Disney and Marvel just announced new details for the upcoming Avengers Doomsday, revealed the new cast for the rebooted X-Men franchise, and are basking in the juggernaut success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But one character has been running through my mind through it all. Its reboot is one of many canceled MCU projects with Black leads that have sparked significant public uproar. Yet today, August 21 — two years out from its 30th anniversary — Blade is the foundational Marvel movie that helped create the movie universe I’ve known to love.
The 1998 superhero movie, starring Wesley Snipes in the titular role, showed movie watchers their first taste of the human-vampire hybrid that’s been killing any and every bloodthirsty vampire since his comic book debut in 1973. Rewatching superhero flicks in preparation for Doomsday, I hadn’t realized how much I loved this movie. It set the tone for Marvel with its gritty, groundbreaking approach and influenced how the cinematic universe portrays heroes and dark storytelling.
Now, has Marvel evolved to tell better stories, with stronger emotional throughlines, and developed superheroes into multi-layered characters beyond this movie? Absolutely! Does Blade need all of that to wow me? Not really.
Despite some dated CGI and effects that reveal the movie’s age, it still holds up in ways that don’t detract from its tone or story. The main way you see how this movie still holds strong 28 years later is in the opening sequence.
Let me paint you a picture:
After showing Blade’s birth, which came as his mother was bitten by the main antagonist of the film, Deacon Frost, they immediately take us to one of Frost’s nightclubs. The most stereotypical yet stylized late-90s, early-2000s nightclub scene ensues. Complete with blood sprinklers, a…
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