Warning: Spoilers for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12!As Marvel prepares Blade for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the publisher is twisting his classic personality for the modern era. Blade is well known for having a stoic persona both in the comics and in the Wesley Snipes films that helped popularize him. However, as far as Marvel is concerned, now is the time to modernize that personality.
The notion is none more apparent than in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12 by Cody Ziglar, Partha Pratim, Bryan Valenza, VC’s Cory Petit. The conclusion of the team-up between himself, his daughter Bloodline and Spider-Man offers an opportunity for Blade to have an unexpectedly tender moment on-panel.
The words Blade and tender don’t normally go together in any medium, but the fact that Marvel goes out of its way to give such a moment to a character like Blade shows how it may be trying to modernize him. It especially feels apparent, as this isn’t the only such attempt in recent memory that Marvel has tried to deconstruct the Blade character for a modern audience.
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Blade is Starting to Get Vulnerable
The past couple of issues have served as one of the first superhero team-ups for Blade’s teenage daughter, Bloodline, as the duo work with Miles Morales. Miles himself has his introduction to the vampire world, as working with Blade has gifted him a new vampire-proof Spider-Man suit. After disposing of R’ym’r the Immortal, Miles takes a nap in the backseat of their car as Bloodline and Blade have a surprising father-daughter moment, one that ends with Blade telling a dad joke that’s just as surprising coming from him. What isn’t as surprising is his daughter calling him a cornball for it.
The timing of this exchange is especially interesting given how just a few weeks ago, Marvel released Blade #5 by Bryan Hill, Elena Casagrande, KJ Diaz, and VC’s Cory Petit. In it, Doctor Strange flat-out calls out Blade’s usual stoic personality, likening Blade’s stoic nature to being merely an excuse for him to act like the backside of a mule.
It’s Time to Modernize Blade
In more ways than one, Marvel is starting to dismantle and seemingly rebuild the Blade character. For as long as he has existed in Marvel lore, Blade has been bad to the bone, too cool for school Daywalker. Which is a great character to have, but when the character continues to evolve into being more than that, it’s time to evolve Blade’s personality to match the change. Yes, he’s still the badass he’s always been, but he’s also a cheesy dad, he knows how to crack a joke, crack a smile, and he can have a vulnerable moment with his daughter. It’s only now that Marvel is allowing him to showcase more of those parts of himself. Marvel is finally starting to peel back the layers of Blade to make him into more of a multi-faceted character than he’s ever been before.
