Blade the Vampire Hunter

Marvel Comics introduced Blade in The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973). He was born Eric Brooks to prostitute Tara Brooks at Madame Vanity’s Brothel in the Soho neighborhood of London, England. While in labor with Eric, she suffered terrible complications and a doctor was called. Unfortunately, the doctor was Deacon Frost, a vampire, who drank her blood during Eric’s birth. Certain enzymes from the vampire were passed on to the infant boy in his blood giving him some vampire abilities, including a longer lifespan, ability to sense supernatural creatures, and immunity to complete vampirism.

Eric grew up at Madame Vanity’s and when he was nine years-old he found an old man being attacked by three vampires. He helped the old man and watched while he used a silver cane to kill the vampires. The man, Jamal Afari, was a vampire hunter who moved in to Madame Vanity’s to train Eric in combat. Eric soon learned how to kill weaker and younger vampires and with practice he became an expert in hand to hand combat, as well as using edged weapons such as knives and daggers, earning him the nickname Blade.

His prowess made him cocky and he took on Lamia, the head vampire of the gang Bloodshadows. He was able to defeat Lamia but lost his girlfriend Glory in the process. This tragedy left him more determined than ever to dedicate his life to kill vampires.

In Blade’s first fight with Dracula, Afari was turned into a vampire by the king of vampires. Blade killed his mentor to put him out of his misery, then followed Dracula through Europe and Asia staking him many ties but never able to kill him. While in China he joined Ogun Strong’s vampire hunters and were able to stake Dracula again, yet he still survived. One of Ogun Strong’s members left a lasting impression on Blade by using wooden daggers to fight vampires. Blade adopted the daggers as his weapon of choice.