Blade (comics)
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Blade (Eric Brooks) is a fictional superhero. Created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan, Blade was originally a supporting character in the 1970s comic Tomb of Dracula, and has starred in several comic books of his own. The 1998 movie Blade featured some of the characters of the comic book and starred Wesley Snipes; two sequels have followed so far. A Blade television series aired on Spike TV for one season. A new ongoing comic started in September 2006, written by Marc Guggenheim.[1]
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[edit] Publication history
Blade stood out amongst other comic heroes with his direct and at times, rude, way of speaking. His dialogue was also intended to reflect, to varying degrees of success, the street slang of the 1970s.
While the Marvel Comics version of the character Blade was British and born in London, the film and television versions of Blade produced by New Line Cinema portray him as an American born in Chicago.
Aside from the detail that in both tellings of the story his mother was bitten by vampires while giving birth to him, there is little resemblance between the movie and comic book versions of Blade. However, due to the success of the film, efforts were made by Marvel to make the comic version resemble the film character more closely. This was achieved by having Blade bitten on the arm by Morbius. The injury resulted in Blade becoming a half vampire, which gave him all of a vampire's strengths but none of their weaknesses. He had super strength, great agility, and immunity to sunlight. Prior to being bitten by Morbius the only unusual attributes Blade was said to have were an immunity to vampire bites and a lesser aging process than humans. Both due to his unique physiology. As Morbius was not a true vampire, but some type of variant, Blade was not immune to his bite like other vampires and it altered his physiology to the extent that it was similar to that of Morbius. However, in the current Blade comic series, this has been the subject of a retcon - Blade now claims Morbius's bite changed nothing and that he has been half-vampire since birth.
[edit] Fictional character biography
The man called Blade was born in a Soho whorehouse, in Great Britain. Blade himself has revealed that the exact date of his birth was October 24, 1929 - also known as Black Thursday; as it was the day the stock market crash began. Blade said he is 72 years old but his vampire powers make him look much younger.[2] Blade's mother, Tara Brooks; a prostitute at Madame Vanity’s Brothel, experienced severe labor complications, and a doctor was summoned. The name of the "doctor" was Deacon Frost, in reality a bloodthirsty vampire. Frost feasted on Blade's mother during Blade's birth, killing her, and accidentally passing along certain enzymes in his own blood to the infant. This resulted in Blade's superhuman abilities, such as immunity to being turned, ability to "smell" supernatural creatures, and greatly prolonged lifespan. This also caused Blade's sensitivity to bright light.[3]
Frost was driven off by Blade's mother’s coworkers before he could kill the infant as well. They raised him until he was nine years old. Though he lacked superhuman physical prowess, he trained himself to become an Olympic-level athlete and formidable hand-to-hand combatant. Most notably, he became an expert with edged weapons and especially knives and daggers.
[edit] Hunter's teachings
Walking home from school, Blade saw an old man being attacked by three bandits. Blade fought off the hoodlums, who turned out to be vampires, and rescued the old man. He learned that the old man was Jamal Afari, a jazz trumpeter and vampire hunter. Afari moved into Madame Vanity's brothel and trained the young Blade in both music and combat. Blade was soon able to defeat many of the weak, younger vampires that he and Afari found in abundance.[4]
However, Blade's victories made him cocky. He soon joined a street gang, the Bloodshadows, which was headed by a much older and more powerful vampire than any Blade had met before: Lamia. Blade barely defeated Lamia, and, in doing so, lost his girlfriend Glory, a loss which caused him not only to accept his destiny as an enemy of the undead but also to swear to it forever.
Afari himself later fell prey to the attack of the vampire Dracula, the first occurrence in an ongoing battle between him and Blade. Blade slew the vampire Afari and followed Dracula back to Europe.
Blade tracked Dracula throughout Europe and Asia Minor, then on into the far east, staking him many times, but never completely destroying him. In China, Blade joined Ogun Strong's vampire hunters which included Azu, Orji and Musenda. Together, they staked Dracula again. Once more, Dracula survived, and taught Blade an object lesson by killing all of his new-found friends except Musenda (who eventually retired from vampire hunting). However, Orji created a lasting impression on Blade with his use of wooden daggers as a means to combat vampires. Sometime after Orji's death, Blade mastered the use of daggers and adopted the use of wooden daggers as his preferred method of combating vampires.
