Comic Book Black History Month, Day One: Blade

Man, remember when this was also suppose to be a blog where I also focus on comics I like, heh heh? Been far too long...

http://www.theouthousers.com/content/view/6388/203/

Blade

One of the most popular comic book characters in the mainstream due to the portrayal of the titular character by Wesley Snipes in Blade, Blade 2, and Blade Trinity and then reprised in the Blade television show by rapper/actor Kirk “Sticky Fingaz“ Jones. Blade is a man on a mission, set on ridding the world of the undead, of vampires. One thing though: he’s half vampire himself. Born Eric Brooks, on the night of his birth, vampire Deacon Frost disguised himself as a doctor only to feed on his mother, Tara. When Tara died from the attack, Deacon’s vampire abilities passed onto Blade, giving him the strength and superhuman abilities of his sworn enemies. Yet at the same time in a strange event, the newborn Blade was sparred of the weaknesses attributed to vampires including garlic, sunlight, crosses… all leading to the nick name: Day-Walker. As a child he was trained by Jamal Afari, a trumpet player also with a vendetta against the undead. Blade quickly gained the skills to successfully become a vampire slayer, with skills surpassing Olympic level athletes and excellent hand-to-hand combat combined with an amazing talent of weaponry ranging from wooden knives to swords to guns.



Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, the character made his debut in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as an enemy of “protagonist” Dracula. Blade was a hardcore, nails to the wall bad-ass, letting nothing get in his way while he took down vampire after vampire. Over the years, the character has had multiple short-lived series where he continued his blood lust hate for vampires and demons of various kinds, fighting his “creator” Deacon Frost, Morbius the Living Vampire, and of course Dracula. He has teamed up, on many occasions, with the likes of Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Brother Voodoo, Hannibal King, and Spider-Man. He even formed an alliance with supernatural heroes, dubbing themselves the Darkstalkers, in hopes of protecting the innocents from evil.



Recently, Blade was seen leading a black ops-team named Vanguard, with Black Widow, Dominic Fortune, and Micromax. Shortly after, he joined with Captain Britain and his mean of MI:13 members where he helped fight Plokta and his army of Mindless Ones and once again his long standing opponent Dracula. While with the MI:13, Blade’s blood lust of vanquishing vampires led him to staking team member Spitfire who was secretly a vampire. After being saved, Spitfire has had numerous fights Blade which surprisingly led a romance and connection between the two which quickly blossomed. They have been together ever since.

Blade adventures can be found in:

Blade: Black and White
Tomb of Dracula Essentials Vol. 1, 2, and 3
Blade: Undead Again
Blade: Sins of the Father
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Hell Comes to Burmingham
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Vampire State
Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington starring Wesley Snipes
Blade 2, directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Wesley Snipes
Blade: The Series starring Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones

Christopher Priest's Black Panther Run Petition

I'm attempting to start an online petition for Marvel to collect and trade the rest of Christopher Priest's 62 issue run of Black Panther. Thus far, only 12 issues have been collected and that was years ago. I know there are some Priest fans here. Help, signatures, and supports would be greatly appreciated.

http://petitionspot.com/petitions/PriestBlackPanther

Oh, The Horror! #20: Blade

One of my all time favorite comic book characters, the bad-ass Blade. If I was given the chance to write any book for Marvel, it'd most likely be Blade. There's just something about him. A bad-ass half-vampire who can dish out some sick martial arts moves to take out those creepy crawlies that stalk in the shadows. His head is focused on one thing: killing the vamps. And on top of that, he has their thirsts. He can easily slip and become one of them, but with enough self-control and a focused hatred against that kind, he instead works to protect the world from them. And the guy's a riot also. "Motherf'ker, are you outta your damn mind?!" Ha! I still crack up every time I hear that line delivered by Wesley Snipes when he's shot at by cops in a hospital.

In my last entry, I wrote a review about "The Unborn." The writer/director of that movie is the writer of the Blade movies. And like I mentioned in that previous entry, when other directors seem to have his script, they do a wonderful job in crafting it into the big screen. Directed by Stephen Norrington, we are transferred into a dark world where vampires exist, living in the underworld in their own sacred hierarchy where they have connections everywhere that include nightclubs, politics, and the police. Then enters Blade. A hard-hitting half-man/half vampire who hunts the vampires along with his mentor and closes thing to a father-figure, Whistler, played by Kris Kristofferson. We are also introduced to Karen Jensen, a hematologist who gets bitten by a vampired named Quinn who was burned earlier by Blade. Karen, played bad-assly by sexy N'Bushe Wright, is our every-woman who brings us into this crazy world that is just below the surface if we just open up our minds. Karen gets directly involved in the essential plot as she begins to help Blade with a strong serum to suppress his thirst for blood and she also creates nice batches of serums that explodes suck-heads and even cures herself from vamperism. Sheesh. And she was a tough lil' cookie who was able to stand with Blade in battle and interrogations.

So yes, we got the heroes down and a brief mention of Quinn, the main villain's second in command. We are also introduced to Deacon Frost, played by Stephen Dorff, who sees humans as simply cattle, food to vampires. He speaks against the elder vampires who plan out all the rules and who disregard him for what they see as "stupidity" as Frost presents his ideas to bring forth La Magra, an ancient vampire god. With the rise of the vampire god, vampires will be back on top and the humans will all be food. But there's one problem. Blade. Yep, Blade is the Boogeyman! And he's coming to get you! Heh, sorry, got over excited there. But yes, the rivalry between Deacon and Blade is actually a lot of fun to watch. Everyone in this movie is a lot of fun to watch. While you're awed due to the fights and effects, you're laughing and smiling due to how much the characters stand out. It generally is a fun action film to watch and you don't need to be dumb to enjoy it. Snipes is Blade in this movie and I don't think Blade wouldn't have been as much of a success without Snipes there playing him, producing the film, and choreography of the fights. Also, this was the film that got Marvel to notice that they could make more movies like this hence us soon getting X-Men and Spider-Man after wards. This movie also appeals to many. If you like a good solid plot, you can get into this. If you like horror, you can get into it. Heck, martial arts, all out action, bullet time, whatever it is. Just go and pick this movie up and see why I love this character so much. You most likely will not regret it. And c'mon. Who doesn't love that blood bath scene at the beginning?

My Riot

Marvel has a fun little section of their site where you can create your own superhero. Here's my character. This is the closest depiction I can make with what they gave me, but it still came out rather cool.


And I edited it a little bit through Paint. Someone told me they prefer the image above, but I prefer this one. Plus, the mask is a little to more of what I have in mind for the character anyway...


Here's the link to create your own. Would love to see what you guys come up with. (*When you're done creating your character, press "Print Screen" on your keyboard to copy and paste your character and have it on your computer.)

http://www.marvel.com/create_your_own_superhero