Shade (comics)

Shade
Artwork for the cover of Starman vol. 2, 6 (April, 1994 DC Comics). Art by Tony Harris.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Flash Comics #33 (September, 1942)
Created by	Gardner Fox Hal Sharp
In-story information
Alter ego	Richard Swift
Team affiliations	Injustice Society
Notable aliases	"Dicky", "Mr. Black", "Louie", Immortal Wielder of Shadows
Abilities	Shadow manipulation (ability to control darkness) Ability to travel great distances in short amounts of time Create constructs out of shadows Does not age Virtual immortality

The Shade (Richard Swift) is a comic book character developed in the 1940s for National Comics, first appearing in the pages of Flash Comics in a story titled "The Man Who Commanded the Night", scripted by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Hal Sharp. Debuting as a villain, the Shade was best known for fighting against two generations of superheroes, most notably the Golden Age and Silver Age versions of the Flash. He eventually became a mentor for Jack Knight, the son of the Golden Age Starman Ted Knight, a hero the Shade had also fought.

Though initially portrayed in the Golden Age comics as a thief with a cane that could manipulate shadows, the character was reinvented in 1994 as a morally ambiguous Victorian era immortal who gained the ability to manipulate shadows and his immortality from an unexplained mystical event. In 2009, the Shade was ranked as IGN's 89th Greatest Villain of All Time.

The 'Shade' draws his alias and source of power from Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, specifically its first book, "Inferno", which describes the Nine Rings of Hell. This poem is the most cited depiction of Hell, and the various characters in the story referred to as "the Shade" are references to the perpetual darkness of Hell itself. The comic book villain "The Shade" uses his power of perpetual night to cast a blanket of darkness over various parts of the world. In darkness, evil triumphs.

The Shade was introduced in Flash Comics #33, as a villain for the original Golden Age Flash. He was portrayed as a thief who could manipulate the shadows with a magical cane. He fought both the Golden Age Flash and his Silver Age counterpart Barry Allen. He was a member of several supervillain teams, including the Injustice Society. Shade was one of three villains used for the first meeting of the two heroes in the famous "Flash of Two Worlds" story, which reintroduced the Golden Age Flash to the Silver Age. He was jailed along with the Wizard and Fiddler. In the "Crisis on Earth-S" story (Justice League of America #136) he is one of King Kull's agents positioned on Earth-S to wipe out humanity there. With Doctor Light he causes perpetual night and darkness on either side of the planet, but is met by Bulletman and Hawkman.