Warning! Spoilers for King in Black #5 ahead!
The massive King in Black event gave many heroes a chance to stand out, but Blade gets the award for the coolest win. Staying calm and collected is essential in a crisis, and the vampire-hunting Avenger provides a great example of why. Earth’s heroes were braced for the worst prior to Knull’s arrival, and once the King in Black arrives things become even more dire. The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other heroes desperately explore every option to fight back, even allying with villains. Blade is dispatched to Chernobyl to urge Dracula to enlist vampires to join in the fight against the God of Symbiotes. The Daywalker and vampires create a temporary truce in order to defeat a common opponent.
After enduring wave after wave of Knull’s attack and invasion, the heroes of Earth finally begin to turn back the tide, when Venom, imbued with the Uni-Power, wields an axe formed from the Surfer’s board and Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, and eviscerates the King in Black before forcing him into the Sun. That incredibly gnarly attack ends the scourge of the King in Black and frees Earth from the thrall of symbiotes. As the King in Black’s barrier around Earth vanishes, Blade scores the war’s coolest victory over his mortal enemies.
In King in Black #5 by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, after Knull’s forces fall, Blade finds himself surrounded by vampires without a common foe to keep their truce active. Predictably, the Avenger is immediately assaulted and overtaken by vampires, eager to take advantage of the situation. Blade waves off the offer of backup from concerned teammates, calmly replying that he is good. That confidence comes from him knowing that the Sun is waiting behind the symbiote barrier darkening the Earth, and that Knull’s death means the barrier is coming down. As solar rays return to the planet, and vampires are melted away instantly, the Daywalker remains poised. Blade eliminates an army of enemies without lifting a finger, in a way that is as tactical as it is cool.
It takes the Sun, and the combination of some of the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe to defeat Knull. All Blade needs to do to vanquish his foes is keep calm and carry on. The fallout and details of Blade’s fight alongside vampires is still to come in Avengers #45, but Dracula will probably be displeased to have lost a legion of his flock.
Since becoming an Avenger, Blade has gotten to be a key player in large-scale events, and his steady hand during the King in Black proves he’s worthy. The previews for the upcoming Heroes Reborn event show the Daywalker trying to make sense of a mysterious reality where the Avengers never existed. That’s an insane situation for anyone to be in, but if anyone can remain unbothered and calm until a solution is found, it’s Blade.