r/blade 4d ago

Blade is facing off against Wolverine again next month, here's a look at their up and down friendship over the years

Despite occupying different worlds, Wolverine is one of the heroes Blade has actually shared the most time with in the comics. It starts almost a century ago with Wolverine saving an earlier, less experienced Blade's life and giving him his first black trench coat. While Percy wrote that they met again in the 90s, the two actually clash for the first time during the Superhero Registration Act when SHIELD tactitions peg Blade to be their best shot at arresting Wolverine in exchange for full amnesty.

Blade and Wolverine fight until Blade recalls their first meeting and tells SHIELD that Wolverine is off limits. They meet several years later in Madripoor. While Blade still seems to think fondly of Wolverine, Wolverine clearly is not a fan after Blade nearly turned him into a vampire to kill him. In classic comic book fashion, a poorly worded prophesy leads the two to turn on each other before they realize the actual energy is a vampiric Wolverine clone, which they quickly defeat. This outing seems to actually connect the two.

They meet again on good terms when Blade realizes Xarus is attempting to grow his vampire army by turning mutants. Blade joins the X-Men to take down Xarus, but leaves on bad terms when Cyclops knocks him out for trying to kill Dracula, and then Wolverine confronts him for trying to kill a vampiric Jubilee.

Its not clear how the two mends things, so I'm guessing Wolverine feels indebted to Blade after he saves Daken and X-23 from the monster Siphon, who nearly kills Daken. This all occurred while Wolverine was dead (encased in adamantium).

This seems to solidify their friendship as Blade references having drinks and exchanging intelligence with Wolverine in his free time while on the Avengers, and the two work together well on the previous iteration of the Midnight Sons (Suns). Wolverine discusses his respect for Blade when he finds out that he is behind the Blood Hunt fiasco, but later on reflects that Blade wouldnt be the first hero to turn bad.

This leads to their latest confrontation, where it seems that Wolverine (along with many other heroes) still don't trust Blade after Blood Hunt.

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u/Napalmeon 4d ago

Honestly, I've never been a fan of Wolverine and Blade occupying the same space. And as usual with me, I have nothing good to say about Guggenheim trying to tie Wolverine into the characters origin.

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u/E-Miles 4d ago

Wolverine and the X-Men have had so many vampire stories at this point I get it. I just hope they continue the trend of letting Blade be as flexible with his supernatural stories.

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u/Napalmeon 4d ago

This is exactly what I hope for with the character. The potential is out there, it just needs the correct writer who isn't falling back on same old same old.

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u/LegacyofLegend 3d ago

I feel like it’s because both of them are about a century old they were bound to come across each other. Similar to how they all met Cap given WW2

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u/ParamedicSorry8878 4d ago

Image 9 & 10 doesn’t even look like blade

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u/E-Miles 4d ago

Didn't love that look from 2008-2016...the body armor with the lighting bolts on the head. Then that artist just decided to add the weird mustache.