Blade (comics)

Blade is a superhero appearing in Marvel Comics.

The character Blade was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan and was a supporting character in the 1970s comic Tomb of Dracula. A 1998 movie Blade featured the same characters as the comic book and starred Wesley Snipes.

Incarnations

Comic book

In the comic, Blade's mother, was bitten by vampire Deacon Frost while she was in labor with Blade. Thus, Blade was born as a Dhampir, a human with vampire genes. In the comic, for most purposes, Blade was a normal human, except he wore shaded goggles presumably to protect against bright light (a vampire weakness, according to some accounts of the legend). Blade's initial mission was to avenge his mother's death and in his quest, he would fight many vampires including Dracula. Due to his mercurial temperament, Blade had a strained but steady relationship with Quincy Harker, Rachel Van Helsing, and Frank Drake, vampire hunters dedicated to destroying Dracula. Blade eventually encountered Hannibal King, a private detective who had been turned vampire by Deacon Frost. While initially distrusting King, the two teamed up to destroy Frost forging a lasting friendship between Blade and King.

In later comic series, Blade, along with King, and Drake became a frequent ally of Doctor Strange and assisted in the casting of the Montesi formula which destroyed Dracula and for a time all vampires on Earth. Blade, King, and Drake later formed a private detective agency called Borderline Inc. The agency discontinued for a short while after Drake left and Blade was committed to a psychiatric hospital for a time after he went insane fighting a temporarily resurrected Dracula alongside Drake.

Doctor Strange later arranged the release of Blade so that he could join Drake and King in reforming Borderline Inc. (now aka the Nightstalkers). Together, unknowingly under Strange's manipulation they battled various supernatural villains such as the Darkholders, Hydra's DOA, the Lilin, and Varnae. These battles foreshadowed the weakening of the Montesi formula that banished vampires and Blade was the only survivor of the final battle with Varnae. He would go on encounter a vampire impersonating Deacon Frost and finally a once again resurrected Dracula. Later, in New Orleans, Blade discovers that Hannibal King survived the encounter with Varnae and the two joined forces to defeat a newly resurrected Deacon Frost.

Blade has perhaps the most bizarre origin of all of the vampire hunters in TOD. During his labor, Blade's mother was undergoing complications and her friends summoned a doctor of dubious background. The doctor turned out to be the white-haired vampire known as Deacon Frost. He feasted on Blade's mother right before Blade's birth which resulted in Blade being immune to vampire bites. As a result of Frost's attack, Blade's mother died but not before she gave birth to Blade. Blade was raised by his mother's work associates until he was 9 years old. At age 9, Blade helped save the life of vampire hunter Jamal Afari, a musician who took Blade in and raised him as his son. Afari trained Blade as a vampire hunter as well as a trumpet player until Dracula turned Afari. Blade was forced to kill Afari and swore revenge on Dracula.

As a result of the deaths of his mother and foster father, Blade traveled the world to revenge himself against Dracula and Deacon Frost. Blade traveled the world, his path crossing with many other vampires, including Dracula, including one incident in which Blade and four of his friends lured Dracula into a deathtrap. Unfortunately, some of Dracula's minions soon revived Dracula and the vampire lord murdered most of Blade's vampire hunting friends.

Over time, Blade met up with Quincy Harker and his band of vampire hunters. At first their relationship was troubled at best, as Blade felt that Harker and his band were somewhat soft. Nonetheless, Blade found himself allied with Harker at times as his search for Deacon Frost often was sidetracked by his battles with Dracula.

After the death of Quincy Harker's daughter Edith at the hands of Dracula (TOD #13), Blade helped Harker hunt down Dracula and succeeded in killing the vampire lord (TOD #14). Unfortunately, Dracula's minions rescued his corpse and the vampire lord was eventually revived (TOD #15).

Blade's search for Deacon Frost led to Blade teaming up with the vampire detective Hannibal King. King was a former detective who had been turned into a vampire by Deacon Frost and he too had a vendetta against Frost. Blade very reluctantly teamed with King, and at times, it seemed as if Blade might try to kill King. However, their partnership grew stronger as the hunt continued and over time, Blade began to respect King, especially after King saved Blade from becoming one of Deacon Frost's magically created vampires. Eventually, the two finally found Frost and confronted him. Frost died in an explosion during the confrontation and Blade could finally rest, knowing that his mother had been avenged. After Frost's death, Blade and King went their separate ways, but they parted as friends.

After his battle with Frost, Blade's future seemed uncertain, his entire life had been devoted to killing Frost, now what would he do? As he pondered his future, Blade occassionly teamed with Harker and his band and from time to time, found himself embroiled in battles with vampires besides Dracula.

Blade was probably the most dangerous threat to Dracula with the possible exception of Quincy Harker. He possessed a fierce fighting style which helped compensate for Dracula's tremendous strength. and was highly skilled with his wooden knives and athletic strength, stanima and speed.

Movies

Main article: Blade (movie)

In 1998, the movie Blade starred Wesley Snipes as Blade, Kris Kristofferson as Whistler, Blade's Mentor, and Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. It was written by David Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. While not an exact adaptation of any of the comic stories, it was faithful to the character and situations created by Wolfman and Colan. Unlike in the comic, Blade's half-vampire nature was very much apparent and he was constantly at odds with it. Deacon Frost was depicted as a much younger, more 1990s character than his comic book counterpart. It was followed in 2002 by Blade II (written by Goyer and directed by Guillermo del Toro) and concluded in 2004 with Blade: Trinity (written and directed by Goyer) which introduced Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and the Nightstalkers.de:Blade (Comic)