Creation History
Blade (birth name: Eric Cross Brooks; legal name: Frank Blade) is a fictional character and antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan, his first appearance was in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as a supporting character, but he later went on to star in his own storylines. Devoting his life to ridding the world of all vampires, Blade utilizes his unique physiology to become the perfect vampire hunter. While originally depicted as a human immune to vampire bites, Blade was retroactively established to be a dhampir following his adaptation as such in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the Blade film series. He is the father of Brielle "Bri" Brooks (Bloodline).
The character has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including films, television series, video games, and his own animated series. Blade was portrayed by Wesley Snipes in the films Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Deadpool & Wolverine, and by Sticky Fingaz in the television series Blade: The Series. Mahershala Ali has been cast as the character in the MCU media franchise, debuting with an uncredited vocal cameo in the film Eternals (2021) ahead of the character's upcoming standalone film (2025).
Publication History
Blade was introduced as a supporting character in Marvel Comics' The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973), written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Gene Colan.
The artist recalled in 2003, "Marv told me Blade was a black man, and we talked about how he should dress, and how he should look – very heroic looking. That was my input. [...] The bandolier of blades – that was Marv's idea. But, I dressed him up. I put the leather jacket on him and so on".
Colan based the character's features on "a composite of black actors" including NFL football star-turned-actor Jim Brown. He initially sported 1970s-style Afro hair and wielded teak-bladed knives. Blade appeared in issues #10–21, with frequent appearances until #61 in 1977.
Wolfman spoke on the character's inception during an interview:
"When I was at DC I was working with a partner and we were working on the Teen Titans, a different version of it than I later did and came up with a Black superhero and we wrote it, and it was drawn and everything and for one reason or another the story was never published, there were all sorts of explanation but I was never there, all I know is the story was never published, and one of the promises I made to myself was that the next character is created, would be a Black character like the character for Teen Titans, because I didn't think Black characters were represented at all in comics to any great degree.
I felt coming from New York City, going to a school, and everybody who attends that high school is pretty much everybody who lives within a few blocks of you, because that's the way it works, I went to school in Manhattan, called High school of Art and Design, and it took people of all of New York, you saw people of all kinds there, so it didn't sound strange to me, to use a Black character, and I just never understood why they didn't, so [when] I came up with Blade it came to me literally in a second.
I'm not joking, I had just gotten the Dracula assignment, and I wasn't thinking about anything, suddenly, the character came full blown, I knew exactly who he was and what he looked like, and I knew everything about him."
Wolfman recalled in 2009,
"I knew if I let him, Blade would eclipse the other characters so I pulled him back and let original supporting characters Rachel, Frank and Quincy shine. I also wasn't happy with my Blade dialogue, so I pulled him out of the book for a while — I think almost a year — and when I brought him back I played him a bit straighter. The early Blade dialogue was cliche 'Marvel Black' dialogue. Later on, I tried to make him more real. But it took growing up as a writer."
Outside The Tomb of Dracula, he fought the scientifically-created vampire Morbius the Living Vampire in the latter's series in Adventure into Fear #24 (Oct. 1974), in a story written by Steve Gerber and penciled by P. Craig Russell.
Blade's first solo story came in Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazine Vampire Tales #8 (Dec. 1974), in an 11-page story by Wolfman and penciller-inker Tony DeZuniga. This feature continued in issue #9 (Feb. 1975), with Wolfman and Chris Claremont co-scripting.
This story was concluded in a 56-page solo story in the black-and-white showcase magazine Marvel Preview #3 (Sept. 1975), written by Claremont, with two chapters each drawn by DeZuniga and by Rico Rival (this story was announced for Vampire Tales #12, but was published here after that magazine was cancelled). A six-page backup story by Wolfman and Colan followed in Marvel Preview #8 (Fall 1976).
Blade next came into prominence in the 1990s, beginning with Ghost Rider #28 (Aug. 1992), in the Midnight Sons imprint that included issues of Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins, Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance, Midnight Sons Unlimited, Morbius, and Nightstalkers.
Blade co-starred in the 18-issue series Nightstalkers, and appeared with that team in a story in the anthology issue Midnight Sons Unlimited #1 (April 1993). He appeared in two solo stories, in Midnight Sons Unlimited #2 and 7 (July 1993 and Oct. 1994).