Consumed by grief, Blade resumed his quest alone. It was decades before he again allowed himself to endanger another human.
[edit] The Drac Pack
Blade eventually located Dracula in Paris, where he first encountered Quincy Harker (son of Jonathan Harker) and his vampire hunters, unofficially dubbed the "Drac Pack". Blade had heard of Harker before, but had never met him. Because of his mercurial temperament, Blade had a strained but steady relationship with Quincy Harker, Rachel Van Helsing (granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing), Taj Nital, and Frank Drake, vampire hunters dedicated to destroying Dracula. Blade never joined the group, but served as their ally on several occasions.
After an unsuccessful battle with Dracula, Blade realized for the first time that he was immune to turning from a vampire's bite. Armed with this knowledge, he left the group and began a quest to find the vampire that had killed his mother and avenge her.
Blade's hunt for his mother's killer next led him to Boston, where he again encountered the Drac Pack and their new ally: Dracula. Blade spurned the alliance and berated Harker for it until he faced Doctor Sun, the common threat that drove these natural enemies together. During the battle with Sun, Blade met up with one of Sun's allies, whose face provoked a strange reaction in him, dredging up long-buried memories. The vampire escaped, and Blade again abandoned the Drac Pack, and set out on his own.
Blade eventually encountered Hannibal King, a private detective who had been turned into a vampire by Deacon Frost thirty years ago; however, to further gain Blade's trust, King lied about his age, saying it was only five. While initially distrusting King, Blade teamed up with him to track down Frost.
Blade and King fought together against Blade's evil doppelgänger (created when Frost killed his mother), who absorbed the real Blade. King enlisted the help of Daimon Hellstrom, the so-called Son of Satan, who exorcised Blade from his doppelgänger and killed it with King's help. Blade and King eventually caught up with Frost who had created an army of vampiric doppelgängers, one for each of his victims. Together, they shut down Frost for good, forging a lasting friendship.
[edit] The Nightstalkers
In later years, Blade, along with King and Drake, became a frequent ally of Doctor Strange and assisted in the casting of the Montesi Formula. The formula had been retrieved from a page in the Darkhold, a powerful book of magic responsible for the creation of all vampires. This destroyed Dracula and, for a time, all vampires on Earth. Blade, King and Drake stayed together, and formed a private detective agency called Borderline Inc. The agency discontinued after Drake left and Blade was committed to a psychiatric hospital following a battle with a temporarily resurrected Dracula.
Doctor Strange later arranged the release of Blade so that he could join Drake and King in reforming Borderline Inc. as the Nightstalkers, members of Strange's new team, the Midnight Sons, at the core of which stood the Nine, humans and others chosen to defend Earth against mystical invasion. Together, unknowingly under Strange's manipulation, they battled various supernatural villains such as the Darkholders, Hydra's DOA, the Lilin (the children of Lilith, mother of demons), and Varnae, the Lord of Vampires. To ensure Blade's cooperation, Strange mystically transmuted Blade's hatred of vampires into an enmity against all things supernatural. But, even more dangerous games were afoot. Due to its gross over-use, the Montesi Formula was weakening: King transformed back into a vampire, and Blade's vampiric DNA resurfaced, making him even more volatile and dangerous and playing him and King against each other. Blade even tried to sacrifice King to the DOA. It was only through Frank Drake's insistence that Blade decided to save his former friend.
At one point, Blade used a page of the accursed Darkhold book of spells to become, apparently, the mystically empowered Switchblade. In truth, his body was taken over by an ancient entity bent on the destruction of the supernatural world called the Demogorge. In this form Blade fought and slew many of the Midnight Sons, and was only stopped when one of them read a spell of banishment and exiled the Demogorge forever.
The damage he had done as Switchblade was reversed; however, Blade could not reconcile himself to the fact that he remembered everything that had occurred, and that he had caused it all through his blind hatred of the supernatural. Using a mystical knife called the Edge of Intrados, Blade reviewed his life as though living it again. This was a major turning point in his life: he realized that, even before Strange's manipulations, he had been governed by his own obsessions and blinded to the safety and well-being of his friends and allies, or the possibility of leading a normal life. He decided to retire.
