Hero Profile: Blade

Another important creature associated with Halloween is the Vampire. And I’m not talking those sparkly little “paranormal romance” characters that seem to constantly want to have relations with their primary food source. I’m talking about the scary, long fanged, blood sucking, human killing, holy artifact avoiding, possibly magic using, soulless, creatures of the night. The monsters as they were envisioned in the minds of superstitious folks. The things that go BUMP in the night. And when someone like me thinks about Vampires, my mind also inevitably shifts over to the scariest, most awesome, and effective monster slayer around, Blade.

Monster's beware. He's out to get you.

The Daywalker was conceived all the way back in 1920s England. His mother, Tara Brooks, was a “Working Girl” in Soho that was assumedly impregnated by one of her johns. Tara’s developing son probably would have lived out life as a street Urchin had his mother not had severe labor pains. A doctor was called, but he wasn’t your usual MD. This doctor’s name was Deacon Frost, and he was a vampire. Frost, rather than saving the “Flower Girl” and her child, feasted on Tara as she gave birth to her son. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and guess that this might be the most painful birth in the history of mankind. It’s because of Frost feeding on Tara that her son became what he is. As Frost fed, he released special enzymes into Tara, who inadvertently passed said enzymes onto her boy. These enzymes altered the infant Brooks’ physiology, making him a bit more like the monster that feasted on his mother. Whether Frost realized this or not, he tried to off the baby too, but was driven off by Tara’s fellow “Ladies of the Evening.” The Ladies took the baby to Madame Vanity, their “boss.” The boy was named Eric and raised by the... Nightwalkers. Eric’s life was relatively normal until he was nine. While coming home from school in late December he happened across an old man being attacked by Vampires.

The boy helped the old man fight the blood suckers, and said old man finished the creatures off with a silver cane. After the crazy stuff was over, the old man introduced himself as Jamal Afari, a former jazz trumpeter and vampire hunter. After seeing Eric fight, he decided to move into Madame Vanity’s and train him to fight Vampires. And I’m sure that’s the only reason he wanted to live in a…establishment like Madame Vanity’s. Eric excelled at the training. By the time he was in his teens he was an Olympic Level athlete and near expert in hand to hand combat and edged weapons. He was so good with swords, daggers, and knives that he earned his nickname, Blade. Blade and Jamal easily dispatched the younger, weaker vampires that were in abundance in fictional London in the 30s.

Like most young people, the successes went to Blade’s head and he became rather cocky. He infiltrated a street gang called the Bloodshadows, which was run by a much older and powerful vampire named Lamia. The two have a fierce fight, Blade barely surviving the confrontation. He killed Lamia, but she killed Blade’s girlfriend, Glory. This was the first in a long line of personal tragedies for Blade. Shortly after, Jamal was killed and turned into a Vampire by Dracula. Blade swore everlasting vengeance and trailed the Vampire across the world. He was able to stake Dracula on several occasions, but the ancient Vampire was never fully destroyed. He later joined a group of Vampire Hunters, but the entire team save Blade and one other were later killed by Dracula. The surviving member retired, and Blade continued on the hunt alone.

Very little like comic Blade. But a darn good
Blade nonetheless.

He tracked Dracula to Paris, where he met a few more vampire hunters. One was Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker, two of the main characters from the Dracula novel. Another was Rachel van Helsing, Granddaughter of Abraham van Helsing, another character from Dracula. And their protégées Taj Nital and Frank Drake. Blade formed a somewhat strained alliance with these hunters and often helped them whenever they crossed paths. After unsuccessfully killing Dracula for like the 47^th time, Blade turned his attention to a much more personal vendetta, Deacon Frost. While hunting his mother’s killer, he came across a private investigator named Hannibal King, who had been turned into a vampire by Frost. The two had a hate-hate relationship when they first met. After battling an evil doppelganger of Blade, they hunted down Frost. Frost had raised an army of doppelgangers, one for each of the many victims he’s had over the centuries. Blade and King destroyed all of Frost’s doppelgangers and both staked Frost, destroying him. And while his personal vendetta ended with Frost, the hunt is far from over. The Daywalker cannot rest until all vampires are dust.

