Abraham Whistler

Abraham Whistler is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a vampire hunter and mentor to Blade. Screenwriter David S. Goyer created him for the 1998 film Blade (in which the part was played by Kris Kristofferson), but he first appeared on screen in Spider-Man: The Animated Series where he was voiced by Malcolm McDowell and later by Oliver Muirhead. In 2006, Abraham Whistler appeared in the television show Blade: The Series. Although he shares certain traits and is partially inspired by the character Jamal Afari from the comics, Whistler has yet to make a transition to the comics which makes him a character valid for the film's storyline, but not the actual and original comic book story.

Fictional Character Biography

Spider-Man (1994 TV series)

Abraham Whistler's background in the animated series is the same as that in the films, although he appears younger and with a much less unkempt appearance than the filmic interpretation of the character. Whistler was a vampire hunter who took on a young Blade and trained him in martial arts and as a vampire hunter. Blade, who was half-vampire himself, was given a serum developed by Whistler which would stop him from craving human plasma. When Blade hunted Morbius the Living Vampire, a young human student who was accidentally mutated into a vampire-like creature, Blade discovered the Neogenic Recombinator, which could transform humans into vampires. Whistler told him not to destroy it as it could also be used to cure Blade of the vampire in him. Morbius was eventually driven into hibernation.

While Blade was hunting a vampire in Europe, Whistler was visited by the Black Cat, who was looking for help to cure Morbius. Whistler told her that the only way he knew to cure him would be to destroy him, and gave her a weapon to do so, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Movies

Blade

In the first Blade film it is revealed that Whistler lost his wife and two daughters to an attack by a vampire who had arrived at their home posing as a drifter. Whistler was beaten and tortured, being forced to choose which one of his family died first. These events shaped his hatred of vampires and his mission to destroy as many as he could. Whistler is a weapons expert and master of several martial arts, having a part in creating many of Blade's weapons. When he discovered a thirteen-year-old Blade on the streets preying on the homeless, he took him under his wing. Realizing that he was half human and lacked a vampire's normal weaknesses with the exception of their thirst, he developed a serum to suppress Blade's vampiric lust for blood. Deacon Frost, an ambitious vampire whom Whistler and Blade had been tracking, located their base and attacked Whistler, ordering him to be infected with vampirism. After informing Blade of Frost's plan to resurrect an ancient vampire god, Whistler then seemingly commits suicide, considering death a better fate than becoming a vampire. However his death is not seen on camera, only the sound of a gun firing is heard.

Blade II

It is revealed in the second Blade film that Whistler survived his suicide attempt to be kidnapped by another gang of vampires and taken to the Czech Republic. Killing all but one of the vampires responsible for his imprisonment Blade frees him from suspended animation, taking him to Prague and injecting him with the "cure". During his time with them, he was repeatedly tortured to the point of death, healed, and then tortured again.

Blade, Whistler, and Scud are summoned by the Shadow Council, ruled by overlord Eli Damaskinos to eradicate the reaper threat. Reinhardt and Chupa (played by Matt Schulze), a friend of Priest who now wishes to kill Whistler to even the score with Blade, corner Whistler, and Chupa proceeds to savagely beat Whistler. Reinhardt leaves the two. Whistler, to save himself, releases the reaper pheromones into the air. As Chupa nearly beats Whistler to a pulp and is about to finish him off with a gun, reapers swarm the sewers and feed on Chupa, allowing Whistler to slip away. During his escape, Whistler is confronted by Jared Nomak, the original Reaper, who lets Whistler live to reveal the truth about the Reaper strain to Blade. When Blade and Whistler are captured by Damaskinos thanks to Scud's betrayal, Whistler manages to escape after Reinhardt underestimates him, rescuing the injured Blade and taking him to a vat of blood so that Blade can be restored to full health to stop Damaskinos's forces and Nomak.

Blade: Trinity

In the third Blade film, Blade is framed for the murder of several humans (who were in fact familiars being used as bait). Blade, now in the public eye and wanted by the FBI, is hunted down. In a raid on their new hideout, Whistler sets the self-destruct mechanism and seemingly dies in an explosion. He is not seen or heard of afterwards (although Drake took the form of Whistler when he attacked the Nightstalkers).

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 protégés other than himself. Whistler also set Abigail up as the leader of one of the many Nightstalker 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 if he is not killed in action first), Whistler did not want the war to die with him.

Blade: The Series

In Blade: The Series, which 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 policeman, 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.

Notes

Although Whistler's first media appearance is in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, he was created by David S. Goyer, writer of the 1998 film and the writers of the cartoon used the character for their own use.^[1]

Whistler shared his first name with not only Abraham "Bram" Stoker, creator of the novel Dracula, but also Stoker's fictitious hero Abraham Van Helsing.

References

1. ↑ "Comics Continuum". Comics Continuum. 2002-03-19. Retrieved 2011-01-08.