Monday, July 23, 2007

Witness The "Day-Walker"

Written by Kal-El

Into the mist of darkness, where demons and creatures of the night lays hidden behind the shadows, there awaiting for their feast oh humans, sucking the life out of every human being, and disappears when the coming of dawn. Only one man could stop this evil madness, Half-man, Half-Vampire, they call him the Day-Walker,we call him Blade.

The man known as Blade was born into a world of blood and darkness over seven decades ago. His mother, a prostitute, was forced to seek a stranger's assistance when she experienced severe labor complications. The stranger, Deacon Frost, claimed to be a doctor, but he was actually a ravenous vampire. Frost feasted on the woman as she gave birth, passing on a series of enzymes that altered her baby. The enzymes entered the infant's bloodstream, transforming him into a Dhampir - a being tainted by a vampire's kiss, but not converted.

[Blade's Origins taken from the Marvel Comics]

Frost was driven away before he could slay the child, but Blade's mother died. Blade was taken in by Blade's Mothers coworker, They raised him until he was nine years old. Though he lacked superhuman physical prowess, he trained himself to become an Olympic-level athlete and formidable hand-to-hand combatant. Most notably, he became an expert with edged weapons and especially knives and daggers.

One day, Walking home from school, Blade saw an old man being attacked by three bandits. Blade fought off the hoodlums, who turned out to be vampires, and rescued the old man. He learned that the old man was Jamal Afari, a jazz trumpeter and vampire hunter. Afari moved into Madame Vanity's brothel and trained the young Blade in both music and combat. Blade was soon able to defeat many of the weak, younger vampires that he and Afari found in abundance.

However, Blade's victories made him cocky. He soon joined a street gang, the Bloodshadows, which was headed by a much older and more powerful vampire than any Blade had met before: Lamia. Blade barely defeated Lamia, and, in doing so, lost his girlfriend Glory, a loss which caused him not only to accept his destiny as an enemy of the undead but also to swear to it forever.

Afari himself later fell prey to the attack of the vampire Dracula, the first occurrence in an ongoing battle between him and Blade. Blade slew the vampire Afari and followed Dracula back to Europe.

Blade tracked Dracula throughout Europe and Asia Minor, then on into the far east, staking him many times, but never completely destroying him. In China, Blade joined Ogun Strong's vampire hunters which included Azu, Orji and Musenda. Together, they staked Dracula again. Once more, Dracula survived, and taught Blade an object lesson by killing all of his new-found friends except Musenda (who eventually retired from vampire hunting). However, Orji created a lasting impression on Blade with his use of wooden daggers as a means to combat vampires. Sometime after Orji's death, Blade mastered the use of daggers and adopted the use of wooden daggers as his preferred method of combating vampires. Consumed by grief, Blade resumed his quest alone. It was decades before he again allowed himself to endanger another human.

Blade eventually located Dracula in Paris, where he first encountered Quincy Harker (son of Jonathan Harker) and his vampire hunters, unofficially dubbed the "Drac Pack". Blade had heard of Harker before, but had never met him. Because of his mercurial temperament, Blade had a strained but steady relationship with Quincy Harker, Rachel Van Helsing (granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing), Taj Nital, and Frank Drake, vampire hunters dedicated to destroying Dracula. Blade never joined the group, but served as their ally on several occasions.

After an unsuccessful battle with Dracula, Blade realized for the first time that he was immune to turning from a vampire's bite. Armed with this knowledge, he left the group and began a quest to find the vampire that had killed his mother and avenge her.

[ Nothing would stop Blade on finding his mother's killer]

Blade's hunt for his mother's killer next led him to Boston, where he again encountered the Drac Pack and their new ally: Dracula. Blade spurned the alliance and berated Harker for it until he faced Doctor Sun, the common threat that drove these natural enemies together. During the battle with Sun, Blade met up with one of Sun's allies, whose face provoked a strange reaction in him, dredging up long-buried memories. The vampire escaped, and Blade again abandoned the Drac Pack, and set out on his own.