Eric Brooks’ physiology was fundamentally altered when his mother was bitten while giving birth to him. The enzymes in his system renders him immune to vampiric bites. Basically, he can’t be turned into a vampire. He was bitten by Morbius, a pseudo-vampire created by some genetic tinkering, which gave him most of this really cool powers. Blade developed super strength, speed, agility, heightened senses, and a healing factor after this encounter. He ages incredibly slowly, almost on par with Wolverine, and is immune to traditional vampire weaknesses. He’s an expert swordsman, marksman, and hand-to-hand combatant.

Blade has appeared a handful of time in various Marvel Media. Interestingly, he’s never been depicted as being British. In most series he’s depicted as American, and from Detroit. For some reason. They also play up the negative effects of Blade’s condition, typically a thirst for blood, which from what I’ve read he simply doesn’t have in the comics.

Blade has appeared as a side character in several animated shows, Spider-Man the Animated Series, Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH.

Blade v. Dracula, who's the real Vamp king?

He appeared in a movie trilogy portrayed by actor Wesley Snipes. Interestingly, he bares almost no resemblance to the comic book Blade, other than being a Black man. I can’t even say African American because, again, Blade is British. Where Comic Blade is a tad boastful and arrogant, Movie Blade is stoic and very reserved. Unless he’s killing Vampires, then he goes nuts. He also has a thirsts for blood, which the comic character doesn’t have. The movies introduce the character of Abraham Whistler as his mentor, instead of Jamal Afari. In the first film, Blade is hunting down Deacon Frost, a powerful and psychotic Vampire who plans on becoming a Vampire God. Blade ends him.

The second film has Blade teaming up with a vampire overlord, Eli Damakinos, to destroy a mutual threat, a vampire offshoot called the Reapers. Reapers are super vampires, largely immune to silver and garlic, hearts incased in bone to protect against stakes, and a ravenous hunger. They’re described as being like Crack addicts, needing to feed a dozen time more than a normal vampire. They also feed on human and vampires, which make them Damakinos problem, too. Their main weakness is Sunlight. Blade works with a team of Vampires, and over the course of the film learns that the patient Zero, a Reaper named Jared Nomak is a lot more like him than Blade initially realized. But Blade ends him, too.

The final film, Blade: Trinity, has Blade teaming up with a group called the Nightstakers. The group, run by Whistler’s daughter Abigail, and cured-vampire Hannibal King, are planning to introduce a virus to kill all vampires, and also need to take down the original Vampire, Dracula. Like Blade, Dracula is immune to things like sunlight and silver, and is incredibly powerful. This movie gets props for not connecting their Dracula, who goes by Drake in the modern day, with Vladimir Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler, the guy that everybody else connects Dracula to. Bram Stoker just took the name folks, stop reading into things that aren’t there. I’m getting off topic. Blade and Drake have an ultimate showdown, which includes a pretty awesome sword fighting scene, before Blade ends Dracula too.

I would have considered going to this Twilight.

There was a short lived Blade TV show on Spike. Titled Blade: The Series, we see Blade, this time portrayed by Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones, in Detroit. He’s taking on a local vampire boss named Marcus Van Sciver. It only lasted a season, and to this day I have no idea if it was tied to the films or not.

The movie rights for Blade have reverted back to Marvel, whom do have a script drafted for the series. I’d love to see Blade again, but this time, maybe stick with the comic origins? A Black British superhero. Think about it, it could be awesome.

Blade is a great character. Movie or Comic book, he’s one of the most iconic monster hunters of the modern day. The shades and sword combo make for a very awesome looking character. His personal struggle against the monsters that made him makes for a very interesting character. I know him mostly from the movies and television interpretations, as I’m sure most of you are. But having researched the character a little now, I’m thinking I’m going to have to look into the comic book version a little more. I mean it mixes comics with classical literature, what could possible go wrong? With Marvel regaining the films rights, I do hope to see the Daywalker on either the big or small screen again sometime soon. Again, think about making him British this time Marvel. It’ll make him at least sound different from the rest of the Marvel Movie characters, disbarring Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange, obviously.  He’s the monster mashing, vampire hunting, sword swinging Blade. Next time, Halloween, and the Green Goblin!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_(comics)#/media/File:Blademu0.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_(comics)#/media/File:Blade_movie.jpg

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/blade-vs-van-helsing-660174/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/484699978618744238/