10 Superpowers Blade Never Used In All 3 Wesley Snipes Movies

Though the Wesley Snipes led Blade trilogy is one of the most popular depictions of the character, the three movies didn’t showcase Blade’s full range of abilities from the comics. The movies do showcase some of his vampire strengths, and also his proficiency with weapons. It’s possible that some of Blade’s other powers from Marvel Comics may have been a bit too powerful for the movies. It is also possible that the constraints of late ’90s special effects limited the options of which powers Blade could have, a problem the MCUBlade hopefully doesn’t have.

Another important thing to remember about the Blade trilogy is that it predated a lot of modern superhero films. As such, the filmmakers might not have thought that the audience for an R-rated movie would be up for some of the more over-the-top powers that Blade has. Whatever the reason, the Blade seen in the original film trilogy was a little under powered compared to what comic book readers are used to now. These missing powers may be included in the MCU Blade film to help Blade keep up with Marvel’s other heroes.

10 Blade Can Sense Supernatural Beings

Sixth Sense

One of Blade’s most handy powers in the comics is his sixth sense for sensing anything magical around him. This can help him locate magical objects or sense any approaching danger from supernatural creatures like vampires. While this seems like a pretty key ability to leave out of the Blade movies, it is also one that makes telling a story a little more difficult. By taking this power away from Blade, the movies make it so that he can be surprised by vampire attacks. This adds some tension that might otherwise be relieved by his special sense.

9 Blade Is Immune To Vampire Hypnosis And Can Hypnotize Others

Hypnosis

One powerful weapons that vampires possess in Marvel Comics is the ability to hypnotize others into doing their bidding. Thanks to Blade’s vampire abilities that he gained from Morbius the Living Vampire, Blade is able to resist this hypnotic gaze. In some alternate versions of the character, like Blade from Marvel’s Ultimate universe, he can even hypnotize others the same way vampires can. It is possible these powers weren’t present in the Blade movies because the main antagonists would also be immune to hypnosis, making it pointless for either side of the conflict to try using the power.

8 Blade Can Heal Rapidly Without Drinking Blood

Accelerated Healing Factor

Though Blade is shown to be able to heal himself more quickly than a normal human in the movies, he is shown having to drink blood to help speed up his healing. In the comics, his healing factor is pretty rapid, even without having to consume blood. This seems like another example of the Blade movies choosing to tone down some of his powers in order to add tension. This also makes room for reactive scenes between Blade and Karen while he’s healing up.

7 Blade Gained Wings And Armor From A Mini Man-Thing

Wings & Armor

For a short time, while Blade was in the Avengers, he gained extra powers from Boy-Thing, a tiny creature created from pieces of Man-Thing. Boy-Thing offered Blade several upgrades, including magical swords, armor, and even wings one time. Boy-Thing’s pairing with Blade served as an upgrade for the hero, so he could hold his own against Avengers-level threats. When Blade ultimately left the team, he and Boy-Thing parted ways and Blade went back to his original power set, with the limited nature of this storyline going some way as to explain why these abilities didn’t show up in the movies.

6 Blade Can Turn Into A Bat, But He Doesn’t Like To

Bat Transformation

In the comic Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet by Brian Posehn, Reilly Brown, and Scott Koblish, Blade teams up with Deadpool to take on some monsters. During the fight, Blade threatens to turn into a bat and leave Deadpool on his own if the Merc With a Mouth doesn’t stop annoying him. While this isn’t a power Blade typically uses, he doesn’t seem to be kidding about being able to. The movies steered clear of giving Blade any of his shape-shifting abilities, though some of the villainous vampires of the movies do take on other forms.

5 Blade Once Replaced His Hand With A Special Weapon

Machine Gun Hand

For a short time in the comics, Blade lost his left hand. This was because he had been handcuffed and was forced to chew his way out of the trap. While he was missing his hand, Blade replaced it with a high-powered machine gun. Because the Blade movies never tackled this particular arc from Blade’s comic book history, viewers didn’t get to see Wesley Snipes running around with a machine gun for a hand. This is also one of Blade’s more obscure powers, so it isn’t a big surprise.

4 Blade Can Create Clones Of Himself In Some Depictions

Clone Illusion Powers

In the 2010s, Marvel released a series of shows called Marvel Anime. One of the short series was Blade, an anime-style take on the character. In the show, Blade had the ability to create illusions of himself with his sword that he could use as distractions when fighting. This power fits better in the anime medium and likely would have been a little hard to believe in live action for a series without magic. Besides that, the power was unique to this depiction of Blade, which came out after the Wesley Snipes movies were made.

3 Blade Briefly Gained The Ability To Absorb Powers

Power Absorption

Marvel Comics characters will frequently get short-term powers for specific storylines. In one such instance, Blade reads pages from the Darkhold and turns into an evil version of himself called Switchblade. Empowered by the evil magic of the book, Blade was able to absorb magical powers. This gave Blade immense power and allowed him to rob others of theirs, similar to Rogue from the X-Men. Eventually, Switchblade was defeated and when Blade went back to normal, he lost his new powers, reverting to the version of Blade closer to the movie iteration.

2 Blade Can Turn Into Mist To Dodge Attacks

Mist Powers

Very recently, in the current comic run of Blade, Blade has started studying with Dracula to hone his vampire powers. In Blade #6 by Bryan Edward Hill and Lee M. Ferguson, Dracula teaches Blade how to turn into mist in order to dodge incoming attacks. While this power would have been cool to see on the big screen, seeing as Blade didn’t have it until December 2023, the creators behind the original Blade trilogy didn’t really have a chance to find out about it. Perhaps Mahershala Ali’s version will have this power when Blade releases in 2025.

1 Blade’s Body Attacks Any Foreign Substance That Gets Inside Him

Immunity To Poisons

Blade’s healing factor is great at healing external wounds, but his body is also designed to protect him from the inside. Blade’s immune system aggressively attacks any potentially harmful substances that get into him. This makes Blade immune to any type of poison. Thanks to Blade’s half-human side, he is also immune to vampire weaknesses like garlic or silver, though those powers were actually shown in the movies too. Currently, there aren’t any poisonous villains in the MCU timeline, but these could be useful powers for Mahershala Ali’s Blade if Marvel ever pays off that Mac Gargan Scorpion tease.

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