weapons (uzis, shotgun, sword, boomerrang) and then later with what whistler and scud were developing for him in Blade 2 (the gauntlet-injector thingy and explosive to buddy's skull). It gave it a kinda Punisher (with the heavy artillery) and more gruesome James Bond (with the murderous tech) kinda vibe that i liked. But then he could always just drink a whole buncha blood and go savage too.

I'd have liked to see those 3 elements that Wesley took carry it's way over to the comics, but i feel comic Blade often just took the aesthetic look of what Wesley did 20 years ago then resigned to being lazy and stagnant, essentially just an empty shell of the Wesley character. Like "oh look, it looks like Wesley, that's enough! Let's not push the character further!"

Wesley was like Christopher Priest to Black Panther in that he took the character and reinvented/modernized it, but i'd kinda like to see another Christopher Priest come in and re-reinvent (not a word)/re-modernize the comic version again. Capcom took that Blade concept and ran with it with Dante, granted they kinda went ignorantly overboard but the spirit and gamesmanship in doing something with it is the same type of energy i'd like someone to give Eric.

[Tracks]

Doctor Doom and Blade already have a history together. They are allies at best and neutral at worse. Blade saved Doom's mother, Victor is indebted to him.


Also why would you ever want Blade to face Doom his comic plot armor is as strong as it comes in the Marvel Universe that asking Blade to take an instant L.

Carnage is not up Blade's alley. That's extraterrestrial. I'm cool with Blade popping up in Spider-Man, but he should really be in the Dracula, Doctor Strange, Brother Voodoo, Santana etc. corner. If you want him to face off against the Mandarin, Baron Mood, Morgan Le Fey, Magik etc. fine. Wendigos stuff like that

I think there's cool potential exploring a historical connection between vampires and weapon x. Something about the government trying to harness vampires as a weapon. They tried doing something similar in the Blade series in the early 2000s, but it was awful.

[Ptrvc]

Having rewatched the first Blade movie recently (Netflix) one thing that stuck out at me about all the gadgets in that movie was that all of it seemed like stuff that two guys in a machine shop could come up with.

It was a breath of fresh air after all the he super Hi-Tech bleeding edge stuff that's in every super-movie nowadays and was probably even a bigger deal in 1998 after Batman and Robin had goofy **** to the extreme.

Blade didn't necessarily have the best tools all the time. But what he did have were the right tools for the job.

I could imagine that same idea working for a lot of other supernatural/superhuman threats. Taking out an army of otherworldly fae creatures with a modified nail gun, or using dragon's breath round on a jiangshi, or Carnage etc.

Play up the Hunter aspect of Vampire Hunter. Blade is strong ,fast and skilled, but what really makes him dangerous is that like any good predator, he exploits his targets weaknesses.

I know a lot of characters do that, Batman, Black Panther, Reed Richards, etc. but for the most part they really on some kind of super science device. (Bat-Anti-Shark-Pellets) but I think the concept works better the simpler you keep the solutions.

Like Blade did in the first movie.

[Rumble]

Having rewatched the first Blade movie recently (Netflix) one thing that stuck out at me about all the gadgets in that movie was that all of it seemed like stuff that two guys in a machine shop could come up with.

It was a breath of fresh air after all the he super Hi-Tech bleeding edge stuff that's in every super-movie nowadays and was probably even a bigger deal in 1998 after Batman and Robin had goofy **** to the extreme.

Blade didn't necessarily have the best tools all the time. But what he did have were the right tools for the job.

I could imagine that same idea working for a lot of other supernatural/superhuman threats. Taking out an army of otherworldly fae creatures with a modified nail gun, or using dragon's breath round on a jiangshi, or Carnage etc.

Play up the Hunter aspect of Vampire Hunter. Blade is strong ,fast and skilled, but what really makes him dangerous is that like any good predator, he exploits his targets weaknesses.

I know a lot of characters do that, Batman, Black Panther, Reed Richards, etc. but for the most part they really on some kind of super science device. (Bat-Anti-Shark-Pellets) but I think the concept works better the simpler you keep the solutions.

Like Blade did in the first movie.

It does come down to perspective though, because relative to what Blade was having at the time... having shot guns, uzis, boobie-trap swords, bullet proof vest, ridiculous super strength, xena warrior princess boomerang thing, and the garlic stuff, serums, etc... for a 1998 flick with decent budget, i think Wesley Snipes Blade was pretty fancy for his time.

That wasn't just billy bob's car shop down the street

[Jabare]

Captain Marvel name drops Blade

https://www.cbr.com/thor-she-hulk-da...rs-11-preview/

[Midnight_v]

Yeah thats cool...


But really... Until I get:

Blade:
Challenger of the Supernatual

Or some such title I'm inclined to believe even if he gets a push it WON'T be like the one Carol Danvers is getting.

Reading this thread.. again... Its clear people want him but, want different things.

Myself I want his mythos expanded, I agree with the:
Expansion of his Gimmick
Expansion of his Rogues Gallery (beyond vampires or at least branching out to things LIKE the Brood) etc etc.
Expansion of his allies. NOT love interests perse, and I don't want him bantering about "how mediocre a vampire hunter you are" like in Damnation. But the fact that he's Cool with Dr.Doom, Nick Fury, Captain America, Doc Strange, Wolverine... and any of the old guard because he's been AROUND.
Expansion of his Antagonists among heroes also. I'd be great if there were heroes whos personality and things dont vibe:
Strictly for example:

Dislikes: Falcon/T'hcalla/Jean Grey/Thor/Namor/U.S. Agent

Cool With: Logan, Fury, Doom, Thing, Bruce Banner, Moonknight, Blue Marvel, Forge.

Talks down to but mentors: Robbie Reyes Similar to the role Carol was taking telling him how important it is to study.

Gets TALKED Down to by Stephen Strange because of the darkhold incident and they've been openly hostile at times.

So instead he learns various types of Magic from Ian McNee, Mordo, and gets support from Doom, and Shield occasionally (infact gets PAID and has become wealthy from working with at least 2 of those people)

I would actually go with the idea that FREAKING Doctor Doom considers blade a friend, as much as doom does, because Doom-fap states Doom is the protector of humanity and earths rightful ruler.
So keeping the vampires down is one less thing he concerns himself with. The idea that he LIKES Erics personality because blade shows him respect and thinks of him as a "man of action" and knew him before
he became DOOM!!! is a story line worth reading about if were honest because relationships in the anti-hero world aren't always black and white.


Born in 1929. He's literally a Contemporary of the Blue Marvel, and T'chaka, and he's a cold war kid, but traveled the world During the wars of the 1900's Indo-China, Korea, and many cold war affairs
where vampires either took over or Some government force tried to take him.
The Grand Director, and Blade have DIRECTLY fought as blade stopped the u.s. "Weapon V" vampire program singlehandedly, yes... thats a 5.

........................
The moral of all this is that, blade needs a writer who's interested in telling Blade stories and letting him grow, he needs his own Christopher Priest, and or Warren Ellis, or anybody to take the character and focus on him.

Just my thoughts.