Blade is a 2023 comic book series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Bryan Hill, with art by Elena Casagrande and color art by Jordie Bellaire.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, the series stars the titular vampire hunter Blade. Blade is a daywalker, with some of the powers of a vampire but few of the weaknesses. He's been fighting vampires and other occult horrors for decades, but now finds himself at war with an ancient, newly revived evil.
An Infinity Comics webcomic, Blade First Bite acts as a prologue to the series, recapping Blade's past and explaining the status quo changes since 2022's Blade: Vampire Nation one-shot.
The first issue was released July 19, 2023.
Blade (2023) provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The Adana is a Primordial Eldritch God of Evil who seeks to Restart the World so that all of the Things That Go "Bump" in the Night are free to run rampant as they see fit without "The Light" standing in their way. But because she likes Blade, seeing him as another monster she is here to liberate by virtue of being a Dhampyr, she decides to keep Blade alive just so he can witness what she is about to do and even welcomes him to try and stop her.
- All There in the Manual: The webcomic prologue explains why Blade is no longer the sheriff of the vampire nation of Chernobyl. The first issue of the series itself doesn't try to explain the change in his status quo. However, the second issue does make a Call-Back to both Chernobyl and the events of Bloodline: Daughter of Blade.
- Badass and Child Duo: Blade and Rotha are a Downplayed example of this trope by virtue of the latter being a young teenage girl who is also the farthest thing from helpless.
- Bad Boss: The Adana sets a worshipper who had annoyed her on fire, and curses the flames so that they will keep burning the man until "I decide your screams have satisfied me."
- The Bad Guy Wins: The first arc, Mother of Evil, ends with The Adana's unambiguous victory as she succeeds in awakening Humanity's latent connection to the occult to transform millions of people across the world into Humanoid Abominations on top of creating her own Hell from scratch. The Adana also binds a demon to Tulip's soul to cause the woman perpetual agony just to spite Blade.
- Bifauxnen: Satana is depicted with a far more androgynous design here than in any of her previous appearances, especially in Issue #9.
- Bittersweet Ending: Against all conceivable odds, Blade and his allies successfully slay the Adana, which allows Draven's spirit to finally be able to move onto the afterlife in peace now that his Unfinished Business has been resolved, but not before hugging his daughter Rotha one last time before he goes. But defeating the Mother of Evil has done absolutely nothing to stop the chaos she has already unleashed, as her countless creations still run rampant across the entire world. Blade himself has also permanently tainted his very being as a culmination of all the lines he has crossed just to bring the Adana down, essentially giving her exactly what she wanted from the start. Blade laments that he will spend the rest of his days fighting to undo the damage that the Adana has done to the world and himself, and genuinely welcomes Tulip to help him. But for now, the Daywalker is content to simply sit down and take a much needed break.
- Body Horror: The Adana's physical appearance after casting aside her disguise as Dana Smith is that of a woman that's been flayed alive from head to toe while shrouded in living shadows.
- Content Warnings: There's a discreet "Parental Advisory" warning on the covers. The series still censors nudity and uses Symbol Swearing, but it targets an older audience compared to most Marvel Universe comics, and there's plenty of bloody violence and gore.
- Darkest Hour: Issue #5 concludes with a dire state of affairs. The Adana's plan has come to fruition with countless people being turned into horrors in the blink of an eye while she ascends as a brand new Lord of Hell, Tulip is incapacitated by a Demonic Possession not even Doctor Strange can save her from, and Blade has passed the Despair Event Horizon over his failure to stop this all from happening, resulting in the Daywalker deciding to swallow his pride and turn to Count Dracula himself for help to become a stronger vampire.
- Decoy Damsel: Tanaka tells Blade that Dana Smith is being hunted by something horrible, and that Blade needs to save her. The point is reinforced by Dana's murdered boyfriend, who rises again as undead. Except that the First-Episode Twist is that she's actually the ancient monster The Adana, and the warrior pursuing her is the only person who might be able to kill her... until Blade saves her by killing him.
- Defector from Decadence: Rotha, a young female member of The Order who opposed The Adana, decides to defect and free Blade from her Order's dungeons so he can help her save the world from The Adana's apocalyptic machinations. When her former colleagues return to try and assassinate Rotha for her betrayal, she has no qualms about Blade and Tulip killing them all in her defense.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Brutally subverted in Issue #5, where The Adana effortlessly defeats Blade and his entire party in a off-screen Curb-Stomp Battle before taking Lightbringer for herself to enact her plan. When Blade convinces Doctor Strange to teleport him directly to The Adana's personal plane of Hell for a vengeance-fueled rematch, The Adana just hands Blade back Lightbringer to give herself a handicap then proceeds to telekinetically pin him against a pillar with a flick of her finger before Blade could even get near her throne.The Adana: Are we supposed to fight again? You, full of vengeance. I say mellifluous things. And you somehow surprise me into oblivion? Spare me the monotony. Conflict is pointless. Day fades into night. And night is here.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: When Blade assumes that Dracula would not really care if the The Adana brought about Hell on Earth, Dracula scoffs, replying, "I love this world more than you know."
- Easily Forgiven: Draven is not that upset over Blade killing him, even forgiving him for it, but he is annoyed over how poorly Blade has been dealing with The Adana.
- Evil Weapon:
- Tulip specializes in selling these on the black market to the highest bidder, which is why Blade seeks her out in Issue #2 in the hope that she can provide him with a new weapon capable of killing The Adana.
- Lightbringer is the infamous Flaming Sword of Lucifer himself that both Tulip and Doctor Strange identify as the only weapon on Earth that has the best chance of slaying The Adana now. But whoever wields the sword is immediately overcome by the corruptible Pride of its original owner, which makes Strange concerned for Blade when the latter is visibly struggling to fight back against Lightbringer's influence while simply holding it.
