{"id":3199,"date":"2016-05-21T09:02:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T03:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2016-05-21T09:02:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-21T03:32:26","slug":"blade-black-panther-marvel-superheroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3199","title":{"rendered":"Years Before Black Panther, We Had Blade: The Black Superhero We Forgot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

E<\/span><\/p><\/div>

arlier this year, Marvel\u2019s <\/span>Black Panther<\/span><\/i><\/a> made history as one of the first superhero films to unapologetically embrace its protagonist\u2019s African identity, in a refreshing break from the conveyor belt of Caucasian faces that usually feature on the posters of these comic book movies. I was one of the fans who contributed to <\/span>Black Panther<\/span><\/i>\u2019s success, booking a ticket to <\/span>Wakanda<\/span><\/a>… and I had a great time. However, I can\u2019t say the same for the people sitting on either side of me in the theatre, because I spent a considerable amount of time being the insufferable nerd who went, \u201cWell, <\/span>actually<\/span><\/i>, Black Panther isn\u2019t the first black superhero to get a mainstream Hollywood release.\u201d Sorry King T\u2019Challa, but that honour goes to Blade.<\/span>\n\nThe year was 1998. Superhero movies were far from being the all-consuming entertainment juggernaut that they are today, with a <\/span>new one<\/span><\/a> arriving with greater frequency than BEST buses. Back then, the genre was still reeling from the campy, cartoonish embarrassment that was <\/span>Batman & Robin<\/span><\/i>, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring George Clooney\u2019s latex Bat-nipples. While the comic-book source material was getting increasingly mature, with Frank Miller\u2019s <\/span>The Dark Knight Returns <\/span><\/i>releasing in \u201987, Hollywood studios still thought only kids want to watch superheroes, leading to the glut of childish crap like the <\/span>Batman <\/span><\/i>disaster and <\/span>Superman <\/span><\/i>franchise, which only got worse with time.<\/span>\n\nThen, along came <\/span>Blade<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\n\nJust as its titular <\/span>half-human, half-vampire<\/span><\/a>, complete badass of a protagonist was cast from a completely different mould than his predecessors Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, the movie marked a departure from the child-friendly aesthetic the genre had adopted up to that point. Vibrant colours were replaced by dark, gothic tones, except for the bright red of spilled blood, of which there is no shortage in <\/span>Blade<\/span><\/i>. It was the first superhero film to garner an R rating, long before <\/span>Deadpool<\/span><\/i><\/a> and <\/span>Logan<\/span><\/i><\/a> made it cool again. <\/span>\n\nThat\u2019s not the only new ground <\/span>Blade <\/span><\/i>broke for Marvel on screen; it was also the first film featuring a Marvel character to achieve mainstream success, which up to that point had belonged solely to DC stalwarts Batman and Superman. <\/span>Captain America and Iron Man<\/span><\/a> owe their undisputed dominance over schoolkids\u2019 bags and lunchboxes to Blade, without whom Marvel might never had its first taste of box office glory.<\/span>\n\n

The effect Blade had on the genre was profound, if poorly remembered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIt\u2019s worth reiterating at this point that the year was 1998. Robert Downey Jr was still two years away from his career-resuscitating turn on <\/span>Ally McBeal<\/span><\/i>, and nearly a decade away from the role of <\/span>Tony Stark<\/span><\/a>. Nobody even knew what a <\/span>Thanos<\/span><\/a> was. Today, it\u2019s easy to take Marvel\u2019s preeminent position in pop culture for granted, with three of the year\u2019s top five highest grossing films featuring properties from the studio \u2013 <\/span>Black Panther<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Avengers: Infinity War<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and <\/span>Deadpool 2<\/span><\/i><\/a>. But 20 years ago, a comic book adaptation was a risky gamble for a studio to take. Still, <\/span>Blade <\/span><\/i>managed to impress both the critics and commercial audiences, proving viable enough to sire two sequels.<\/span>\n\nThe effect <\/span>Blade <\/span><\/i>had on the genre was profound, if poorly remembered. The next two releases, <\/span>X-Men<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Spider Man<\/span><\/i><\/a>, followed the trail blazed by <\/span>Blade <\/span><\/i>in adapting the comic books more faithfully, making films that appealed to all ages, not just children. And while many <\/span>Nolan fanboys <\/span><\/a>will tell you that <\/span>Batman Begins<\/span><\/i><\/a> started the trend of dark and gritty superhero films in 2005, the <\/span>Blade <\/span><\/i>franchise had already covered that territory in three feature-length films by 2004. Also, with African-American actor Wesley Snipes playing the lead, it was revolutionary by virtue of featuring a black hero, something that remains newsworthy even in 2018, when <\/span>Black Panther <\/span><\/i>felt like an oasis of diversity in a genre still lost in the desert of unfair representation.<\/span>\n\nNow, as nerds across the world wait with bated breath for the next <\/span>Avengers<\/span><\/i>, I can\u2019t help but wonder if Blade survived Thanos\u2019 infamous finger-snap from <\/span>Infinity War <\/span><\/i>(five-month-old spoiler alert), or if he\u2019s even part of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. On the 20th anniversary of his film debut, it would be a shame to leave Blade out of the conversation surrounding how comic book movies became the most popular genre of entertainment today. <\/span>\n\nBy reshaping public perception of what the genre could be, taking it from wholesome entertainment for kids to a medium for complex and dark storytelling, and by proving audiences will accept a non-traditional hero, he rewrote what was possible for the films which followed. No one predicted the runaway success of superheroes back in \u201998, but as Blade says himself, \u201cWhen you understand the nature of a thing, you know what it\u2019s capable of.\u201d<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 20th anniversary of Blade\u2019s film debut, it\u2019s worth remembering his role in making superhero movies what they are today. He was the first black superhero before Black Panther, the first gritty franchise before Batman Begins, and Iron Man and Captain America owe their popularity to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1619,1461,6235,4234,6236,1745,4235,1624,1451,4467,1453,1463],"class_list":["post-3199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-avengers","tag-batman","tag-blade","tag-captain-america","tag-comic-books","tag-hollywood","tag-iron-man","tag-justice-league","tag-marvel","tag-spider-man","tag-superhero","tag-superman"],"yoast_head":"\nYears Before Black Panther, We Had Blade: The Black Superhero We Forgot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the 20th anniversary of Blade\u2019s film debut, it\u2019s worth remembering his role in making superhero movies what they are today. 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He was the first black superhero before Black Panther, the first gritty franchise before Batman Begins, and Iron Man and Captain America owe their popularity to him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=3199\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-21T03:32:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1534860959.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dushyant Shekhawat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Years Before Black Panther, We Had Blade: The Black Superhero We Forgot\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"On the 20th anniversary of Blade\u2019s film debut, it\u2019s worth remembering his role in making superhero movies what they are today. 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