Summary
- Blade has joined forces with Dracula’s Vampire Nation and is actively helping them feed on humans in order to keep humanity alive in the zombie apocalypse.
- Blade’s decision to side with vampires goes against his previous vampire-hunting mission, but he sees no other way to ensure the survival of humans.
- Blade’s morally ambiguous actions highlight his ability to adapt and survive in a world where traditional heroes have been overtaken by the zombie horde.
Warning: spoilers for Marvel Zombies: Black, White, & Blood #4 ahead!Daywalker vampire Blade has always lived by a simple code: save humans, kill vamps. However, he’s betrayed his vampire-hunting mission – because now the vampires are the only ones keeping humans alive. As he says in the latest issue of Marvel Zombies: Black, White, & Blood, “Zombie world makes for some strange-ass bedfellows.“
The Marvel Zombies anthology series has explored many stories about what Marvel heroes would survive the zombie apocalypse – and how. In ‘Strange-Ass Bedfellows’ by Steve Skroce and Brian Reber, Blade takes a stab at keeping humanity, and himself, alive. However, the two most powerful groups left both see humans as food, so Blade has sided with the one that at least keeps humanity alive – Dracula’s Vampire Nation.
Being immortal means he has the time to hope for an end to the zombie menace, and that the humans he’s brought to the vampires as “blood cows” will survive to be free one day. However, for the forseeable future, Blade isn’t just allowing vampires to live – he’s actively helping them feed on humans.
MARVEL ZOMBIES: BLACK, WHITE, & BLOOD #4 (2023) | |
|---|---|
‘Strange-Ass Bedfellows’ | |
 |
|
Blade Is Feeding Humanity to the Vampire Nation
The Zombie Apocalypse Is Enough for Blade to Side with Dracula
Upon his arrival at the Sanctuary, Dracula says something truly chilling: “Excellent, Blade! You’ve brought us some families!” An inversion of his usual methods, Blade is now delivering entire caravans of people right to the vampires’ door. He hates himself for enabling the entire compound, but admits he doesn’t see another way. In many ways, The Sanctuary is a genius idea – vampires have money, resources, and power, but they need humans. Meanwhile, the humans need protection from the unstoppable zombie horde. Vampires have a vested interest in humanity’s survival, meaning their goals are aligned with Blade’s – something even he admits.
This isn’t the first time Blade and Dracula have been fraught allies. As part of the Avengers, Blade reveled in helping them wipe out vampires. When Dracula formed the Vampire Nation, however, the Avengers attacking would have been an act of war. Blade left the hero team and instead declared himself the Sheriff of Vampire Town, establishing that he would act as law enforcement against any vamps that stepped out of line. Even in his current solo series, Blade asks Dracula for help training him to be able to take on the villain Adana. For someone who hates vampires, Blade keeps finding himself on their side.
Blade’s Morally Gray Ethics Make Him a Survivor
Blade Operates on a Fundamentally Different Timeline to Other Heroes – He Can Afford to Wait
The major theme of the Marvel Zombies series is that the most straightforward heroes become zombies. Their genius minds, strong bodies, and superpowers are nothing in the face of the horde. Blade says he wasn’t like them because they were inspirational figures, and he’s an exterminator. That mindset undersells the good he’s done in the world, but it also opens him up to very different solutions. Someone like Spider-Man might go down fighting, but Blade finds a way to live – and to offer others the same corrupted survival. By betraying his vampire-hunting mission, Blade is allowing that someday, “the rose of humankind will bloom once more” – however, is that truly a justification for feeding generations of humans to Dracula’s army?
Marvel Zombies: Black, White, & Blood #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.
#Blade #Betrayed #Humanity #Vampires
