One of the problems with an MCU Blade movie is the idea that the vampire daywalker doesn’t have great villains to pull from in Marvel Comics, but this is not true. It was years before Blade was a successful solo hero. Blade made his debut in the pages of Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973. This was a book named after Dracula, but the vampire lord was actually the villain of the series, and Blade ended up as one of his most persistent enemies. The 1990s saw the debut of the Blade movie, which was the first major Marvel superhero movie and the reason Hollywood felt comfortable making X-Men and Spider-Man. That led to Blade getting a more prominent position in Marvel Comics, and he had more major villains arrive.
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Here is a look at the five best Blade villains, any of which might be perfect to appear in an MCU movie with the daywalker.
5) Deacon Frost
Fans of the older Blade movies know Deacon Frost, as he was the main villain in the first movie, played by Stephen Dorff. He is also one of the main villains in Marvel Comics, and unlike the movie version, Deacon is an older man, although he is also the vampire who attacked Blade’s mother and infected her while she was pregnant, inadvertently creating Blade at the same time.
While Blade wanted more than anything to kill Dracula, he had an even bigger infatuation with getting revenge on Deacon Frost for killing his mother and turning him into a daywalker. Frost appeared in Tomb of Dracula #13 in 1973, just three issues after Blade’s debut. Frost also turned Hannibal King into a vampire while using a Blade doppelganger to try to topple Dracula and take over as Lord of the Vampires. Like many Marvel characters, Frost has died and been resurrected more than once, although he is still dead at this point.
4) Lucas Cross
Lucas Cross has an even more personal connection to Blade than Deacon Frost did. That is because Lucas Cross is Blade’s biological father. Lucas is a newer villain, making his debut in Blade Vol. 5 #1 in 2006. When Tara Brooks was pregnant with their child, Luas was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and was imprisoned in Latveria.
He met a vampire in prison who killed him and revived him as a vampire, helping them both escape from prison. Cross is an influential political figure and a member of the Order of Tyrana, which is a secret organization that deals in the occult and has a unique interest in Blade. It is still unclear what Lucas’s ulterior motives are with his son, even two decades after his first appearance.
3) Dracula
When looking at Blade, his most consistent villain is Dracula, the Lord of the Vampires. Blade made his debut in the comic book series Tomb of Dracula, and it was Blade who was one of Dracula’s most persistent villains in that series. It was also Dracula who was the bad guy in Blade Trinity, the third movie in the original movie franchise.
Things are so bad between Blade and Dracula that they can’t even trust each other when they are on the same side. While Dracula and his vampire army helped fight Knull in King in Black, Blade attacked them all when the war ended, causing the United Nations to offer Dracula immunity as a sovereign country. More recently, Blade was corrupted and turned evil in Blood Hunt, and Dracula turned good to fight his long-time enemy.
2) Lilith
There is more than one Lilith in Marvel Comics, but the one who is an archenemy of Blade is Lilith Drake. She is Dracula’s daughter, and she made her debut in Giant-Size Chillers Featuring Curse of Dracula #1 in 1974. However, Dracula banished her and her mother when she was a baby because he despised his wife, whom he was forced to marry by his father. This caused Lilith to grow up with an intense hatred for her father.
A Roma woman named Gretchin raised Lilith and used magic to turn Lilith into a vampire, but without the weaknesses of regular vampires. While Lilith spent most of her time fighting with her father, she has also fought Blade, Hannibal King, and many more people. She most recently worked with SHIELD in the Howling Commandos, but Lilith is someone who has always struggled to keep control of her bloodlust.
1) Varnae
While Dracula and Deacon Frost are the two villains most associated with Blade, it was Varnae who proved to be the most destructive. That is because Varnae is the ancient vampire who possessed Blade and forced him to turn evil in the Blood Hunt storyline. Varnae is an ancient vampire, older than Dracula, a former sorcerer from Atlantis before the city sank.
He made his debut in Bizarre Adventures #33 in 1982. After his body’s destruction in Nightstalkers #18 in 1994, he disappeared for years, but returned to possess Blade in 2024’s Blood Hunt. Varnae was a sadistic and ruthless monster, and he made Dracula look almost heroic in comparison. He was savage and hurt even those close to him. He is also more powerful than virtually any other vampire in history, other than Dracula, although his barbarism makes him more dangerous.
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