Marvel fans were both surprised and delighted when it was announced at this year’s Comic-Con that the imprint’s beloved half-vampire vampire hunter Blade would be joining the MCU. The MCU didn’t seem like the place for a dark, creepy, ultraviolent character like Blade, but fans aren’t complaining about the fact that he’ll be bumping shoulders with the likes of Thor, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther on the big screen – especially since two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, one of the greatest actors working today, has been cast to play him.
Here are 10 Blade storylines we want to see in the MCU.
10. Curse of the Mutants
In this X-Men storyline, also sometimes dubbed “Mutants vs. Vampires,” Blade finally manages to defeat his arch nemesis Dracula for good. However, with Dracula gone, his son Xarus takes over and turns out to be an even more formidable enemy as he rallies together all the vampires and leads them against Earth’s mutant population.
As the vampires try to turn all the mutants into vampires – managing to turn Jubilee and capture Wolverine – Blade teams up with the X-Men to stop the vampires and save the mutants. This would be a two-birds-with-one-stone for the MCU; an X-Men movie and a Blade movie rolled into one.
9. Blade and the Midnight Sons
In “Blade and the Midnight Sons,” Doctor Strange uses his magical powers to create a dark superpowered team called the Midnight Sons, consisting of the Nightstalkers (Blade and his allies), Morbius the Living Vampire (whose rights are unfortunately wrapped up with none other than Sony), the Spirits of Vengeance (including the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider), and the Darkhold Redeemers.
Due to rights issues and the need to tie stories into the wider MCU, these teams might have to be altered, like the sides of Civil War. Adapting this comic book would be a great way to do an on-screen team-up with Doctor Strange and Blade.
8. Tomb of Dracula
The “Tomb of Dracula” series was one of the most significant in Marvel Comics’ history. Until 1971, the Comics Code Authority had controlled what could or could not be depicted in horror comics, and one of the most blatant restrictions was that vampire characters couldn’t appear.
So, as soon as the regulations became more lax, Marvel pounced at the opportunity to make vampire comics with a series about the most famous public-domain vampire of all time: Dracula. In the comic, Dracula took on various Marvel characters, like Spider-Man, Howard the Duck, the X-Men, and most notably, the vampire hunter Blade.
7. Undead Again
In this twelve-issue series, writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Howard Chaykin revisited Blade’s origin story to give a few new details, like his heritage in Latveria (the fictional country in the Marvel universe for which Doctor Doom is an ambassador and therefore has diplomatic immunity) and the truth about his biological father.
There isn’t an awful lot of action in the comic, so it would need to have its action quotient punched up for the big-screen translation, but it does feature Blade fighting Doctor Doom, who’s in dire need of an MCU debut, and also a fight with Spider-Man, who will hopefully return to the MCU at some point.
6. Blade vs. the Avengers
In this Ultimate Avengers storyline, a number of the Avengers got infected by vampires and turned into bloodsuckers. So, it was up to Blade to hold them off or incapacitate them until they could be cured. Some of them died in the comic, but this wouldn’t be a fitting way for any MCU characters to go for good.
Still, it would be exciting to see characters like the Hulk and Black Panther as vampires. A lot of plot points and aesthetic stylings from the Ultimate Marvel universe have been borrowed by the MCU, so this might not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
5. Spirits of Vengeance: War at the Gates of Hell
In “Spirits of Vengeance: War at the Gates of Hell,” Heaven and Hell call off their war for one day a year as the ambassadors for each realm meet for a discussion. When an angel is discovered murdered with a silver bullet during the ceasefire, Ghost Rider teams up with Blade to investigate.
They’re also joined by Hellstorm and Satana. Ghost Rider, Hellstorm, and Satana all have streaming series on the way to Hulu, which won’t technically be set in the MCU, but thanks to the multiverse, could lead them to a big-screen appearance alongside Blade (some fans have already theorized that the multiverse is how Blade will be introduced).
4. Undead by Daylight
Following up Blade’s arch-rivalry with Dracula from the “Tomb of Dracula” comics, everyone’s favorite vampire hunter teams up with a pair of fellow vampire hunters – both based on other characters from Bram Stoker’s gothic classic – to take on the infamous Count. These two other vampire killers are Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan Harker, and Rachel Van Helsing, the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing.
Mini Avengers-style team-ups with teams of three or four characters like Thor: Ragnarok and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are a lot of fun in the MCU. This would be a great horror-themed version of that.
3. Sins of the Father
MCU movies love plot twists where allies of the protagonist turn out to be villains – Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 etc. – so “Sins of the Father” would be a great Blade storyline for the franchise to tackle. It sees a vampire enlisting the help of Blade to kill her father as revenge for turning her into a vampire in the first place.
Since Blade hates vampires, he reluctantly agrees. However, it all turns out to be a ruse, as the vampire and her romantic interest just want to destroy Blade.
2. Nightstalkers
In this storyline, Blade ends up getting possessed by a curse taken from a page torn out of the demonic book known as the Darkhold. Some MCU fans have been expecting the Darkhold to show up in either WandaVision or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to prevent Chthon from escaping the void between realities that he occupies.
So, if the Darkhold is going to be the MacGuffin in this scary chapter of the MCU following the Infinity Stones in the Infinity Saga (heck, this next one might be “the Darkhold Saga”), then the “Nightstalkers” storyline could be in order.
1. Crescent City Blues
The “Crescent City Blues” storyline sees Deacon Frost take over the criminal underworld of New Orleans, which would make a fresh and interesting setting, especially in the MCU, which usually stays on the East and West Coasts and rarely takes a trip down south. Dracula is easily one of Blade’s most iconic villains, and in this storyline, he becomes even more powerful in his reign as Lord of Vampires when he captures both Blade and his sidekick Hannibal King.
This is an all-action comic book that is often recommended to first-time Blade readers looking to get into the character, so it would make the perfect starting point for his rebooted movie series.
