Thanks to his appearances in Al Ewing’s ‘Mighty Avengers’ and Wesley Snipes’ recent talks with Marvel Studios regarding the character, Blade has been on the minds of some True Believers as of late. Over the years, the Daywalker has taken down a number of threats, supernatural or otherwise, throughout the Marvel Universe. But thanks to the upcoming All-New All-Different Marvel initiative coming to the House of Ideas this fall, he won’t be doing it alone for much longer.
According to Comic Book Resources, the legendary vampire hunter returns to the pages of Marvel Comics this October with ‘Blade’ from writer Tim Seeley and artist Logan Faerber. The new series will find him teaming up with his “seemingly normal” teenage daughter Fallon Grey.
Described as the anti-Peter Parker because Blade’s daughter is “popular, well-liked, and everyone around her thinks she has the future by the balls,” Fallon is about to add vampire slayer to that list once she’s reunited with her long lost superhero father, who is now stepping away from his 90s image that he’s come to be associated with. The writer shares that in addition to changing up Blade’s look, they are going for a modern update of the 70s Marvel Monster magazines sleazy/sinister/sexy feel in this book and will freshen up the character by avoiding vampires altogether:
“Blade to me has always been a guy with a single minded goal. Kill vampires. That’s it. He wants revenge, and lots of it. But, after 50 or so years of revenge, he’s starting to lose his edge. He’s starting to forget why he hates vampires so much. Why he hates himself so much. And he’s starting to wonder if there’s more to ‘life’ than what’s he’s been doing. So I’m picking up on what I always found frustrating about the character, and using it to go in a new direction. He’s a half-vampire who can ‘walk in the day’, but hasn’t spent much time actually enjoying the sunshine.”
Seeley comes to Marvel from acclaimed runs on DC titles such as ‘Batman Eternal’ and ‘Grayson, but it’s his creator-owned books ‘Revival’ and ‘Hack/Slash’ that really speak to his qualifications for the new ‘Blade’ comic. The writer has twelve years of experience with teenage girls fighting monsters, so he’s used to hearing the comparisons to Joss Whedon’s iconic show ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. But he shares that he has a way to steer clear of any influences from Buffy Summers on his work:
“Well, as much as I had to deal with ‘Buffy’ comparisons on ‘Hack/Slash’, I’ve still managed to avoid watching that show. So, while I think ‘high school girl fights monsters’ will always invite ‘Buffy’ comparisons, I’d like to think my blissful ignorance will at least keep me from hewing too close to Joss Whedon’s work. Though, after seeing ‘Cabin In the Woods’, it became clear to me he and I come from creepily similar influences.”
Finally, since vampires are largely out of the equation, Seeley revealed that “an enclave of monster biologists called Black Genus” would be the big bads of the title that sets out to combine the feel of classic Marvel Horror with a “punk/goth version of Ms. Marvel or Batgirl.” We’ll see how Blade and Fallon match up against these foes come the fall. Until then, share your thoughts and theories about ‘Blade’ in the comments below.