Its been years since we have Blade on the big screen, its time to spark interest again on the character. But first let us refresh our memories on who Blade is.
Who is Blade?
Blade is Eric Brooks, his mother was bitten by a vampire while she was in labor with him. Gifted or cursed with special abilities, he used this abilities to become a Vampire Hunter. Later he became a Daywalker, a creature with all of the vampire's strengths but none of their weaknesses.
Blade (Eric Brooks) is a superhero vampire hunter created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan, his first appearance was in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973).
What are his powers and abilities?
Note: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux.
Blade was born with an immunity to the effects of vampire bites.
Has the ability to "smell" supernatural creatures.
A greatly prolonged lifespan.
After being bitten by Michael Morbius, The Living Vampire, Blade gained various superhuman physical capabilities similar to those of vampires.
Superhumanly Acute Senses: Blade's sense of sight and hearing are heightend to levels comparable to those possessed by true vampires. He is capable of seeing objects with perfect clarity at much greater distances than an ordinary human. He retains this same level of clarity even in near-total darkness. Blade's hearing is similarly enhanced, allowing him to detect sounds that an ordinary human can't and to be able to hear sounds an ordinary human can, but at greater distances.
Superhuman Strength: Blade is supernaturally strong and is capable of lifting about 1 ton.
Superhuman Speed: Blade is capable of running and moving at speeds greater than even the finest human athlete.
Superhuman Agility: Blade's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
Superhuman Stamina: Blade's musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. He can exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair him.
Regenerative Healing Factor: Blade possesses an accelerated healing ability that allows him to heal mild to moderate injuries with much greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Blade is capable of healing from severe slashes and puncture wounds within a matter of hours.
Immunity To Vampire Vulnerabilities
Abilities
Blade is a master martial artist proficient in practically every form of weaponry known to man. His particular specialty is the use of edged weapons, be they teakwood daggers or swords. Blade is a master in the use of small bladed weapons and can hurl knives with great accuracy. Blade also shows great skill with firearms, including both automatic and semi-automatic, which he often modifies to fire hollow-point, garlic-filled silver bullets. He is also a skilled jazz trumpeter.
What are the changes he underwent?
1. First Appearance
Blade was introduced in Marvel Comics' The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973). He was designed to be very heroic looking. with bandoleer of blades, leather jacket and so on". His features were based on "a composite of black actors" including NFL football star-turned-actor Jim Brown.
2. Midnight Son
Blade is unrelentless in hunting Vampires until the 90s, until he banded with like minded inviduals who are dedicated in preserving the boundaries between our world and the dark realms, The Midnight Sons.
3. Nightstalker
Blade and few other "special" individuals formed Borderline Investigations Inc. an investigative agency that battle supernatural beings, But they briefly disbanded. When they reassembled again they rename their group, Nightstalkers. Nightstalkers started operating November of 1992.
4. Switchblade
It is in the 10th issue of Nightstalker that we Blade transformed into Switchblade. It started with Blade's strong hate for the occult. He would find a page in the dreaded Darkhold that will eliminate all things occult. As soon as Blade got the page, he turned into Switchblade. He began killing off indescriminately, including his teammates. Later on another page on the Darkhold undone the changes in Blade as well as the things he has done.
5. Daywalker
With the popularity of the Snipes's Blade Movie. They need to change the comic book character to resemble the powers he had on the movie. Enter Morbius, the Living Vampire, He bit Blade and transformed him to what he is in the movie a "Daywalker" -all the Vampire strengths and none of their weaknesses. Though Blade would deny that the changes in him came from that bite. This event happened in the pages of Peter Parker: Spiderman #8 (August 1999).
6. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Blade also had a run-in with SHIELD's covert branch called Silvereye, who were retrieving his blood to create vampire operative. With the help of other vampire hunters, they were able to stop them.
7. Modern
Blade is now running all over Marvel Universe Officially joins S.H.I.E.L.D., became a member of Captain Britain's MI:13 and has been helping out the X-Men when they had some vampire infestation among their ranks. Blade now pretty much looks like his character in the movie.
Blade in Live Media
1. Wesley Snipes
In 1998, the New Line Cinema film Blade starred Wesley Snipes in the title role. The film diverges almost entirely from prior comic representations of Blade, completely revamping the character's demeanor, powers and weaknesses. Traditionally, Blade was often presented as loquacious and boastful, yet in the film he is stoic and nearly silent. Rather than a normal human with immunity to vampirism and vampire hypnosis solely reliant on skill and ruthlessness, he is a superhuman with vampiric powers but none of the inherent weaknesses, with the exception of their thirst. The movie Blade is portrayed as an African American born in Detroit, Michigan, whereas the comic-books placed his birth in England.
In 2002 a sequel was made entitled Blade II. The story has Blade joining forces with vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos to defeat a powerful new breed of vampire called Reapers, revealed over the course of the film to have been the result of Damaskinos attempting to create his own 'Daywalkers'.
The 2004 film Blade: Trinity, introduced heavily modified versions of the Nightstalkers. Blade reluctantly joined forces with this group of vampire hunters, to destroy the first vampire, Dracula, who goes by the name "Drake", simultaneously using him to disperse a vampire "cure" that apparently destroys every vampire in the local area
2. Kirk Jones
A live-action television series based on the films aired on Spike TV and starred rapper/actor Kirk Jones as Blade. The series dealt with Blade fighting an evil vampire named Marcus Van Sciver in Detroit. As seen in the movies, Blade's birth name is Eric Brooks and his mother was named Vanessa. It is revealed that Blade's father is named Robert Brooks, and that he raised Blade until he was twelve and elements of his vampiric nature such as his "thirst" for human blood became more apparent.
sources : http://www.comicvine.com/blade/29-7570/ : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_(comics) : http://marvel.wikia.com/Eric_Brooks_(Earth-616) : http://comicbooks.about.com/od/blade/p/bladebio.htm : http://comicbookrealm.com/report/character/1685/switchblade-eric-brooks
This is the 12th article in my Know Your CBM Character series. Any requests and suggestions for an article for this series write it down in the comment section BELOW.
This article is requested by:
ThePublicMessages
Good Can you do Luke Cage, Superman and Blade?
[I'll do an article on Luke Cage, when we start seeing some development on that movie, I already have an article on Superman: [Superman feature]]
Note: Any error in the article above, if any, just blame it on my age, humanity and ignorance. Just be sure to check the comment section for the corrections, any error I made will surely be pointed out and corrected by much bigger geeks (because there will always be a bigger geek out there). -This has been PollMaster inviting you to the geekside.
