Marvel Comics’ announces new Blade series about his daughter at NYCC 2022

Blade is a vampire hunter and co-founder of Monster Hunting. But next February, he’s set to take on a new role — proud papa of marquee Marvel superhero.

Marvel Voices at New York Comic Con 2022 announced that the publisher would be publishing a miniseries of five issues called Bloodline: The Daughter of Blade. The book’s first spotlight will be Brielle Brooks (the titular girl of the famed shade-sporting daywalker), which will debut next February. The series is written by Danny Lore and illustrated by Karen S. Darboe. It will be about Brielle’s journey as she uncovers her half-vampiric heritage and struggles with puberty, unexpected monster brawls, and more.

Brielle first made her debut in a short feature in this year’s Free Comic Book Day in 2022: Avengers/X-Men. The story featured Bri, a typical teen girl who grew up in Atlanta with her mom. She found herself frequently running into local vampires. That story’s concluding twist — that Blade had left Bri to live with her mother in order to keep her safe from their dangerous heritage — sets up a probable reunion in this upcoming series.

Blade had a somewhat rough childhood. First introduced by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan in their 1970’s Tomb of DraculaSeries, Eric Brooks, a London-born actor (yes, Wesley Snipes fan: Blade canonically sounds a chimney sweep), was the son of a woman who died in a vampire attack while she gave birth. Eric, a half-vampire, was sensitive to light (hence the trademark black shades), but immune to vampiric attacks. He vowed revenge against all vampire-kind.

Image: Marvel Comics

That status quo lasted until the late ‘90’s, when, in a move to better resemble Blade’s movie adaptation, Blade found himself bitten by the sort-of-vampire Morbius (it was, indeed, Morbin’ time) and transformed into a Daywalker: a semi-vampire able to walk in sunlight, but still resisting an insatiable bloodlust.

But one thing Blade has always been is a sullen, self-consciously no-nonsense loner, so pairing him with a hitherto unknown teen daughter adds a new, and potentially very funny, wrinkle to both characters’ lives — kind of like the Burt Reynolds vehicle Cop and Half The only difference is that Dracula was the one who arrested the teenager. Marvel Entertainment is gearing up for an aggressive push to relaunch the Blade franchise. Rumours have circulated that Brielle or another similar character will star in the casting call. That was back in 2021, and the movie won’t hit theaters until 2023, but it would continue a major trend in Marvel’s Phase 4 and 5. Brielle might be in line for major attention. You might want to practice your best fang-toothed smile.