Amazing Spider-Man (2018) 50

Commemorating the month and its rich history of horror comic books, Marvel took October 2020 to offer readers variant covers to their current favorite reads with a frightful flavor of titles past.

Aaron Kuder illustrated the variant for Amazing Spider-Man 50 with lush coloring from Jordie Bellaire. Spidey took on the Blade, the Vampire Hunter persona in this Spider-Man the Vampire Hunter homage.

Only the cover reflects Marvel’s horror heritage. The issue offers part one of the Last Remains storyline.

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) 50 Aaron Kuder variant

While Spider-Man has faced his share of supernatural personages, he’s only really associated with Blade, the Vampire Hunter through the highly acclaimed 1990’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

Blade was introduced as a supporting character in Marvel Comics’ The Tomb of Dracula (1972) issue 10. He would continue to guest in issues 11 through 21 and again in issues 24 and 28.

Marvel Scribe Steve Gerber liked the character well enough to utilize him in Adventure into Fear issue 24 that same year appearing opposite Morbius the Living Vampire.

His first solo outing came in December of 1974 in an 11-page story in Vampire Tales. Co-creator Marv Wolfman penned the tale. He returned the following book before earning a book-length story between the pages of Marvel Preview number three. Chris Claremont was the author.

Wolfman continued Blade’s legacy in Preview issue eight in 1976. It would be his last appearance in the Marvel Universe for over a decade.

As Marvel tested the darker waters of in the early 1990s, Blade was brought back in Ghost Rider (1990) 28. His popularity was such he earned a co-starring role in the book Nightstalkers that ran 18 issues.

That led to his own title that lasted 10 issues followed by a one-shot in Marvel: Shadows and Light.

As he prepared for the big screen, Blade starred in two solo one-shots, Blade: Crescent City Blues in 1998 and Blade: Sins of the Father the following year.

Blade would bounce around the Marvel U for a time before starring in another short-lived solo series from 2006 to 2007.

Since then, the character has been relatively quiet yet, with three theatrical released films, a one-season television series and numerous appearances in the animated world, Blade has been resilient.