A Possessed Blade Went on a Killing Spree Throughout the Marvel Universe…Twice?

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“Just Like the Time Before” is a feature where we examine instances from comic book history where comic book creators did early versions of later, notable comic book characters and plot ideas. Essentially, the “test runs” for later, more famous characters and stories. Today, we look at how Blade’s recent Blood Hunt storyline was similar to an old Midnight Sons crossover involving Blade.

You might not expect a quote from Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension to become a major piece of pop culture history, but sure enough, in the movie, Dr. Doofenshmirtz incredulously states, “Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?” That phrase has become a major part of pop culture, used frequently in memes and in social media posts, and that’s because pop culture really DOES have a tendency to repeat some plots that would initially appear to be pretty distinctive.

This is rarely a case of writers even copying each other, honestly, as there are just some ideas that just make sense, and so multiple writers come up with the same ideas on their own. That was the case with Blade being part of TWO major crossovers by becoming possessed and killing a bunch of people, although one of the crossovers had a much bigger impact than the other.

What was Blade’s role in Blood Hunt?

In the first issue of the Blood Hunt crossover (by writer Jed MacKay, artist Pepe Larraz, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Cory Petit), the vampires of the world all began to work together in a coordinated attack on the Earth, coinciding with the Darkforce Dimension flooding Earth, bringing perpetual darkness to the planet (which, naturally, is very useful for the vampires of the world).

Blade calls the Avengers, and tells him that he can help. The Avengers head to their headquarters in The Impossible City, but are shocked to be met there by a team of superpowered vampires known as the Bloodcoven!

In the ensuing battle, Thor and Black Panther are captured (and Black Panther is turned into a vampire), but the other Avengers, though badly beaten, escape with their lives

Meanwhile, Doctor Strange and Clea are trying to recreate the Montesi Formula to rid the world of vampires in response to this worldwide attack. Blade comes to visit Strange, and explains to him how the attack on Earth has gone down, then reveals that BLADE is the leader behind the vampire attack, a revelation he makes as he stabs Doctor Strange!

However, as the crossover event continues, in Blood Hunt #4, it is revealed that Blade has actually been possessed by Varnae, the first vampire!

Other parts of the story reveal that Blade is along for the ride, having to watch what Varnae does in Blade’s name. It’s, of course, devastating for Blade, to see the villain murder innocent people (sometimes FRIENDS of Blade’s) in Blade’s body.

In the finale of the crossover event of the year (which famously featured “Red Band” editions of the individual issues with more gore and violence than the regular editions of the comics), Blade’s daughter, Bloodline, tried to free her father from the possession of Varnae, but wasn’t able to do so on her own. Luckily, though, Miles Morales had ALSO been transformed into a vampire by Varnae/Blade, and so the TWO of them were able to drive Varnae out of Blade’s body via a bloody attack on Blade’s body…

Luckily, Blade survived the attack, and was impressed by his daughter and Miles saving his soul…

After taking some time to recover from his ordeal, Blade went right back to vampire hunting. Okay, so that’s what happened in THIS crossover, but what happened back in 1993?

What was Blade’s role in the Midnight Massacre?

In 1992, Marvel launched a connected series of books spinning out of the pages of its hit Ghost Rider series called “Midnight Sons.” The two main books were Ghost Rider, and Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (a team-up book between Ghost Rider and the former host of Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze), but there was also a team book called The Nightstalkers that paired Blade with Frank Drake (the human descedent of Dracula) and Hannibal King (the good vampire who worked as a detective).

A crossover between the Midnight Sons titles began In Nighstalkers #10 called “Midnight Massacre.” In the first issue (by Dan Chichester, Kirk Van Wormer, Mark Badger, and John Kalisz), Blade agrees to sell his soul to the Darkhold in exchange for helping him to rid the world of demons. However, that means also killing his friends!! He transforms into a being known as Switcblade, who can absorb magic, so he makes quick work of Hannibal King and Johnny Blaze!

The covers for the crossover event were notable in that they were all black-matted covers…

It was a cool gimmick.

In the final issue of the crossover, though, in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #13 (by Howard Mackie, Adam Kubert, Joe Kubert, Dan Green, Klaus Janson, Frank Spiks, and Gregory Wright), the final issue that Kubert did of the series (he helped launch the book), Blade was cured of his demonic possession, and everyone Switchblade killed was brought back to life!

Blade was even welcomed back into the Nightstalkers! As far as crossovers go, this was oddly low stakes, as everything was just reversed, while Blood Hunt was a lot more lasting in its impact, including the fact that Doctor Strange gave Doctor Doom the control over being Sorcerer Supreme in order to stop Varnae, and that’s STILL having a major impact on the Marvel Universe in One World Under Doom.

Okay, folks, you MUST have some suggestions for other characters and/or plots that fit into this theme! So drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com for future installments!

“}]] Discover how Blade’s possessed killing spree throughout the Marvel Universe was somehow the SECOND time that that sort of thing happened to Blade  Read More