Eric Brooks - better known as Blade - is a character from the Marvel Comics universe. While he may appear human, he is actually a Dhampir, a hybrid of human and vampire. He has dedicated himself to slaying vampires and hunts them down across the world, occasionally allying himself with SHIELD and other Marvel heroes.
Origins[]
According to the mainstream Marvel Comics, Blade was born in London, England in 1929. His father was the member of a secret society from Latveria and his mother was forced to work in a London brothel under an assumed identity. When Vanessa Brooks went into labor, there were complications and she sought the aid of a doctor known as Deacon Frost. As it turned out, Frost was a vampire and he fed on the woman as she gave birth, passing on a series of enzymes that altered her baby. The enzymes entered the infant's bloodstream, transforming him into a Dhampir - a being tainted by a vampire's kiss, but not converted. In other words half-man, half-vampire. Frost was driven away before he could slay the child, but Vanessa perished, leaving the orphaned Eric Brooks to be raised at Madame Vanity's brothel.
While he was growing up, he ran into American veteran vampire slayer, Jamal Afari and saved him from being killed by vampires with a grudge against the old man. Afari soon learned about Eric and his origins' and decided to take him under his wing, becoming his mentor and foster-father and helped him to control his powers. Afari taught Eric everything he knew about hunting, fighting and killing vampires. Determined to avenge his mother's death, Eric fashioned himself into a vampire hunter like Afari while still a teenager and started calling himself Blade, after the sharp weapons with which he used to kill vampires with. Finally, Blade and Afari split up when Jamal willingly took the fall for murder when Blade accidentally killed a man (who was suffering from a deranged illness), which he mistook for being a vampire.
Abilities[]
Being only half-vampire, Blade possesses all of the strengths of a vampire but none of the weaknesses, except for the thirst. He possesses accelerated healing and superior strength, speed, stamina, and endurance. He has been trained in many forms of martial arts and has learned to recognize vampires by smell. His senses are extremely acute; he can sniff out almost any kind of supernatural creature and can see in total darkness.
Weapons[]
Blade is armed with a large variety of weapons which he uses to hunt vampires. His most regular weapon is an acid-etched sword that only he can wield (blades hidden in the hilt will extend if anyone else tries to take it), though he also arms himself with various other tools such as firearms loaded with silver hollow-point rounds filled with the essence of garlic. Other weapons include silver stakes, teakwood daggers, and custom weapons such as silver boomerang blades, ultraviolet flash grenades and a gauntlet injector loaded with an anticoagulant that reacts violently with vampire blood.
Weaknesses[]
Blade's only true weakness is the vampire's thirst for human blood. Attempts have been made to cure Blade of this condition but have all met with failure, so he relies on a specially designed serum to keep the thirst at bay. If he does not take the serum regularly, Blade will weaken and quickly lose all self-control, becoming compelled to attack and feed on humans.