Harold Perrineau (who played Michael Dawson on “Lost”) is the voice of Eric Brooks, also known as “Blade” in the anime series based on the Marvel Comics character.

Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire while pregnant; this gave her son both vampire strength and a thirst for blood. Blade fights his inner desires while tracking vampires across the globe. His origins make him invulnerable to sunlight, unlike other vampires, who call him the “Daywalker.” In the new series, Blade tracks the vampire organization Existence across Asia while seeking the villain Deacon Frost.

Blade the vampire hunter was first introduced in 1973 in “Tomb of Dracula” No. 10, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan. The “Tomb of Dracula” series remains one of the longest-running horror series in Marvel Comics’ history. The entire run of “Tomb of Dracula” as well as the stories from “Dracula Lives” and the black-and-white “Tomb of Dracula” magazine have been reprinted by Marvel in black and white as “The Essential Tomb of Dracula” Vols. 1-4 and in color as the “Tomb of Dracula” omnibus 1-4. Three paperback volumes in color collect the series through issue 31.

The character reached his greatest prominence in the late 1990s, when actor Wesley Snipes originated the role in live action.

Moore writer Mel Odom wrote the novelization of the 1998 “Blade” film.

“In the 1970s, when Marv Wolfman first created Blade … Blade was definitely from the streets — Afro, wraparound sunglasses, goatee, and militant – in dress and in speech, loud and threatening. He was the kind of guy an average person would see on the street and turn and walk away,” Odom said. “The idea of a street-smart black man changed between the 1970s and the 1990s, when the movie came out. Blade became more urbanized, more metrosexual, and his wardrobe definitely got an upgrade. Blade as presented by Wesley Snipes became a commanding figure, a hero with weight and presence and substance. The kind of guy that was a born leader, not an outsider.”

Odom says both versions of Blade were meant to be an ideal, and spoke for young people reshaping their destinies.

“In the 1970s, Blade was a survivor, a man who’d taken all the bad things that had happened to him and found the strength to keep going,” Odom said. “In the 1990s, that was played down and Blade was shown as ‘upwardly mobile,’ a man who could be anything he wanted to be.”

Following three films, “Blade” came to television for a single season on SPIKE, as the network’s first scripted drama. The show’s executive producer was David Goyer (“Blade: Trinity”). Popular comic-book writer Geoff Johns (“Green Lantern: Rebirth”) was a consulting producer on the show and wrote four of the series’ scripts. The series, which aired in 2006, saw rapper Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones replace Snipes in the title role.

At the 2011 Comic-Con International, Marvel’s CEO Joe Quesada stated, as reported by Comic Book Resources, that the film rights to “Blade” had reverted to Marvel Studios.

In the comics, Blade was most recently seen in the X-Men storyline “Curse of the Mutants,” by Victor Gischler and Paco Medina. In “Curse,” now out in paperback, Blade teams with the X-Men to put a stop to Dracula’s successor.

“Blade” is the final of the four planned Marvel original anime series, following “Iron Man,” “Wolverine” and “X-Men.” G4 reports that since debuting in October, as a part of G4′s Friday night lineup, “X-Men” has reached more than 1.2 million total unique viewers.

- By Matthew Price
WORD BALLOONS
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

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