Following the cancellation of Nightstalkers, Blade debuted in his first color-comics series, Blade the Vampire Hunter #1–10 (July 1994 – April 1995), written by Ian Edginton (with the last two issues by Terry Kavanagh) and penciled by Doug Wheatley.
Blade next appeared in a 12-page inventory story in issue #1 (Feb. 1997) of the short-lived black-and-white anthology series Marvel: Shadows and Light. He then starred again in two solo one-shots: Blade: Crescent City Blues #1 (March 1998), by writer Christopher Golden and penciller and co-creator Colan; and Blade: Sins of the Father #1 (Oct. 1998), by writer Marc Andreyko and penciller Bart Sears.
Marvel next announced a six-issue miniseries, Blade (storyline: "Blade: Blood Allies") by the writer Don McGregor and penciller Brian Hagen, but only issues #1–3 (Nov. 1998–Jan. 1999) were published. Marvel published a different six-issue miniseries later that year, Blade: Vampire Hunter (storyline: "Chaos (A)"; Dec. 1999 – May 2000), written and, except the last two issues, penciled by Bart Sears.
The next ongoing series, Blade vol. 2 by writer Christopher Hinz and artist Steve Pugh, ran six issues, published by Marvel MAX in 2002. Blade vol. 3 by the writer Marc Guggenheim and penciller-inker Howard Chaykin, ran 12 issues (Sept. 2006–Aug. 2007). The final two pages of the last issue were drawn by co-creator Colan.
Blade also starred in two promotional comic books: Blade #1⁄2 (1999) by writer-artist Sears and inker Bill Sienkiewicz, bundled with issues of Wizard: The Comic Magazine #2000; and Blade: Nightstalking (2005), a 22-page story by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and penciller Amanda Conner, based on New Line Cinema's Blade films, and bundled with the Blade: Trinity Deluxe Edition DVD. Additionally, the second Blade movie was adapted as the Marvel comic Blade 2: Bloodhunt — The Official Comic Adaptation (April 2002) by writers Steve Gerber and David S. Goyer and penciller-inker Alberto Ponticelli.
Blade joined the cast of Captain Britain and MI: 13 beginning with issue #5 (Nov. 2008).
In 2015, it was announced that Tim Seeley and Logan Faerber would be launching a new Blade series, starting in October 2015, as part of Marvel's post-Secret Wars relaunch, focusing on his and daughter Fallon Grey.
However, this title has since been abandoned, in favor of Bloodline: Daughter of Blade, following his and Safron Caulder's daughter Brielle "Bri".
Character History
Origin
The man called Blade was born in a Soho Brothel, 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. Blade's mother, Tara Brooks, a prostitute at Madame Vanity's Brothel, experienced severe labor complications, and a doctor was summoned.
The "doctor's" name 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 process turned Blade into a Dhampir: one who has been touched, but not converted, by a vampire.
This resulted in Blade's superhuman abilities, such as immunity to being turned, the ability to "smell" supernatural creatures, and a significantly prolonged lifespan. This also caused Blade's sensitivity to bright light. 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 Blade 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, especially knives and daggers.
Walking home from school, Blade saw an older 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. However, Blade's victories made him cocky.
Bloodshadows
Blade soon joined a street gang, 'the Bloodshadows,' 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. This loss caused Blade to accept his destiny as an enemy of the undead and to swear to it forever. Afari later fell prey to an 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 into the far east, staking him many times, but never entirely destroying him. In China, Blade joined Ogun Strong's vampire hunters, including Azu, Orji, and Musenda. Together, they staked Dracula again.
Once more, Dracula survived, teaching Blade a purposed 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 to combat vampires. Sometime after Orji's death, Blade mastered the use of daggers and adopted the use of wooden ones as his preferred method of fighting vampires. Consumed by grief, Blade resumed his quest alone. It was decades before he again allowed himself to endanger another human.
The Dracula Hunters
When hunting down Dracula in Paris, Blade met up with a group of vampire hunters being led by Quincy Harker. They aligned with each other on various occasions, but Blade does not officially join the team. He became friends with a few of the team members, among them Frank Drake and Taj Nital. After tracking down Dracula in London, he fought him, Morbius, and his minions.
Back in America, Blade once again finds himself joining Harker's team, but with another ally: Dracula. Here they fight a more ruthless villain, Doctor Sun. After the battle, Dracula fled, with Blade hot on his tracks. He then encountered Hannibal King, a private investigator who was turned into a vampire by Deacon Frost.