He was soon pressured into returning to the game, however, when Drake and King were kidnapped by Short Circuit, one of the Lilin. Blade followed them into an alternate reality where King had become the Lord of Vampires. Escaping from this living nightmare, Blade killed Short Circuit, and swore to King that he would never allow King to lose control of his vampiric urges, sealing the rift between them and cementing their friendship forever.
The Midnight Sons were soon after involved in the events known as the Siege of Darkness. In the culminating chapter of this adventure, Blade obtained the mystical sword Justicar from Foundry, a former member of both the Blood and the Fallen, immortal enemies and servants of Zarathos, respectively.
Foundry had never completed the forging of Justicar because it needed to be tempered in the blood of one of the Blood. However, when Zarathos and the Fallen attacked, Foundry allowed Blade to kill her, completing the sword. Blade proceeded to kill each and every member of the Fallen, and to seemingly destroy Zarathos.
After the Siege of Darkness, the Midnight Sons began to drift apart, as their destiny as a team seemed fulfilled. Blade and the Nightstalkers continued to hunt vampires, believing that it was partially their fault (through their lack of understanding about how to properly use the Montesi Formula) that vampires were being reintroduced into the human world.
But tragedy soon struck. Blade was devastated when he appeared to be the only one of the trio to survive the final battle with Varnae, which culminated in the death of Blade's old friend and the only one of the "Drac Pack" he was ever able to connect with: Taj Nital, now a vampire serving Varnae. With every member of the "Drac Pack" now gone, Blade decided to return to vampire hunting to honor their memory. He would go on to join forces with a mystic named Bible John Carik, and to encounter a vampire impersonating Deacon Frost and finally a once again resurrected Dracula. Later, in New Orleans, Blade discovered that Hannibal King had survived the encounter with Varnae, and the two joined forces to defeat a newly resurrected Deacon Frost.
[edit] Daywalker
Blade remained active in New Orleans, defeating the vampire Ulysses Sojourner and his own former ally, Morbius, the Living Vampire, who was under Sojourner's mental thrall. Blade followed Morbius (himself a former member of both the Midnight Sons and the Nine) back to New York, where, while teamed with Spider-Man,[5] Blade was bitten by Morbius.
Blade's blood enzymes reacted unexpectedly with Morbius's unique form of vampirism to produce an almost perfected form of the virus, granting Blade many vampire strengths while eliminating weaknesses inherent to a vampire (it was at this time that Blade assumed the unofficial title of "Daywalker" among his prey).
Recently, Blade has come under the eye of the S.H.I.E.L.D division Project: Silvereye, which sought to use his blood in creating cloned vampire operatives. Blade shut down the project with the help of two vampire-hunting twins, Mosha and Mikado. Blade was then forced to combat a hostile takeover of the vampire world by a breed of vampire called the Tryks while simultaneously repelling the advances of their queen.
One of Blade's recent solo adventures involved a plot by Dracula to assume the title of Vampire Lord officially, by becoming a god-like being like Varnae. Blade joined Noah Van Helsing (actually Noah Tremayne, Rachel's adopted cousin) and several vampire hunters from across the globe to stop Dracula from succeeding.
[edit] Current status
Blade has since encountered the Punisher and has taken up protecting a Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans from an escalating vampire population, most notably alongside Luke Cage, Brother Voodoo, and the Black Panther. A short time later, Blade was also invited to attend the wedding of the Black Panther and Storm in the Panther's African nation of Wakanda.
[edit] New series
Blade was given a monthly title of his own again, written by Marc Guggenheim and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. Per the first issue of that series, Blade was contacted by SHIELD's supernatural-security taskforce, the Howling Commandos, to deal with an old adversary. Also, the secret Order of Tyrana appeared to keep files on Blade's life.
