Marvel’s Black Panther has become a massive success grossing over $1.3 billion so far making it at least the 10th highest grossing film of all time. And it’s for good reasons too, the movie celebrates African culture and with an almost all black cast and director, the film shows that audiences are excited for something different from the typical all white movies Hollywood has been producing and gives hope that change is on the horizon. And on top of all of that, it’s a good movie that’s been well received! However, many people have called this the first black superhero movie which isn’t true. In fact, Black Panther isn’t even the first black lead Marvel superhero movie. That honor, goes to Blade.

Marvel’s Blade came out in 1998 and follows the story of Blade (played by Wesley Snipes), a half vampire, as he stops other vampires from taking control of the entire world with the help of blood specialist, Doctor Karen Jenson (played by N’Bushe Wright). Is that a cheesy movie plot? Yes. Does it have some truly dated late 90’s CGI? Yes. Do the vampires meet in multiple different dance clubs where blood pour out of the sprinklers? Yes! But is it incredibly entertaining? YES! The critic Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars and called it “visionary filmmaking” (Source). Blade, despite being rather dated, can, and should, still be watched and enjoyed today. And it deserves to be celebrated as being a major step forward in having African American representation in Hollywood.

Let’s remember that Blade came out in the late 90’s, a time when superhero movies weren’t looking as good as they are now. Movies like Spider-Man and X-Men hadn’t made comic book movies popular yet and the most recent big superhero movie released had been the critically disastrous Batman & Robin. And let’s also keep in mind that vampire movies coming out around this time (Underworld, BloodRayne, and Vampire) were either critical or commercial failures. Yet somehow, this hard R-rated superhero, vampire, kung-fu movie with a black lead comes out a year later and ends up making $131 million (Source) and is well received by critics. On the other hand, Black Panther had the benefit of being the 18th installment in a franchise that has already grossed over $12 billion (Source). Blade had everything going against it but somehow still managed to be successful enough to green light a sequel (directed by Academy Award winning Director Guillermo Del Toro by the way) with a black lead and a black woman costar who, get this, don’t end up dating because the movie actually views the woman as having more to do than just fall in love.

Blade also manages to give some rather nuanced and meaningful commentary on race and race relations. There’s a specific scene in the first Blade movie where Doctor Jenson is attacked by a police officer who is an underling for the vampires. Blade comes and stops him and ends up following him to find another vampire hide out. Having a scene where a black man beats up a cop could be controversial and if the scene was in a movie today, it would probably attract a lot of critics. But Blade avoids this and instead shows the cop not as being symbolic of all police or of all authority but instead offers him as an example of just a bad person who, just like any other bad person, managed to get into a position that he shouldn’t be able to.

Many movies, such as I, Robot or Bright, that deal with extraordinary creatures use them as being symbolic of minority groups but that’s not the case with this movie. Being a vampire isn’t symbolic of anything, they’re just the bad guys. And from watching the movie, one gets the sense that Blade has had his identity formed through being a black man in America more than through being a vampire. The character offers something unique and different from the typical white, male superhero.

So in a few months when Black Panther is out on Blu-Ray and can be streamed, maybe try and convince your friends to watch a different awesome black led Marvel superhero movie. Enjoy a movie that is its own thing and has a unique tone and message. Laugh at some of Blade‘s cheesy dialogue and CGI. Let Wesley Snipes tell you how “some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill” and try to figure out what that means.