In this feature we examine comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, based on a suggestion by Tiago Q, we take a look at the retconning of Blade's powers over the years...

This is an intriguing retcon, since Marvel already went out of their way to alter Blade to get him to a certain point but then decided to do a retcon to say that he was at that certain point from the get go.

Blade was introduced in Tomb of Dracula #10 (by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan and Jack Abel)...

His origin of his mother being killed by a vampire before he was born was first delivered in Tomb of Dracula #14. Back then, the only thing that Blade received, power-wise, was the fact that he was immune to vampire bites (plus some light sensitivity, but that was often overlooked). This Blade: Strange Tales #1 scene (by Don McGregor, Brian Hagan and Sandu Florea) explains it pretty well...

Blade's weapon of choice was wooden knives for years until Nightstalkers (by D.G. Chichester and Ron Garney), when he started using the oh-so-cool katana, as well...

But well through the late 1990s, that was Blade, he was just a guy who was immune to vampire bites and he used wooden knives and a katana to kick vampire ass.

Then the Blade movies came out, and in them, Wesley Snipes' blade was a "Daywalker," a "Dhampir," half-vampire/half-human.

So in 1999's Peter Parker: Spider-Man #8 (by Howard Mackie, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna), Blade is bitten by a mutated Morbius...

This led to Blade: The Vampire Hunter by Bart Sears and Andy Smith, where we learn that Morbius' bite has transformed Blade into a Dhampir/Daywalker, a guy with the powers of vampires without their weaknesses (besides blood lust, of course)...

This has been the status quo for Blade ever since, except in his most recent ongoing series from 2006-2007, writer Marc Guggenheim (with artists Howard Chaykin and Edgar Delgado) revealed that Blade was actually a Dhampir from birth all along. Like this scene from #1...

But really, all of the flashback sequences throughout the series, which show that Blade didn't age like everyone else because he's, you know, a Dhampir (and everyone calls him a Dhampir throughout the series).

Plus, in #5, he explicitly says it wasn't Morbius' bite...

So there you go, Blade has now ALWAYS been a half-vampire hybrid.

Okay, that's it for this installment! Thanks to Tiago for the suggestion! If you have a suggestion for a future Abandoned an' Forsaked, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!