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Blade Reading Order, Marvel’s Vampire Hunter

Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan in The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973), Blade was at first a supporting character but quickly gained prominence.

Blade’s real name is Eric Cross Brooks. He is an Afro-American vampire hunter who used to sport 1970s-style Afro hair and wield teak-bladed knives. He really became a solid character during the 1990s, first in the team series Nightstalkers, then in his own ongoing series Blade the Vampire Hunter.

At first, he was presented as a human immune to vampire bites, but it was retroactively established that he was a “dhampir” (the son of a vampire and a mortal human) following his adaptation as such in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the Blade film series. In the comics, he also became a “Daywalker” after being bitten by Morbius.

It took years to establish the definitive mythology of Blade in the comics because he never really got a long ongoing series, playing a supporting role between miniseries. That didn’t stop him from becoming a member of the Avengers.

Blade Comics Reading Order

Blade: The Early Years

After making its debut in The Tomb of Dracula #10, Blade became a supporting character in the series.  In fact, he appeared in a lot of issues (#10, 12-14, 17-19, 21, 24, 30, 41-49, 53-54, 58, 60-61).

To make things more simple, Marvel had the good idea to release an omnibus for the Early Years of Blade:

  • Blade: The Early Years Omnibus
    Collects Tomb Of Dracula (1972) #10, #12-14, #24, #30, #41-43, #45, #51, #53 & #58; Marvel Preview (1975) #3; Fear (1970) #24; Doctor Strange (1974) #61-62 & 67; Tomb Of Dracula (1991) #1-4 And Material From Tomb Of Dracula (1972) #17-19, #21, #44, #46-50, #52; Vampire Tales (1973) #8-9; Marvel Preview (1975) #8 And Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #64.

Before that, the best way to read this period was with the Complete Collection

In the middle of that, Blade also appeared in other stories, most of them are collected in (collected in the omnibus):

After that, the vampire craze went away, and Blade with it. In fact, his only appearance during the 1980s was in Doctor Strange, first in a two-part Dracula story (#61 & 62), then as a secondary character in an issue connected to the Darkhold (#67). You can find them in

If you just want a quick idea of the original Blade, take a look at this book:

Blade: The 1990s Comeback

Even before the 1998 movie, Blade made his comeback in the Marvel Universe. From a single Marvel Comics Presents issue to an ongoing series, Blade found a lot of Vampire to kill and saw his story rewritten.

Blade was reintroduced in the Marvel Universe with Marvel Comics Presents #64 (not collected). Then, he naturally appeared in The Tomb of Dracula relaunched in 1991 (in 2 issues):

After that, things got serious for Blade, as he co-starred in Nightstalkers. This is a team of reluctant associates, a trio of occult experts: vampire-hunters Blade and Frank Drake and vampiric private detective Hannibal King. They first worked together in Ghost Rider (vol. 3) #28, then the ongoing Nightstalkers series was launched. Blade also appeared in the first three issues of Midnight Sons Unlimited.

The Nightstalkers series has not been fully collected yet.

  • Spirits of Vengeance: Rise of the Midnight Sons
    Collects Ghost Rider (1990) #28, 31; Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #1-6; Morbius: the Living Vampire (1992) #1; Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #1; Nightstalkers #1; Web of Spider-Man (1985) #95-96 and material from Midnight Sons Unlimited #1.

Then, in 1994, the hunt for Dracula restarted in the Blade: The Vampire-Hunter series. AGAIN, not collected yet.

In 1998, Blade found success on the big screen. Of course, Marvel launched another Blade solo miniseries. In fact, it was not the only one. Blade also made an appearance in Peter Parker: Spider-Man. Everything from that period is collected in one book:

  • Blade: Blood and Chaos
    Collects Blade: Crescent City Blues #1, Marvel Team-Up (vol. 2) #7 (1997), Blade: Sins of the Father #1, Blade #1-3 (1998), Gambit #4 (1999), Peter Parker: Spider-Man (vol. 2) #7-8 (1999), Blade #1/2 and Blade: Vampire Hunter #1-6 (1999).

Blade in the 2000s

With each new movie, Marvel published new Blade stories. Multiple approaches were adopted, starting in 2002 with a series in the MAX Imprint (for adults)

  • Blade Max (not available)
    Collects Blade #1-6.

Once again, The Tomb of Dracula series was relaunched, this time in 2004:

And in 2006, Blade finally got a longer series (12 issues):

Blade came back in the anthology Marvel Comics Presents, more precisely in #5, 7 to 12. As you may have guessed, those are not collected yet. After that, Blade went back to England to join the Captain Britain and MI13 series.

Blade in the 2010s

As the new decade began, Marvel entered the “Heroic Age,”  and Blade appeared in Spider-Man vs. Vampires  (2010) #1 and in the Spitfire on-shot (collected in Women of Marvel) before joining the X-Men in the Curse of the Mutants crossover:

The “Heroic Age” didn’t last long. In 2012, the Marvel Now era saw Blade fighting vampires in multiple series with Deadpool, the Avengers.

Also during that period, Blade appeared in the Ultimate Universe:

After the Marvel Now era came the All-New, All-Different Marvel and Marvel Legacy. At first, he made a series of guest appearances in:

Next, Blade teamed up with Johnny Blaze, Daimon Hellstrom, and Satana in:

Then, rejoined The Defenders for the conclusion of their series in The Defenders (2017) #10 collected in Defenders Vol. 2: Kingpins of New York. And took part in the Damnation crossover event:

Blade in the 2020s (and in the Avengers)

Before the end of the 2010s, Blade joined the Avengers by Jason Aaron. You can find here a guide for that era of the team. As for Blade, he is not in everything. In fact, as the series progressed, he became less and less visible, but he found other teams to join.

War of the Realms logo 88The War of Realms! is here, for the details. Malekith the Accursed has been conquering the Ten Realms one by one until there is only one left: Midgard (Earth!). With a lot of Asgardian warriors and Earth’s heroes, they must now fight against a full-on invasion and defeat Malekith. For more information, go to the full reading order.

Following the conclusion of the War of the Realms, Angela, Blade, Spider-Woman, Wiccan, the Winter Soldier, Monica Rambeau, and Daimon Hellstrom join forces in Strikeforce for a monsterific bloodbath across the realms! Blade still makes appearances in The Avengers, but his role is quite reduced after that.

Venom by Donny Cates Reading Order IconKing in Black! Knull, the god of the symbiotes, is finally coming to conquer Earth—with an army of thousands of symbiote dragons at his beck and call. Of course, Earth’s heroes will fight back. For more information, go to the full reading order.

the vampire-hunting vampire makes his return in a new ongoing series by Bryan Hill and Elena Casagrande as a dark, ancient power that has been simmering quietly for centuries. And, when Blade himself is the one to unknowingly unleash it, Marvel’s entire supernatural underworld will come out of hiding to demand he handle it — or pay a pound of flesh for his mistakes!

Event! Let the Blood Hunt start! Coming from writer Jed MacKay and artist Pepe Larraz, this major crossover event starts as “the skies have gone dark, the sun hiding its face from the carnage to come. The children of the night, the vampires, have risen from the dark and hidden places of the world as one to drown the Marvel Universe in blood. Earth’s final night has fallen—can even the heroes of this doomed world stem the tide of blood that is to come? A dawn might assuredly come, but not before the universe is drenched in crimson!”

More to come…

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2 thoughts on “Blade Reading Order, Marvel’s Vampire Hunter”

  1. seatopian
    Reply

    It should be noted that the Marvel Comics Presents trades only reprints the Wolverine stories so the Blade story is not collected.

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