Blade eventually encountered Hannibal King, a private detective who had been turned into a vampire by Deacon Frost fifty years ago; however, to further gain Blade's trust, King lied about his age, saying it was only five. While initially distrusting King, Blade teamed up with him to track down Frost.

Blade and King fought together against Blade's evil doppelgänger (created when Frost killed his mother), who absorbed the real Blade. King enlisted the help of Daimon Hellstrom, the so-called Son of Satan, who exorcised Blade from his doppelgänger and killed it with King's help. Blade and King eventually caught up with Frost who had created an army of vampiric doppelgängers, one for each of his victims. Together, they shut down Frost for good, forging a lasting friendship.

Blade remained active in New Orleans, defeating the vampire Ulysses Sojourner and his own former ally, Morbius, the Living Vampire, who was under Sojourner's mental thrall. Blade followed Morbius (himself a former member of both the Midnight Sons and the Nine) back to New York, where, while teamed with Spider-Man,Blade was bitten by Morbius.

Blade's blood enzymes reacted unexpectedly with Morbius's unique form of vampirism to produce an almost perfected form of the virus, granting Blade many vampire strengths while eliminating weaknesses inherent to a vampire. This was at this time that Blade assumed the unofficial title of "Daywalker" among his prey.

Recently, Blade has come under the eye of the S.H.I.E.L.D division Project: Silvereye, which sought to use his blood in creating cloned vampire operatives. Blade shut down the project with the help of two vampire-hunting twins, Mosha and Mikado. Blade was then forced to combat a hostile takeover of the vampire world by a breed of vampire called the Tryks while simultaneously repelling the advances of their queen.

One of Blade's recent solo adventures involved a plot by Dracula to assume the title of Vampire Lord officially, by becoming a god-like being like Varnae. Blade joined Noah Van Helsing and several vampire hunters from across the globe to stop Dracula from succeeding.

Blade has since encountered the Punisher and has taken up protecting a Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans from an escalating vampire population, most notably alongside fellow black superheroes Luke Cage, Brother Voodoo, and the Black Panther. A short time later, Blade was also invited to attend the wedding of the Black Panther and Storm in the Panther's African nation of Wakanda.

In Other media, i'm sure everyone knows about this, Blade also is one of the earliest Marvel characther to ever made a movie in a big hollywood style, as a matter of fact, Blade came through the big screen with screaming vampires in 1998, Blade was played by actor Wesley Snipes in the title role, Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, Blade's mentor, and Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. The film was written by David S. Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. The film diverges slightly from the comic Blade in the demeanor of the character. Traditionally, Blade was often presented as loquacious and boastful, yet in the film he is stoic and nearly silent. The nature of his abilities are based more on his later titles rather than his original apperences; having vampiric powers, but none of the inherent weaknesess. Blade 2 came out in 2002, and following after that is Blade Trinity which was concluded in 2004.

[ Wesley Snipes / Kirk Jones both took the role of Blade]

A television series based on the films airs on Spike TV and stars rapper/actor Kirk Jones as Blade. Set some time after the events of Blade: Trinity, the series deals with Blade fighting an evil vampire named Marcus Van Sciver in Detroit, which is also Blade's birthtown (in the series). As was shown in the movies, Blade's birth name is Eric Brooks and his mother was named Vanessa and now it has been revealed that Blade's father is named Robert Brooks, and that he raised Blade until he was twelve and his vampiric nature became more apparent, such as with his "thirst" for human blood. The Conflicts often come up between Whistler's explanation of Blade's origin in the movie and the explanation of Blade's origin in the television series. Blade the series was cancelled by Spike TV after the first season.

Cool huh? There you have it guys, nothing like a good vampiric story, so like every other times i would end an origins story, Don't walk alone on a dark scary alley, if you happen to see vampires hanging out at cafe's, dont even bother going there, they only like to order "Hot Blood-Tarik". Keep reading, Have a nice day folks.

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