Abraham Whistler
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Abraham Whistler is a fictional character from the Marvel Comics universe. He is a vampire hunter and mentor to Blade. Screenwriter David Goyer created him for the 1998 movie Blade (played by Kris Kristofferson), but appeared on screen first in a 1996 episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by Malcolm McDowell. He appeared in the comic books after the cartoon and movies, and in 2006 appeared in the Blade: The Series television show.
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[edit] Movie History
In the first film it is revealed that Whistler's once had a wife and two daughters who were killed by a vampire many years ago. The vampire, who came to call posing as a drifter, beat up and tortured him by making him choose which of them would die first. The scars of that horrific night shaped who he would become later in life. He has dedicated his entire life to the destruction of all vampires. He has no sympathy for vampires or their familiars. Whistler is a weapons expert and master of several forms of martial arts. Blade met Whistler when he was just a child. Blade, who had come to live on the streets, had given into his vampiric instincts and had been feeding off the homeless. Whistler would have killed him had he not noticed that Blade was half human. Whistler realized the potential this boy had. He possessed all the powers of a vampire and only one of their weaknesses, the thirst. Whistler took the boy under his wing and trained him to hunt vampires. Whistler also devised a serum that suppressed Blade's vampiric thirst. Decon Frost, a vampire whom Whistler and Blade had been tracking for a long time, sought out their secret base and brutally beat Whislter within and inch of his life. After telling Blade Frost's plan to resurrect an ancient vampire god, Whistler takes Blade's gun and seemingly commits suicide, considering death a better fate that becoming a vampire.
Whisteler returns in the second film. After searching for 2 years Blade finds that Whislter had not died and was being kept alive by a group of vampires. Blade rescues Whislter and they coninue their fight. In the third film Blade is framed for the murder of several humans (who were in fact familiars being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, is hunted down. In a raid on their new hideout, Whistler sets the self destuct mechanism and seemingly dies in an explosion. He is not seen or heard of aftwerward.
Whistler fathered a daughter out of wedlock or before marriage. This daughter was Abigail Whistler who eventually tracked down her natural father and asked to be trained as a vampire hunter. Whistler trained her, although he trained her separately from Blade who was totally unaware that Whistler had any protegees other than himself. Whistler also set Abigail up as the leader of one of the many Nightstalkers units he had secretly founded. It is assumed that these units were set up because one man (or half-vampire) is not enough to destroy an entire species. Also, since Blade is not immortal (he will eventually die from old age), Whistler did not want the war to die with him.
[edit] Blade: The Series Role
In Blade: The Series, which does takes place after Blade: Trinity, the writers go into Whistler's background a little more. In the Episode Sacrifice, we learn that Whistler got his trademark limp from a young Blade, who escaped his father's house and broke Whistler's leg in an attempt to get away from him. Blade's father called Whistler in at the urging of a helpful policman, and Whistler tested him to learn that he was not a regular vampire. He asked Blade's father to give him the boy to use as a weapon against vampires, but Blade ran away before a decision was made. After Blade joined and turned a street gang called the "Bad Bloods", Whistler found him and ashed several members of the gang before taking Blade under his wing.
[edit] Comic Book Role
Abraham Whistler's place in the traditional Marvel Comics continuity is uncertain as he was created specifically for the movies. Also, the comics have established Jamal Afari as Blade's childhood tutor who eventually became a vampire himself forcing Blade to kill him. Whistler may be loosely based on "Bible John" Carrik, a character appearing in Marvel's 1994-1995 Blade series. Bible John, while not exactly a mentor to the already seasoned Blade, did serve as an advisor as well as a source of exotic weapons and information on vampire lore. Bible John, did also have a similar long haired disshevelled appearance to Whistler as portrayed by Kris Kristofferson, with the exception of being covered head to toe with crucifix tattoos.
[edit] Note
Although Whistler's first media appearance is the Spider-Man animated series in 1996, he was created by David Goyer, writer of the 1998 film and the writers of the cartoon used the character for their own use [1].