- The Grim Reaper: Abrath the Collector, the demon who Blade encounters in Hell in Issue #8, looks like a stereotypical depiction of the Grim Reaper, right down having a Sinister Scythe, though his job seemed to just consist of sticking damned souls into the walls of the Circle of Desolation.
- Hellish Copter: When a helicopter gunship shows up right outside of Tulip's penthouse window to mow her down, Blade picks up a demonic-powered assault rifle from Tulip's armory, boards the gunship, and effortlessly blows away every merc on board before jumping right back out while it crashes.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Adana looks like a skinless woman with Black Eyes of Evil.
- Internalized Categorism: Deconstructed in the webcomic prologue that takes place prior to this series. Blade confesses to his personal confidant Yumi that by virtue of being a half-vampire, he despises his own existence with the heavy implication that he feels like he deserves to die alone, which is why Eric inevitably left groups like the Midnight Sons in spite of seeing them as his Family of Choice.
- It Amused Me: The only reason why Satana is helping Blade. She has zero faith in Blade being able to beat The Adana, but is going along with his requests for aid anyway because she is interested in seeing how things will play out, with her blasé attitude clearly irking Doctor Strange.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Satana offers to help Blade, but only if he will Kneel Before Zod. When Blade just glares, Satana quips, "Kidding."
- Losing Your Head: Blade immediately decapitates The Adana when she reveals herself. She's not too concerned about it, continuing their conversation while holding her own head.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In the first issue, Blade warned Tanaka not to screw him over, which Tanaka did by selling Blade out to The Adana. Eight issues later, Blade finally gets back at Tanaka, decapitating him after Tanaka was mind raped into insanity by Draven.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the first issue, Blade falls for The Adana's Decoy Damsel ploy, kills the warrior hunting her, and leaves her in possession of the only weapon that can kill her. Even Doctor Strange can't help but vent about how hard Blade dropped the ball here since his fuck-up resulted in the deaths of several of Strange's trusted subordinates while putting the entire world as they know it at risk.
- Not Afraid to Die: Before the titular hero marches off to his Final Battle against Adana, Satana warns Eric that Adana did not come to the mortal realm intending to "remain" simply because the concept of self-preservation doesn't mean anything to a primordial entity like her. Especially since Adana already completed every objective she wanted to accomplish since Draven's death.
- Parental Substitute: According to Doctor Strange, Rotha has grown to admire Blade in a "misguided, near-parental" way while working together to stop The Adana from ending the world. An observation that Rotha herself doesn't deny.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The Adana makes Hamilton Achilles kill himself after he makes it clear that he will not give in to her demand that Blade be allowed to get the Lightbringer.
- Sex with the Ex: Tulip is a clairvoyant Japanese Arms Dealer who had a relationship with Blade that ended in a messy breakup prior to the events of this comic. While she claims to still hate Blade and takes plenty of satisfaction in roasting him over his screw-ups, Tulip isn't above having Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex with Eric immediately after he had saved her life from a pissed-off client.
- Spell My Name with a "The": It's not just Adana, it's The Adana.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Downplayed. While Blade and Rotha do agree to work together in order to defeat The Adana, Blade still sees Rotha as a potential liability regardless of her extensive warrior training since she lacks the first-hand experience fighting against the Things That Go "Bump" in the Night, making the start of their partnership tense before Rotha proves to him that she can do more than hold her own in the field.
- This Means War!: Blade needs The Adana to come after him directly, and he decides that the best way to do that is to goad her through her followers by burning down the Archives of the Second World. According to Satana, no one actually bothered reading any of the Tomes of Eldritch Lore that were kept there anymore, but damaging (let alone destroying) the books is an act that is considered to be so unforgivable that every monster in the "Second World" is willing to put aside their differences in shared hatred of the perpetrator, something which Blade was counting on, as a legion of angry monsters petition The Adana to do something about Blade, and she decides to indulge them even though she personally does not care about the Archives.
- Time to Unlock More True Potential: In Issue #6, Blade begins training under Count Dracula after his failure to stop The Adana from plunging the world into a new era of supernatural horror. After a few sparing sessions, Dracula deftly summarizes that the reason Blade failed is because he intentionally limits himself out of hatred for his own vampiric heritage, and that he'll need to start embracing that side of himself if he wants a real fighting chance against the God of Evil. This culminates in Dracula convincing Blade to drink his blood, permanently evolving the latter into a Strigoi of the same power level as Dracula himself with all of the infamous abilities that come with it...at the cost of Blade forsaking his humanity.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Pre-release publicity for the series revealed that Blade would be facing a new antagonist, The Adana, an ancient supernatural horror. The First-Episode Twist that "Dana Smith" is The Adana using a Decoy Damsel plot isn't much of a twist if you've seen publicity for the arc.
- Train Job: In order to slay The Adana, Blade and his allies first need to steal Lucifer's Lightbringer. The catch? The infamous sword is currently locked inside of an Adamantium high-speed train that serves as the mobile fortress of a notorious vampire Arms Dealer named Hamilton Achilles. But since this is Blade we're talking about here, the Daywalker is more than eager to take on the heist.Blade: Fellas. All I want to do is kill your boss and take his stuff. You boys have a problem with that?[Cue every single vampire on board the train baring their fangs in unison]Blade: [Now sporting a Grin of Audacity] Good.
- You Owe Me: Tanaka, a Japanese Werewolf, recruits Blade's help in protecting Dana by cashing in a favor the Daywalker owed him after an incident that took place in Shibuya.
