Blade is one of, if not the greatest, vampire hunter in the marvel universe. His true name is Eric Brooks and he was born under dark circumstances to say the least: his mother was fed upon and killed by a vampire (Deacon Frost) as he was born. This made him a Dhampir AKA half man half vampire. Later in his life, Blade saved an old vampire slayer’s life, and in return the man taught him how to hunt vampires.
Since then Blade has hunted and killed some of the most powerful vampires from Deacon Frost (mentioned above), Lord Varnae (the first vampire), Reaper (a vampire god), and even Dracula himself (several times).
Blades did a lot of his hunting as his normal Dhampir self, but after a confrontation and bite from Morbius the Living Vampire, he gained superhuman physical abilities comparable to a full-vampire’s and was known as a Daywalker.
Even before his status as a Daywalker, Blade had fought Dracula and Morbius the Living Vampire several times and held his own, which is impressive because Dracula has given the X-Men trouble and Morbius has done the same to Spider-Man. Blade also stalemated the likes of Gambit, and when written as a less amped, less human version of himself, he managed to stalemate Wolverine.
As a Daywalker he’s been shown easily dispatching of Dracula and killing vampires that gave Spider-Man trouble. He’s also subdued a Vampire Spider-Man with ease and has done well against Thing from the Fantastic Four.
Blade, as a Daywalker has superhuman speed that can keep up with the likes of Spider-Man and Dracula, superhuman strength that allows him to lift nearly 10 tons or so, and a regenerative healing factor that allows him to heal missing limbs and nearly fatal damage. Not to mention, the healing factor has allowed him to, survive giant explosions that have destroyed buildings, survive being impaled by Dracula, and survive falling from nearly the top floor of a building and onto his back.
Blade’s arsenal of weapons include wooden stakes, silver stakes sharpened to the nanopoint (read: impossibly sharp), silver shurikens, silver boomerangs, smokebombs, various guns with special ammunition (mini-stakes filled with holy water), various guns with normal ammo, flamethrowers, his two Adamantium blades that were etched in acid (can cut through nearly everything), and various weapons that are useful against magical beings (such as swords made of special magic sealing paper).
Blade combines these weapons with his great marksmanship and sword skills to easily take out vampires and anyone else who tries to get in is way.
Throughout his run Blade has worked with the likes of Dr. Strange, Spectrum (former Avenger), Spider-Man, Blue Marvel (New Avenger), Luke Cage (Hero for Hire), and S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. He has helped take on non-vampire related evils such as Thanos’s invasion of Earth, but mostly he remains in the supernatural world, monitoring the forces of darkness.
He has become so renowned amongst vampires, that they now whisper his name in fear as if he were a myth, akin to Dracula himself. He is essentially the vampire boogeyman and a legend in the world of vampire hunting.
Copyright © WarWithWords 2014
