Marvel to Debut Bloodline, Daughter of Blade, on Free Comic Book Day

Marvel has officially announced its plans for the latest Free Comic Book Day event — and it includes the introduction of a surprising legacy character. On Friday, Marvel revealed that this year’s Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1 will introduce Bloodline, a new character who is the daughter of Marvel’s Blade the vampire hunter. Bloodline, also known as Brielle, will be introduced in a store from Danny Lore and Karen S. Darboe. The Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1 special will be released through participating retailers on Saturday, May 7th.

The addition of Blade’s daughter to the Marvel Comics canon is surprising on multiple levels, especially for those who are familiar with the daywalker’s tenure in Marvel. Back in 2015, the All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative teased the debut of Blade’s daughter, who would have debuted in a new Blade series from Tim Seeley and Logan Faerber. This version of the character would have been Fallon Grey, a popular 16-year-old from rural Oregon who learns that she is Blade’s daughter when supernatural trouble finds its way to her rural home.

This relaunch of Blade eventually never came to pass, in part after Seeley quit the book following an outcry from fans, some of whom were concerned about a white writer penning a book starring Black characters.

“The short story is, I quit,” Seeley explained in an interview with Newsarama. “The long story is when Marvel hired me, I had just written ten years of a horror comic starring a female lead so I seemed like a good fit. So we threw around ideas of doing Blade’s daughter and when they announced it, Marvel was in a weird place because they had announced the hip-hop covers and a lot of people saw ‘here’s another black lead with an all-white creative team’ and you know it’s valid and definitely the case.”

“After a while, I felt like it was me screwing this up,” Seeley continued. “I couldn’t help but feel like a black woman might write this stuff better than me and saved them from me. In the wake of Black Panther launching so well, maybe Blade is the book they find new talent on.”

This news is also particularly interesting when you take into account the rumors surrounding Blade‘s next live-action movie, which is currently in the works for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Casting descriptions from last year indicated that a daughter of Blade (Mahershala Ali) might be appearing in the film, with the project seeking a teenage character who is “thoughtful, serious, and burdened by growing up in a complex world.” If Blade’s daughter, whether she be named Fallon, Brielle, or something else entirely, does end up playing a supporting role in the film, the prospects of her making her Marvel Comics debut before cameras start rolling definitely makes sense.

As mentioned above, Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1 will be released through participating retailers on Saturday, May 7th.