Dracula had arisen from his grave once again, and transformed an entire class of schoolchildren into vampires, which Spider-Man happened to be teaching. Spider-Man also fell under Dracula's influence and was briefly "turned". Spider-Man's radioactive blood eventually turned him back to normal, with the children's fate as yet unclear. Blade managed to kill Dracula once again, but the remains of Dracula's body were diverted to the SHIELD Helicarrier Pericles V, something Blade found immediately suspicious. He infiltrated the Helicarrier, and while wearing a SHIELD uniform, Blade fought vampires who made everyone else believe they were SHIELD agents. Blade had realized these vampires wanted to revive Dracula once again, but intervened. Blade managed to successfully kill all of these vampires and fully destroyed Dracula's body with silver bullets.
Meanwhile, without Blade's knowledge, his rich father, Lucas Cross, was revealed to be the one responsible for reviving Dracula and wasn't impressed to hear that his son was behind Dracula's demise.
In a next adventure, Blade was summoned by none other than Doctor Doom to travel to Doom's home country, Latveria. Doom had used his mystical "gypsy powers" to witness an event from the past, in which an alternate version of Blade had been sent deeper into the past to rescue Doom's mother from prison, who was pregnant with Doom at the time. In exchange to make this event happen in the current timeline, Doom offered Blade an elixir that would cure him of his thirst for human blood. Blade traveled successfully in time using Doom's time-travel portal, and arrived in the prison. However, it was so huge Blade needed help and the prison was under attack by vampires. Killing some vampires, Blade rescued a political prisoner, who later turned out to be a younger version of his biological father, Lucas Cross. Cross led Blade to the floor Doom's mother was held in, and Blade helped her turn more vampires into dust. Eventually, with all of their enemies destroyed, Blade travelled back to the future and Doom handed him over the elixir, which has yet to be proven to actually work as it would also cause Blade to lose his thirst for hunting humans. He still carries it regardless.
In issue #5 of the new series during the Civil War storyline; Blade signs the superhuman registration act and is now cooperating with S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill sends him to hunt down Wolverine, a task that Blade accepts, though he backs off after seeing him unmasked and recognizing him as the man that saved his life years ago.
[edit] Powers and abilities
[edit] Comics
- Following his bite from Morbius, Blade has received all the strengths of a vampire, but none of their weaknesses. In issue #4 of his current series he is referred to as a dhampir. It should be noted that this is a relatively recent development in the history of the character, who traditionally has been essentially human, aside from an immunity to vampirism and heightened resistance to their powers of hypnosis.
- Beyond his obvious vampiric abilities, Blade also seems to be something of a savant in the field of weaponry. Blade has virtually mastered the use of every type of weapon known to man, and can adapt new weaponry to his growing repertoire in mere minutes. For a list of Blade's preferred weapons, see Weaponry of Blade. Blade is also an expert of several martial arts styles.
- Blade also possesses the skills of a professional jazz trumpeter.
- It is stated in the current series that Blade is immortal (this presumably following the aforementioned assault by Morbius).
[edit] Film and television
In the films and TV series, Blade is depicted as possessing superhuman abilities equal to those of normal vampires, but yet none of the vampire's weaknesses besides the thirst for blood. Blade has super strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and senses. He also has a healing factor, but this does not retard his aging. He can walk in sunlight, though it causes some discomfort and he must wear sunglasses. He is a master of martial arts and weaponry ranging from his acid-etched titanium sword and glaive to a MAC-10 automatic pistol. Blade can speak Czech, Russian and to a degree the Vampire language, and he has a great deal of knowledge about hunting vampires.
[edit] Equipment
According to his earliest appearances in the original Tomb of Dracula comics, Blade relied on teakwood daggers which he used to impale opponents, and a variety of mahogany stakes. He was an excellent hand-to-hand combatant and knife-fighter. He also uses a serum to stop his urge to drink/suck blood.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Blade Trilogy
In 1998, the movie Blade starred Wesley Snipes in the title role, Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, Blade's mentor, and Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. The film was written by David Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. Its diverges strongly from the comic blade, both in the demeanor of the character (traditionally, Blade was often presented as loquacious and boastful, yet in the film he is nearly silent) and in the nature of his abilities (he was introduced as one who, beyond immunity to vampirism, was essentially a normal human who depended on his skills and determination to deal with the superior strength of the vampires he hunted as compared with the superhuman entity in the cinematic version who is in fact more powerful than the vampires).
