Blade

Born in a London brothel, Eric Brooks became a Daywalker when a vampire bit his mother during childbirth, passing on enzymes that granted him immunity to vampire bites and superhuman abilities — driving him to dedicate his life to hunting the undead.

Few characters have carved out a legacy quite like Blade, the vampire hunter who stalked onto the Bronze Age scene in Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973, brought to life by the legendary team of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. Born from Marvel's horror boom of the early seventies, he went on to become one of the House of Ideas' most enduring figures — 253 catalog appearances spanning an astonishing 53 years, with five key issues that any serious collector has circled in red. His adventures have taken him from the gothic shadows of Tomb of Dracula to the pages of Captain Britain and MI13, sharing the page with titans like Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and Dracula himself, which tells you everything about the remarkable range of the Marvel universe he inhabits. If you're not already deep into Blade's corner of Marvel history, consider this your invitation — he's one of the Bronze Age's finest gifts to comics.