Blade is an 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 Tomb of Dracula #10 (cover dated July 1973) as a supporting character, before going on to star in his own solo storylines. Shortly after his introduction, Blade became one of Marvel's most prominent supernatural heroes, appearing alongside teams including the Nightstalkers, the Midnight Sons, and the Avengers. Blade stories, both solo and as part of ensemble casts, have been published across multiple ongoing series since the character's creation.
Blade is the antihero persona of Eric Cross Brooks, a Black British man born in the Soho neighborhood of London. When his mother was attacked by the vampire Deacon Frost during childbirth, certain vampire enzymes passed to the newborn Eric, making him a dhampir. 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. Devoting his life to ridding the world of all vampires, Blade possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, and stamina, an accelerated healing factor, and immunity to both vampire bites and hypnosis, while remaining unaffected by sunlight, earning him the title "The Daywalker". He is proficient in weaponry ranging from firearms to swords and is a master of martial arts. He is the father of Brielle "Bri" Brooks (Bloodline).
Major Blade storylines include his ongoing feud with Dracula across The Tomb of Dracula, his formation of the supernatural detective agency Borderline Investigations alongside Hannibal King and Frank Drake, and his roles in the company-wide stories "Civil War" (2006–2007), "Heroes Reborn" (2021), and "Blood Hunt" (2024). Blade's chief enemies include Dracula, Deacon Frost, and the ancient vampire lord Varnae.
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 (1998), Blade II (2002), and Blade: Trinity (2004), as well as Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); Sticky Fingaz replaced Snipes for the television series Blade: The Series (2006). Snipes's portrayal helped establish Blade as one of Marvel's most recognizable supernatural heroes and is widely credited with revitalizing the superhero film genre. Mahershala Ali voiced the character in the MCU film Eternals (2021) ahead of a standalone film, before dropping out of the role in 2026, following several years of development issues.
Publication history
1970s
Blade was introduced as a supporting character in the Marvel Comics series 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. He wielded teak-bladed knives. Blade appeared in issues #10–21 and made frequent appearances until #61 in 1977.
Wolfman spoke on the character's inception during an interview:
Wolfman recalled in 2009,
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).
1990s
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 for the last two issues, pencilled by Bart Sears.
2000s and 2010s 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 # (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 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".
Fictional character biography
Early life and career
Eric Cross Brooks was born in a brothel in the Soho neighborhood of London, England,Marvel Preview #3 on October 24, 1929.Blade (2002) #3 His mother was Tara Vanessa Cross-Brooks, an heiress given shelter by Madame Vanity, an agent of the Order of Tyrana.Blade vol. 4 #1—12 (September 2006—August 2007) When Tara experienced severe labor complications, Vanity sent for a doctor. The man who arrived turned out to be the vampire Deacon Frost, who seized the opportunity to feast on Tara, killing her. However, this inadvertently passed along certain vampire enzymes to her baby son as he was born; he became half-vampire and could not be turned by a vampire's bite. Blade has also speculated that it gave him a hatred of vampires, though this may simply be hyperbole on his part. The brothel's sex workers drove off Frost once they realized what he had done.
Due to his father, Lucas Cross, being falsely imprisoned in his native Latveria, Eric was raised in the brothel, believing his mother to have worked there, and at age nine, returning home from school one day, he saw an old man being attacked by three vampires. Eric helped the man, Jamal Afari, distract his attackers so that he could kill them with a silver sword. Afari, posing as a jazz musician, soon became a father figure to Eric, teaching him music and training him in the ways of fighting vampires. Eric was soon able to defeat many of the weak, younger vampires that he and Afari found in abundance. Over time, the young man became an Olympic-level athlete and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant; his skill with knives and daggers was such that it earned him the nickname "Blade" among both his fellow hunters and the vampires they opposed, who began to fear him. After the deaths of Hannibal King and Frank Drake, he once used the alias "Frank Blade" with his landlady, which he claimed was short for "Hannibal Francis Blade". In Earth-1610, Blade also received additional training from the legendary Stick.
Blade's easy victories made him cocky. He joined a gang of young hunters, the Bloodshadows,Bloodshadows at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe headed by Cyrus Cutter, later killed by Blade in a knife fight caused by Blade's disapproval of Cutter's actions as leader. Glory Anah, Cutter's girlfriend, became Blade's first lover. Having gone to London, where for months the group hunted vampires, demons, and warlocks under Blade's leadership, the group encountered a much older and more powerful vampire than any Blade had met before, named Lamia. Blade staked Lamia, but the other Bloodshadows were slain, and Glory was bitten, making her a vampire. Although Glory subsequently refused to kill Blade, she warned him never to look for her or she would kill him. The tragedy of the experience changed Blade considerably, as he became much more focused and determined in his hunting. Afari himself later fell prey to Dracula, the first occurrence in an ongoing feud between the vampire lord and Blade.The Tomb of Dracula #30 Blade mercy-killed his mentor after Afari rose as a vampire, and tracked Dracula back to Europe, Asia, and Asia Minor, staking him many times, but never destroying him.The Tomb of Dracula #10 While in China, Blade joined Ogun Strong's vampire hunters, which included Azu, Orji, and Musenda. Together, they staked Dracula again. Dracula survived and killed all of the hunters except Blade and Musenda, who eventually retired from vampire hunting. Orji had created a lasting impression on Blade by using wooden daggers to combat vampires, and he quickly adopted them as his preferred arms. Grieving his fallen comrades, Blade resumed his hunt alone.
Quincy Harker's vampire hunters