Blade and Hannibal first team-up to defeat a Blade-doppelganger, but when the doppelganger absorbed the real Blade, Hannibal called for Hellstorm to exorcise Blade out of the fake one. Eventually, Blade and Hannibal killed Deacon.
Nightstalkers
Some years later, Blade and his old friends Hannibal, Frank Drake, and Doctor Strange formed Borderline Investigations Inc., an investigative agency that battles supernatural beings. They battle Dracula and the Darkholders, but briefly disbanded when King left, and Blade was put in a mental hospital after a fight with a resurrected Dracula. Doctor Strange then reassembled the Borderline Investigations Inc., renaming it 'the Nightstalkers'.
When the demon Lilith tricked them to kill Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) and Johnny Blaze, they all team up to defeat Lilith and Lilin. They also fought Hydra. In the story arc "Midnight Massacre," Blade becomes 'Switchblade' by a page of the Darkhold before returning to normal. Blade's final battle with the team of Nightstalkers was against an entity known as Varnae, an ancient vampire who had also recruited Blade's friend Taj Nital. The climactic battle ended with the death of Taj Nital, and the seeming death of Frank Drake, which later turns out not to be true - Frank is in a coma. Blade quietly disbands the team after these events.
Blade Alone Again
After the disbanding of the Nightstalkers, Blade sees it upon himself to resume his war against the vampire threat. He finds himself once again fighting against a resurrected Deacon Frost and Dracula, but with the help of Hannibal King, Frost was killed yet again.
New Powers
Blade was not seen again for some time after his battle with Dracula and Frost. However, some months later, Blade was spotted battling Morbius, who at the time was being controlled by another vampire. Blade followed Morbius after their first battle to New York City, where Blade teamed-up with Spider-Man. When Morbius bit Blade, his vampire anatomy reacted to Morbius' natural vampirism, and granted him all the strengths of a vampire and eliminated his sensitivity to sunlight, which gave him the title "Daywalker" by his enemies. Blade also had a run-in with SHIELD, who were retrieving his blood to create vampire operatives. With the help of other vampire hunters, they were able to stop them. He then joined with other vampire hunters all over the world to prevent Dracula from becoming supremely powerful.
New Missions
After this, Blade tracked down a resurrected Dracula to New York City. He proceeded to beat both Dracula and a Vampire Spider-Man. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Howling Commandos arrived on the scene hours later to confiscate the body. Blade, however, sensed something wrong with the S.H.I.E.L.D. troops. He infiltrated their Helicarrier to find that it had a massive vampire infestation. He proceeded to destroy the Helicarrier.
Weeks later, In Madison Square Garden, Blade was attacked by four Doombots, who were tasked with bringing Blade to Latveria for a meeting with Dr. Doom. Blade defeated the Doombots, however, and the battle gave him the motivation to make the trip of his own accord. Blade was informed that he was destined to save his mother from a vampire infested jail facility. Though not entirely willing, Dr. Doom didn't take no for an answer and teleported Blade years into the past. Along with saving Dr. Doom's mother, he kept his own father, Lucas Cross, from rotting away, which would fulfill the first part of a prophecy his father had set in motion back in the present. In return, Dr. Doom gave Blade a formula that could cure an individual of their blood lust for vampires. Blade accepted the gift but didn't use it.
Civil War
Blade then became one of America’s most notorious, after the police mistook his series of vampire killings as homicides, attempting to jail him. While on the run, Blade ran into a Level 9 demon by the name of Animus. Blade defeated the beast and continued his run from the law. He proceeded to Long Beach, California, where he ran into a long-time rival – Morbius. The two did battle before Morbius, who was revealed to be a registered superhuman, called in S.H.I.E.L.D. to capture Blade. Blade took out several agents before being taken down.
In the office of Maria Hill, it was revealed that Blade was part of a contingency plan to bring down Wolverine, seeing as the tacticians felt Blade was their best shot at taking him down. Though dismayed, a newly registered Blade went after Wolverine. After a drawn-out fight where the two were on the verge of killing each other, Blade realized Wolverine had saved his life years ago and that he owed his very existence to him. Blade called off the fight and stormed into Maria’s office, claiming that if S.H.I.E.L.D. went after Wolverine, they would have him to deal with.
