Ever since his first appearance in 1973's The Tomb of Dracula #10, Blade has gone through various costume changes, and almost all of them have highlighted just how cool a superhero he is. Born in London, England in 1929, Eric Brooks was given his supernatural abilities after his mother was killed by Deacon Frost - a vampire - during his birth.
The long leather jacket and black sunglasses are probably his most iconic look, even being used in the movie adaptation from 1998 starring Wesley Snipes. He has worn lots of awesome costumes in various comics, video games and other media, so we've decided to take a look at some of his best costumes and rank them all for your reading pleasure.
10 Adventure Into Fear
Blade hasn't always been an astute wearer of black. In fact, some of his earlier stories had him wearing an odd color combo that actually worked. In Adventure into Fear #24, Blade looked more like Norman Osborn's formidable alter-ego, the Green Goblin, than the traditional vampire hunter.
Wearing green goggles, a purple jacket and matching boots, green trousers, and a yellow belt, Eric Brooks hunted down Morbius in a cat and mouse chase across New York City. Of course, this look is completely different to anything else he's worn since, but it fitted perfectly with the time it was released in the 1970s.
9 Blockhead Blade
If there is a person alive that doesn't love the LEGO video games, it'd be a huge surprise. Various franchises have been adapted over the years, including The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Carribean. However, the most popular adaptations have to be the Marvel LEGO games.
In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, one of the outfits that Blade wears sees him in his black leather jacket and shades, in all his blocky glory. One of the best costumes he wears in the games is the shirtless one, revealing his rock-hard LEGO abs in humorous fashion while still ensuring he looks cool as a cucumber.
8 Contest Of Champions
The mobile game Marvel: Contest of Champions has achieved huge amounts of success ever since it released in 2014, and was loosely based on the three-issue mini-series released all the way back in 1982. Blade's appearance in the game makes him look similar to his movie counterpart, although there are some changes that make him stand out.
Firstly, he has tribal tattoos that run down his arms, and his black body armor has a red trim on it. They may be subtle changes, but the look works really well. For a character that almost always wears black and nothing else, this was a new way to try and reinvent the character's costume for the video game medium.
7 Silver Armor
In Marvel's Blade: Vampire Hunter, which ran from 1999 to 2000, Eric Brooks donned an awesome costume that was nothing like the outfit many fans are familiar with. Unlike the majority of his costumes that featured his famous long black jacket, Blade wore silver-fitted body armor, complete with silver gauntlets and long silver boots.
He also wore a light purple cape that draped down to his waist, with a receding stylized hairline and sunglasses that stuck closely to his face. Complete with a long silver blade, it was a look that made him more like a superhero and less like the dark and mysterious bounty hunter that he is better known as.
6 Child-Friendly Hero
In an effort to bring the character of Blade to younger audiences, DisneyXD featured him in a few of their animated series. He popped up in Ultimate Spider-Man, and then made an appearance in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. alongside his teammates, Frankenstein's Monster, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, Living Mummy, and N'Kantu.
Voiced by Terry Crewes, this version of Blade was relatively stripped back. He wore a black vest which allowed his bulging muscles to show, as well as a bald head covered in tattoos. Along with black shades and a goatee, this child-friendly vampire hunter proved that when you remove all the blood and violence, he could still make an impact.
5 The Vampire Hunter
In the 1994 Blade: The Vampire Hunter series, the Occult Assassin wants to get away from his life as a vampire hunter, but that wouldn't make much of a fun read for his fans. Thankfully, Eric Brooks is back to being the effective killer, and we see him striking a wooden stake into the throat of a vampire, with an evil look in his eye.
Instead of a flowing jacket, it's just a normal one, but the silver spikes on his right shoulder and silver stakes on his left are drawn in great detail. There are no shades for once, so we can see the look of satisfaction in his eyes, and he's also wearing a red top that looks good under his jacket. The look is topped off with black gloves.
4 Anime Eric
When Marvel tried to get into the anime market by teaming up with Japanese animation studio Madhouse, they created a series of anime that featured the likes of Wolverine, Iron Man, the X-Men, and Blade. The latter's infamous enemy Deacon Frost provided the focus of the story, as Blade attempts to hunt him down, uncovering a secret organization known as The Existence.
The costume from the anime blends different aspects of various versions of costumes worn by the vampire hunter together, such as his long leather coat and bald head featuring the tattoos. All in all, this manages to make Blade look like a real badass, especially with the outstanding animation bringing the character to life in ways we'd never seen him before.
3 Clayton Crain's Variant
For Hasbro's Return of Marvel Legends action figures, Clayton Crain served as the artist tasked with designing the card art that featured with them. His Blade variant is all kinds of cool. We see Blade standing next to the anti-hero Frank Castle (who looks just as awesome), sporting a bald head and wielding a pistol and a sword.
He's wearing his signature leather coat, but it has a great red collar and trim to it, and the whole coat is lined with red as well. Both of these Marvel Knights are amazing heroes in their own right, but they look even better together. Cain's variant of Blade makes him look different, whilst still retaining what makes him so popular.
2 Wolverine Vs Blade
There's just some artwork that takes your breath away, and in Wolverine vs Blade, Dave Wilkins knocks it out of the park. Every panel is filled with phenomenal detail, and even if the story isn't anything special, there's no denying that the grindhouse art style, filled with buckets of blood and gore, is incredible.
Blade looks so cool, with a blade leather vest detailed with red lines which run symmetrical;y down the body. His signature sunglasses really pop with the red lenses,too, especially when the light reflects off of them. His military cargo pants, black gloves, and black boots make Blade look like a soldier, and we love everything about it.
1 Wesley Snipes' Blade
The two constants in almost every incarnation of the half-human, half-vampire's costume are the shades and the long leather coat, and in the movies they're realised in bombastic fashion. Whether you enjoyed Wesley Snipes' take on the vampire hunter or not, there's no denying he looks utterly awesome.
Black body armor protects his chest and stomach, and the red-lined coat flows effortlessly as he slashes and kills the wealth of vampires he ends up fighting. The black sunglasses help Snipes to ooze coolness, making sure the most iconic look of all is realized to perfection on the silver screen.