How Blade Changed Superhero Movies And No One Noticed

News outlets have declared that "comics aren't just for kids anymore" so many times over the years that it's become something of a running joke for readers. Superhero movies took their own long and winding route to being seen as adult entertainment. In the '70s and '80s, there were R- or X-rated movies based on comic books, but only when the source material was the kind of counterculture cartoon very much for mature readers, such as with Fritz the Cat, Heavy Metal, and Akira.

Movie superheroes remained in the realm of all-ages fare until the '90s, when dark avengers and antiheroes like Judge Dredd, Tank Girl, and The Crow started taking screens by storm. But Blade was the first character from the "Big Two" publishers, Marvel and DC, to arrive in American theaters with an R rating. The success of its harder edge marked the opening of a floodgate, and now there are several comic book films every year produced specifically for the over-17 crowd. Blade gave permission for Deadpool, Logan, and the Marvel Netflix universe to be their own bloody selves.