Several weeks later, Blade is captured by none other than Lucas Cross, as father and son meet for the first time. Blade, chained to a wall, is instructed by his father to feed upon a young girl. Unbeknownst to Blade, this would fulfill the second part of the prophecy. Blade passes on the offer and chews off his own hand to escape confinement, before fighting through the entire facility and escaping with the little girl.
Against his Father
Blade then travels to London, where he encounters possibly one of his greatest enemies – the priest Draconis. It is revealed that Draconis has been training for years to kill Blade, which is exactly what he does. The newly handicapped Blade is no match for his mysterious new foe and is staked through the heart. Blade wakes up in the morgue to find a mystical amulet he had taken from a vampire thug earlier had saved him from death. Infuriated, he calls upon the help of Hannibal King. With Hannibal at his back, Blade takes on Draconis once more. To defeat Draconis, Blade feeds upon him to remove his enhanced abilities, before killing him. To his father's joy, Blade accidentally fulfilled the second part of the prophecy by feeding upon virgin blood.
Blade uses his S.H.I.E.L.D. resources to order himself a new hand: a gun hand, which he tests out on none other than England's Union Jack. After the two resolve their differences, Blade makes his way back to New York, where everything started. He interrogates both Lucas Cross and Spider-Man to discover that his long time mentor, Jamal Afari, was alive and kicking, on Dracula's side. He goes home and is abducted again by his father, who seeks to complete the third and final part of the prophecy.
Blade, Hannibal King, and Lucas Cross travel to Dracula's Castle (now a tourist attraction). They attempt to complete a prophecy Lucas believes will give all vampires their souls back. All it would require is Blade to shatter his newly acquired amulet and drop a piece of the stake he used to kill Dracula to the salted ground. Blade declines, and a furious Hannibal King attacks him.
Blade makes short work of Hannibal King and his father's henchmen. However, Dracula arrives on the scene with Jamal Afari to help Lucas complete the prophecy. Dracula shatters the amulet and then attacks Blade; Jamal Afari breaks Dracula's control and attacks him, but is kicked to the ground. Enraged Blade charges at Dracula, yet knocks into his father, who accidentally drops the vial containing the stake fragment that killed Dracula. It shatters on the ground. However, they feel no different, save for a revived Hannibal King.
They all realize Dracula had been manipulating Lucas Cross the entire time, not into giving vampires their souls back, but into resurrecting every single vampire that had ever died. Blade and Hannibal part ways, leaving a broken Lucas Cross, but not before Blade gives Hannibal the serum Dr. Doom had made to cure a vampire of his or her blood lust.
Vanguard
Blade is then recruited to lead a secret government team of superheroes known as Vanguard. The team if comprised of, Micromax, Retcon, Dominic Fortune, and Yelena Belova. The original leader is murdered and they’re tasked with finding the murderer, it is revealed that Stacy Dolan, the detective assigned the murder case, was in fact their leader murderer. However, she had been mind-controlled by an individual named Yoosef. After he manipulates The Thing into attacking their team, Blade shoots him in the head, and has the team wipe The Things memories and teleport him away.
Surprisingly, their original leader, Colonel America, the most powerful telekinetic on the planet, shows himself and it is revealed that not only was he never dead, the government wanted the team disbanded, seeing as Micromax had been captured and tortured by Al Qaeda on a mission and they now knew more about Vanguard than the president. – in other words killed. Thinking quickly, the team gives Colonel America the illusion that he killed them and port away. They then go into hiding. Unfortunately, Blade is captured and tortured, the rest were safe as Blade used a back-up story to explain why he was the only one who survived.
MI:13 and Captain Britain
After this Blade made his way to England to serve in another secret organization – MI 13. Following the Skrull invasion of Britain, Blade joined MI:13 to aid with the resurgence of evil forces, resulting from the Skrulls defeat. Blade fails to ingratiate himself, however, when he attempts to kill fellow team member, and part-vampire, Spitfire. His actions were tempered by the Hell-Lord, Plokta, in action at the moment, and his surprise at finding out about her Vampire nature. Coaching her on the extent of her new abilities he helped her to regenerate from the damage he had caused, before moving on. Blade was able to use his senses to track Plokta, using one of his special weapons, a paper katana made from Holy Texts, to harm the beast. Until he and the rest of the team were capture in the Dream Corridor, by their turn-coat teammate.
