Blade's First Movie Villain Had A Vampire Power That's Way Too Weird For The MCU
Many may forget, but "Blade" changed superhero movies long before Marvel Studios dominated the box office. The Wesley Snipes-led project introduced audiences to the vampire-hunting vampire, even bringing his notable enemy, Deacon Frost, to live-action, albeit without one of his strangest powers.
First appearing in "Tomb of Dracula" #13, Deacon Frost is a vampire with all the standard powers that come with the transformation. However, where his powers differ from others of his kind is that when he bites his victims, they become doppelgangers of Frost instead of vampiric versions of themselves. To make things even weirder, he had mental control over all his doubles, allowing him to amass an army of Frosts. At one point, he used his self-created military to take on Dracula for the position of Lord of Vampires.
While Frost could appear in Marvel Studios' "Blade," we don't expect his doppelganger powers to join him. The studio generally takes a grounded approach to its MCU characters, nerfing many heroes and villains to make them more relatable on the big screen, so it's safe to say they'd take a similar approach with "Blade." Frost's doppelganger powers wouldn't be very believable in the MCU, which still holds onto a bit of realism while bringing comic books to life. While seeing Mahershala Ali's Blade potentially taking on an army of Agent Smith-like vampires sounds incredible, it will probably stick to the page of Marvel Comics.
Deacon Frost wouldn't be the first character to get nerfed for the big screen
Within the pages of comic books, many characters have powers rivaling that of gods, or even more in some cases, so if Deacon Frost shows up in "Blade" without his doppelgangers, he won't be the first to have his powers tweaked to adhere to a studio's more grounded take.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" features the most infamous character nerf in the MCU, with the trilogy changing Drax (Dave Bautista) to make him much more grounded. In the comics, his strength rivals Thanos, and he has many telepathic abilities, including sensing wherever the Mad Titan is in the universe. Understandably, James Gunn omitted these abilities from the live-action version, with Drax only really sporting his enhanced strength, but even that was nerfed.
Fox's "X-Men" movies are also full of similar creative changes. Most notably, the films almost eliminate Rogue's backstory and many of her powers. In the comics, she has the powers of Wonder Man, giving her super strength, flight, and speed. In the movies, Rogue only really has her power and memory absorption abilities, giving her a more realistic story.
With "Blade" being in development hell and the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike not helping its progress, no one knows what to expect or when to expect it. After numerous script rewrites and general production issues, any character from the comics could be on the table. For example, through all of the production chaos, Deacon Frost and his doppelganger powers could maneuver their way into the final product. While we wouldn't bet on it, development hell is a weird place to be, and who knows what kind of demons and monsters could come out of it.