Shade, the Changing Man
Born in the creative ferment of DC's Bronze Age, Shade, the Changing Man made a striking entrance in Justice League of America #150 in 1978, courtesy of Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin. Over a remarkable four-decade-plus publishing life stretching from 1978 all the way to 2021, this character has woven through some of DC's most compelling corners, turning up across Action Comics Weekly, Adventures of Superman, and the supernatural ensemble of Justice League Dark. With three key-issue appearances to their name and a catalog presence that spans eras and tones, Shade keeps genuinely distinguished company — sharing pages with the likes of Superman, Vixen, and Rac Shade along the way. If you love DC characters with real longevity and a mysterious edge that bridges the Bronze Age to the modern era, this is one worth digging into.
#1
Trivia
- The 1990s reinvention of Shade, the Changing Man stands as one of the earliest flagship titles of Vertigo, a cornerstone of that imprint's hard-won reputation for surreal, adult-oriented comics.en.wikipedia.org
- That reinvention is widely credited with making the series a major foundation title alongside Sandman, Doom Patrol, and Animal Man, the quartet that collectively established the reinterpreted superhero model for Vertigo-era DC comics.en.wikipedia.org
- In the Milligan/Bachalo run, Shade spends part of the series in a woman's body, and the book explicitly uses that situation to interrogate identity in ways that were unusually bold for mainstream superhero comics at the time.en.wikipedia.org