Written by Goyer and directed by Guillermo del Toro, this followed in 2002. The Daywalker joins forces with the vampire nemesis for a good chunk of the movie to defeat a powerful new breed of vampire called Reapers created by the very vampires he is allied with.
The 'trilogy' concluded in 2004 with Blade: Trinity (written and directed by Goyer), which introduced heavily modified versions of Hannibal King (played here by Ryan Reynolds) and the Nightstalkers. Blade reluctantly joins forces with the group of vampire hunters (led by Abigail Whistler, the estranged daughter of his old mentor) to destroy the original vampire Drake (a younger version of Dracula) with the help of a vampire-killing virus.
The triliogy also involves the blade series as this is set in the same universe as the above movies
[edit] Animated Blade
Blade appears in a 1996 episode of the Spider-Man animated series, entitled "Neogenic Nightmare: Chapter 9: Blade the Vampire Hunter." In that episode, Spider-Man and Blade first met each other, and it also marked the very first appearance of Whistler in any version of the Marvel Universe, as Whistler had never appeared in a comic before. In this episode, Blade was hunting down Morbius. It was also revealed that Blade was the son of a vampire man with a human mother, but became orphaned after his mother left him in a foster home after she was bitten by a vampire. In the following episode "The Immortal Vampire", Blade once again makes an appearance alongside Morbius. In the shows 4th season, in the episode "Partners in Danger: Chapter 7: The Vampire Queen", Blade returns and hunts down the Vampire Queen, who is revealed to be his mother. Blade made his final appearance in the show in the 5th season episode "Secret Wars: Chapter 2: Gauntlet of the Red Skull" where he was seen working side by side with Morbius and the Black Cat against the Vampire Queen until the Cat was "abducted" by Spider-Man to help him. Blade was voiced by J.D. Hall. It should also be noted that in this series, Blade wore a costume based on his appearance in the Nightstalkers comic series and his subsequent solo series.
[edit] Blade: The Series
A television series based on the films airs on Spike TV and stars rapper/actor Kirk Jones as Blade. Set some time after the events of Blade: Trinity, the series deals with Blade fighting an evil vampire named Marcus Van Sciver in Detroit, which is also Blade's birthtown (in the series). As was shown in the movies, Blade's birth name is Eric Brooks and his mother was named Vanessa and now it has been revealed that Blade's father is named Robert Brooks, and that he raised Blade until he was twelve and his vampiric nature became more apparent, such as with his "thirst" for human blood.
Conflicts often come up between Whistler's explanation of Blade's origin in the movie and the explanation of Blade's origin in the television series.
Note: Blade the series was cancelled by Spike TV after the first season. This was noted in Jill Wagner (Krista)'s blog.
[edit] Video games
- Blade is playable in the two video games based on the first two Wesley Snipes films: Blade (for the PlayStation) and Blade II (for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox).
- Blade is a playable character in the multi-platform action-RPG Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He is first playable when the other heroes rescue Blade from Arcade's Murderworld. He is voiced by Khary Payton.
- Blade is also a playable character in the game based upon the movie Ghost Rider after you beat the game with Ghost Rider. He has none of the fire attacks and none of the special techniques, He must rely entirely on his "Day Walker" Fighting skills.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=5133
- ^ http://members.aol.com/Erommel43/bladeorigin1.htm
- ^ Marvel Preview #3
- ^ Marvel Preview #3
- ^ As seen in the pages of Peter Parker: Spider-Man #8
[edit] Resources
- Marvel.com Marvel Universe: Blade (Eric Brooks)
- Marvel Directory.com: Blade
- Origin of Blade
- Marvel Universe Appendix: Jamal Afari
- Marvel Universe Appendix: Bloodshadows
- Marvel Universe Appendix: Crossbow
[edit] External links
Categories: Blade (comics) | Black superheroes | British superheroes | Fictional British people | Fictional hybrids | Fictional vampires | Fictional vampire hunters | Marvel Comics superheroes | Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength | Marvel Comics titles | Vampires in comics | Marvel Comics martial artists | Fictional Buddhists | 1973 introductions
