This Blade Movie Character Debuted In A Spider-Man Cartoon

When "Blade" was given his first cinematic outing in 1998, he was accompanied by Kris Kristofferson's Abraham Whistler. This mentor character was actually created for the movie, but during its development, Marvel took a liking to Whistler. The company then decided to use him as part of Blade's guest appearance on "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" before he'd even debuted on the big screen, sparking some legal wrangling.

Wesley Snipes' "Blade" was a great comic book movie before they were cool. It debuted at a time when superhero movies looked as if they might have outstayed their welcome. Even the cast of 1997's "Batman & Robin," for instance, knew they had filmed a bomb, and when the film was met with widespread critical opprobrium, it seemed the genre was waning. But "Blade," which bowed the following year, was cool, sleek, and mysterious. The leather-enamored '90s cool that pervaded its aesthetic is one of the few examples of the form that still holds up today. Perhaps because it was combined with a realistically gritty production design, or perhaps because Snipes can never not look kickass in a leather duster and shades. Regardless, "Blade" is still great after all these years and better than every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever released.

But it wasn't just the film's aesthetic that made it so good. Aside from Snipes, who seemed born to play the Daywalker, the movie benefited from Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, a mentor and surrogate father to Snipes' hero who also outfits him with a range of weaponry and effectively acts as the film's "man in the chair." Whistler was a new addition to Blade lore at the time, having been invented by screenwriter David S. Goyer for the project. But this wasn't actually the first time audiences saw the character.

The '90s had some of the best cartoons ever made, especially when it came to superheroes. In the first half of the decade, kids were spoiled for choice with the greatest Marvel and DC animated shows to ever grace the small screen. Three in particular were unbeatable, and not just because they had absolute banger theme songs. With their mature storylines that never once made young viewers feel as if they were being spoken down to, "Batman: The Animated Series," "X-Men: The Animated Series," and "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" redefined what animated kids' shows could do.

It was on the latter that Abraham Whistler made his debut despite the fact that he was created specifically for the "Blade" movie. The animated version of Blade first appeared in the 1995 "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" episode "Blade, the Vampire Hunter." This installment saw him team up with Spidey to track down Morbius, but they had a helping hand from Whistler, who was introduced in the episode as Blade's armorer. In his animated form, Whistler was an English vampire hunter who accompanied Blade on his missions and was voiced by the great Malcolm McDowell. He also represented a much younger version of the character than what Kris Kristofferson would portray in the 1998 "Blade" movie.

But if David S. Goyer created the character for the film, what was he doing in an animated series three years before the movie was released? Well, New Line Cinema, which was developing the film, wondered the same thing.

When "Blade, the Vampire Hunter" aired on Fox Kids, the "Blade" film had been in development for several years. David S. Goyer came onboard in the early '90s and even worked on a script with David Fincher prior to the director making "Seven." During that time, Goyer created Abraham Whistler as a mentor to Blade, prompting controversy as he essentially replaced the mentor character in the comics, a Black Harlem-native named Jamal Afari. All the while, "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" was becoming a hit for Fox Kids.

As Goyer explained in an IGN interview, "It took a while for the first 'Blade' to get made, and Marvel decided they liked the Whistler character so much, when Blade guest-starred on the 'Spider-Man' cartoon, they put Whistler on the cartoon." At that point, the movie was still three years away, and Marvel's premature use of Whistler caused some issues. "There was actually a legal thing between New Line and Marvel," said Goyer, "Because New Line went, 'Hey, you guys don't own that character. Goyer created that character.'"

The writer didn't elaborate on the legal dispute, but there must have been some sort of agreement, as Whistler showed up in three further episodes of "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" (his last two appearances were voiced by Oliver Muirhead instead of Malcolm McDowell). Then, in 1998, Kris Kristofferson played his gruff, jaded version of the character in "Blade," and as Ethan Hawke wrote in a later Rolling Stone article, "Kris' performances in the first two 'Blade' films are pitch-perfect. He's the grounding wire running through those two popcorn movies." Unfortunately, having used Goyer's character before the writer was ready to unveil him, Marvel managed to cheat themselves out of the profits from "Blade."