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| "Some motherf@#$ers are always trying to ice skate uphill!" |
Name: Eric Cross Brooks
First Appearance: The Tomb of Dracula #10 (1973)
History: Tara Vanessa Cross-Brooks, who was in labor, sought
shelter at a brothel in London, England. A doctor was called in after she
started experiencing complications, but it turned out that it was a vampire in disguise:
Deacon Frost. Frost drained Tara of her blood before being chased away. Sadly, Tara
did not survive the incident. Her son, Eric Brooks, who was still in the womb
when she was bitten, lived despite odds. Because of the circumstances of his birth,
Eric was born with a natural immunity to vampire bites and an innate and deep
hatred of all vampires. He was raised in the brothel for a few years before he
came under the tutelage of veteran vampire hunter Jamal Afari, who trained him
in his profession. Over the years Eric became an Olympic-level athlete, a top
notch fighter, and a master of weapon combat, though he was especially skilled
with knives and daggers which earned him the nickname “Blade.”
Blade would become one of the most prominent vampire hunters
in the world, with clashes with the legendary vampire Dracula to his name and
teaming up with other famous hunters. However, his life took an unexpected
turn years later when he encountered Morbius, the Living Vampire. Morbius bit
him and, likely due to his significantly different nature compared to other
vampires and possibly because of Blade’s unique physiology, the British hunter had a sort
of mutation that granted him super strength and more obvious vampiric traits
(including fangs and a bloodlust) but an immunity of sunlight and other
weaknesses. With his training, years of experience, and his newfound powers, the
“Daywalker” is the most famous, skilled, and feared vampire slayer in the world.
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| Blade is the only one capable of stopping Morbin Time Well, Blade and Box Office returns... |
Beta Says: Wow, I cannot believe that I’ve been doing Black Superheroes Month since 2011 and it took me all this time to remember to write about Blade, who was the goddamn most famous comic book character in America for a bit. I think it’s two reasons: 1) I feel like I kept pushing Blade back saying “I’ll do him next year” in favor of a character I found more interesting and 2) I sometimes forget Blade exists, as he’s actually not all that popular in the comics. He’s a C-tier character at best and yeah, every few years Marvel will try to give him an ongoing, but they always end up canceled. It’s crazy to think that Blade is kind of ho-hum in terms of comics prevalence, considering he single handedly saved the concept of superhero movies.
More on the weird dichotomy of Blade after the jump.