While in the Dream Corridor, Blade and his team-mates were forced to confront visions, and more of the Plokta's useless drones, though when Peter forced the Ebony Blade to free them they were able to once more confront the Hell Lord. Realizing that Blade's weapon was the only one that could hurt him, surprising considering Excalibur and the Ebony Blade were present, he used his hell fire to destroy it. Blade and his teammates were able to figure out how to defeat him, with Captain Britain dealing the finishing blow.
Blade was kept on the team at the insistence of Spitfire, much to Peter's and his own surprise. Once they returned to base, he confided in Lady J about his unease with working someplace he originally set out to assault. She allayed his fears and also kisses him, making clear her intentions at starting something with him.
Next, came repercussions of his father's mistake. Dracula - along with Captain Fate, Lilith, and the new Baron Blood - launched an attack on an unsuspecting England in an attempt to transform the country into a haven for the world's vampires. Dracula's initial strike involved an attempt at taking out MI:13's heroes early, when this failed the agents rallied at base where they assessed the threat and realized Spitfire was missing.
Blade never failed to remain calm despite rising tension between him and Union Jack. MI:13 used the captured Plokta to ensnare Dracula into the Dream Corridor where they watched Dracula's entire plan pan-out. They saw as each of them fell before the enormity of Dracula's army, and with Spitfire in command of his ground forces, Dracula took over England. In this dream Blade was the only survivor in England; after one of Lilith's blasts sent him flying from the battlefield he fled to the north.
However, Dracula realized the situation and broke free from the Dream Corridor, just as his plans began to fell apart. He lost control over Spitfire, and MI:13 began to tackle Dracula's forces directly. Captain Fate fell against The Black Knight, Lilith against Captain Britain, Dracula against Excalibur, and Baron Blood against Blade. Britain is saved and we see a glimpse of Blade and Spitfire exchanging a kiss as MI:13's victory is celebrated.
Following this victory, MI:13 is invited to, where else but, NYC to be honored for their decimation of Dracula's forces. However, unbeknownst to Captain America, who is honoring them, Blade and Spitfire are on a secret mission. This mission consists of tracking down a vampire believed to be selling secrets to the Mys-tech Corporation, old enemies of the UK heroes. Again, we see Blade teaching Spitfire the extent of her abilities, and the two work great together. Ultimately, Spitfire defeats the vampire and we hear her tell Blade she loves him, although Blade doesn't hear.
Sometime during Blade's MI:13 membership, he, alongside a plethora of Marvel's magical characters, was possessed by Nightmare in an attempt at taking over the world. Blade, fighting alongside his MI:13 comrades, both Ghost Riders, a newly resurrected Dracula, and more, launched an assault on both Dr. Doom and Dr. Voodoo, who both managed to hold the assault back for days. Blade was seen among the many bodies strewn across the landscape after being defeated by Voodoo and Doom.
Curse of the Mutants
During the events of Curse of the Mutants, Blade would go on to investigate vampire slayer killings, independent of MI:13. He traveled the globe with ex-lover Claudia Bell before finally discovering that Dracula's throne had been usurped by his son Xarus. He lead an army of slayers to Xarus' base of operations and blew it up during the day time, expecting the vampires would turn to dust. However, to his surprise, the vampires walked out of the base into broad daylight, undaunted. His team was massacred but Blade obtained a vital bit of information, that Xarus would be launching an attack on Utopia, home of the X-Men.
Blade escaped Xarus and traveled to San Francisco where he met up with Colossus and Wolverine to help them catch a vampire. He delivered the fact that Xarus was now in power and helped the X-Men battle back the invasion. To his dismay, Cyclops resurrected Dracula in the hopes that the former Lord of Vampires would aid their defense. Dracula did indeed kill his upstart son and agreed not to press the vampiric invasion on Utopia.
This was not good enough for Blade though, he attacked Dracula. Before Blade could land a sword on the Drac, he was blasted out of the air by none other than Cyclops who didn't want to reignite tensions with the vampires. Blade returned to Utopia in order to try and get Wolverine to stake Jubilee, who had been turned in the invasion, yet when Wolverine contested him, Blade stormed off the island, saying they would have to listen to him eventually.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
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A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Eric Cross Brooks
Publisher: Marvel
First appearance: The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973)
Created by: Marv Wolfman (writer)
Gene Colan (artist)
