Back in 2015, Marvel announced a new series that would introduce Fallon Grey, the daughter of Blade - and here's why that story never happened. As little as fans may like to admit it, the sad truth is that Marvel Comics has largely failed Blade. Although the vampire hunter was introduced back in 1973, it wasn't until he hit the big-screen in the '90s that the comic book publisher really began to see his potential - and it's telling that they swiftly redesigned the character to correspond to the cinematic version, who was very different to the traditional Blade. Director Bassam Tariq, who will helm the MCU relaunch of Blade, recently noted he doesn't feel especially restricted by Blade's comics canon - simply because none of Blade's runs have ever lasted long, or made much of an impression in the public consciousness. Blade's comic book history really does feel as though it can be summed up with the phrase "missed opportunity."
One of the worst of those missed opportunities was in 2015 when Marvel Comics announced probably the most interesting Blade idea in decades. As part of the "All-New All-Different" relaunch, Marvel announced a new series featuring the creative team of Tim Seeley and Logan Faerber, Blade the Hunter, in which Marvel's greatest vampire hunter would team up with a high school student. Fallon was a 16-year-old who Seeley envisioned as the "anti-Peter-Parker," a popular and well-liked girl who was shaken to learn Blade was actually her father, and who deeply resented being forced to join the family business. "They'll be completely and totally antagonistic," Seeley promised in an interview with CBR, "and the fun will be in seeing whether a guy like Blade can become a father, and whether a girl like Fallon can become a student and a daughter." The idea immediately drew a lot of attention, and there were even numerous reports Marvel Studios was watching this play out with real interest.
And then it all went horribly wrong for Blade the Hunter. No doubt Seeley seemed a natural choice as writer for Marvel Comics; as he quipped, "it feels like those twelve years of writing teenage girls fighting monsters is finally being recognized. It's like Marvel is saying, "Congratulations on your double PHD in 'Adolescent Female Angst and Monster Stabbery.' Have a job!" But the fan reaction online took a different direction to anything Marvel expected, with many outraged that - yet again - a white writer had been assigned a comic starring black characters, and introducing a prominent new one. Understanding the criticism, Seeley quit Blade the Hunter. "After a while, I felt like it was me screwing this up," he explained months later. "I couldn’t help but feel like a black woman might write this stuff better than me and saved them from me. In the wake of 'Black Panther' launching so well, maybe 'Blade' is the book they find new talent on."
Marvel never did assign any new talent to Blade the Hunter, though. They seem to have been discouraged by the backlash to the original proposal, and instead abandoned the most interesting idea in Blade comics since 1998. To be fair to the publisher, Fallon would have made her debut at a time when they were focusing on creating a new wave of legacy heroes, and Marvel began to shift away from that approach a couple of years later. Fallon Grey no longer fit with Marvel's corporate direction, and so she was forgotten.
Marvel is currently attempting to increase Blade's profile in the comics ahead of his MCU debut, even establishing Blade as a member of the Avengers; it's not quite working, because the vampire nation arcs sit uncomfortably alongside tales of gods and monsters, demons and intergalactic empires. Hopefully that means they'll pivot back to Blade the Hunter at some point in the future, and Fallon Grey will get to appear after all.
Source: CBR