Canceling the release date of Blade is a good thing for Marvel

As previously discussed here at Den of Geeksthis approach always seemed wrong. Look, we live in a world where an over-the-top animated film about Spider-Men from across the multiverse is also an honest story about a boy coming back to himself. With the right creative team, any character can be used to tell any story. But also… Blade is just a guy who kills vampires. He debuted as a supporting character in a 1970s Dracula book and only occasionally created his own series, even as films raised his profile.

To be honest, Black Panther wasn’t the richest character either. His best stories came in the ’90s, when Christopher Priest and Reginald Hudlin (incidentally, the first black writers to handle the character since his debut in 1966) picked up his solo book. But his film came from Ryan Coogler, a director with an incredible sensitivity to blockbusters. Coogler wisely surrounded T’Challa with other, arguably richer characters to ground his story in a personal journey.

And even Coogler’s talents could not stand under the enormous Marvel Machine that smothered all universal sadness and hope Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with the construction of the universe by La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine and Everett K. Ross. In other words, it’s really, really hard to turn a fairly uniform character into something rich and compelling enough to sustain a hit movie and, you know, be a cultural phenomenon. Nothing about the reports of Marvel’s conviction Edge development suggests that it was moving towards realizing these ambitions, making the film’s removal from the schedule something of a mercy.

This mercy is especially true in light of the current state of the MCU. Bringing back Robert Downey Jr. and the Russos did bring eyes back to the MCU, but it also disappointed those who wanted characters already introduced to get a little more screen time. With the passing of Destin Daniel Cretton Avengers 5 AND 6Shang-Chi may not get the starring role he could have, even though he recently starred in one of the more successful origin stories. Is Downey Jr.’s presence? and multiverse madness will prevent Sam Wilson from continuing his story as Captain America and leader of the Avengers? Did Monica Rambeau just get transported to the X-Men world and never be seen again?

The MCU has enough fascinating characters to continue the universe without Iron Man and Steve Rogers. They just need better designs. Edge would never be one of those projects. Like the main character, both human and vampire, Ali Edge the film would be both a standalone project with a new character and part of a broader film pedigree. While being a hybrid makes Blade stronger, the film seemed to break down under its contradictions.

The sun set on Daywalker. Hopefully Marvel will be able to devote the same resources to creating a compelling movie for one of their other great characters that can push the franchise forward rather than backward.