I do not think that Blade (1998) gets its just due as a superhero film for various reasons.
Why It’s Often Overlooked
For starters, I think Blade’s character was relatively unknown to the masses, excluding die-hard comic book fans. In addition, many moviegoers didn’t readily associate it with the superhero genre of films. Many saw it as more Van Helsing (the famous vampire slayer) than Batman.
Blade’s Impact
At the time, Blade was perhaps the best on-screen, comic book adaptation since Batman (1989), helping open the floodgates for the darker, more mature superhero films that followed in the 2000’s. It was also the best product that Marvel had ever put on the silver screen up until that time.
Blade showed that lesser known superheroes had a place on the big screen as long as they were well-casted (with ’90’s action star Wesley Snipes in this case) and honored the comic book source material (via a strong script penned by well-known comic fan and screenwriter David. S. Goyer).
It also showed that in the superhero genre, an African-American lead could carry a film to great heights. This is something I am sure that was not lost on Marvel Studios when they recently decided to produce a stand-alone film for the Black Panther (2017).
More than 15 years later, characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Inhumans are poised to continue this exciting trend of lesser-known heroes dominating the big screen.
Is this all due to the success of Blade? I cannot say that for sure, but I am sure that the world’s most famous daywalker would say so.
