Shade, the Changing Man
Shade, the Changing Man is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Rac Shade was an extradimensional alien being who was an inhabitant of the world of Meta situated in the Meta-Zone in a dimension near Earth. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1)
In time, he came to be considered among the top agents on Meta where he was in the secret service and under the command of Lt. Emp who was his superior. During the course of his service, it was said that he was the only person to enter the Area of Madness and return unaffected. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2) Upon arriving on Earth, he came to operate from an apartment when he disguised himself as a human citizen. He worked alongside a fellow agent named Lt. Emp who operated under the identity of Kempo on Earth. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1) He later served as a training agent for new recruit Mellu Loron who first resented him for his strict training regimen and came to see him as a sadist. She changed her mind when her new talents and skills aided her immensely against some criminals where she came to appreciate Shade as an instructor. After passing her training, her family invited Shade to attend a party in celebration of their daughter entering the Metan Secret Service. Shade continued to be her advance instructor with the two becoming deeply involved and they later planned to get married with Mellu thus becoming his fiancé. By this point, he received a report from his direct superior Emp about a plot to take over Meta. Shade was then assigned to watch over Agam Loron for a plot on his life and was present when he discovered a deto-charge exploded badly wounding his charges. However, the incident was witnessed by Mellu and appeared as if Shade had planted the explosives that crippled her parents with her vowing to kill him. Shade was arrested for treason and Emp claimed that he was never assigned on the case with this all being part of a frame-up job designed to hide the true culprits of the crime. Upon his arrest, Shade was found guilty of his crimes by the authorities and given the death sentence. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #3) It was claimed that he was responsible for the attempted murder of Mello Loron's parents who were crippled for life as a result. This led to Mello hating Rac Shade where she wanted to kill him for what he had done to her family despite his protestations of innocence. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2) In the aftermath, he was arrested and detained on a prison on Meta alongside numerous other crime czars. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1)
When he arrived in the Earth-Zone, he decided to follow leads to find Emp so that he could prove his own innocence. This saw him targeting human criminals associated with Kempo leading to his capture where his quarry was brought to him. Kemp quickly tried to kill Shade but his M-Vest protected him and allowed him to defeat his captors with ease. He then attempted to force criminal to reveal who his boss was that ordered him to betray Shade but before he could do so a mental destruct command in his mind activated thus killing him to prevent him from revealing his secrets. Afterwards, he witnessed citizens fleeing in terror when the Metan criminal Zokag the Demolisher was attacking them after arriving on Earth with Shade slaying the villain after which he hid among the populace to prevent discovery. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1) Afterwards, he encountered another Metan crime czar named Form who could take the form of a gas and nearly defeated Shade by suffocating him but she then fled in order to take over the criminal underworld on Earth. Though losing Form, Shade managed to find Kempo's location and confronted his old superior where he overpowered him as well as threatened to send him into the Area of Madness. A scared Kempo cooperated and revealed that Captain Majan was involved in the conspiracy but before he could take the renegade Metan into custody Shade came under attack from Mellu Loron who tried to arrest her former fiancée allowing Emp to escape. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2) Shade managed to escape Mellu and travelled back to Meta in order to confront Captain Majan about the truth of the conspiracy. The pair were attacked by an invisible Metan criminal called the Cloak sent to eliminate them with Majan dying. When the authorities arrived, they could only see Rac Shade at the scene leading to them concluding he had killed Captain Majan forcing him to go on the run again from the authorities. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #3)
Shade came to return to the Meta-Zone where a manhunt came for him by the authorities. He managed to evade all the patrols where he disguised himself as a major where he looked for information to clear his name. In that time, he came to be unwittingly discovered by Colonel Kross forcing Shade to knock out the man. During his investigation, he came to find laboratory of the renegade scientist Gola Zae where Loron had confronted the criminal only to be knocked out by the villain's henchman. They were in the process of sending Loron into the Area of Madness with Shade jumping into the fray to save Mellu. Whilst there, she began to experience the madness of the zone until Shade rendered her unconscious to help her keep her sanity. Returning to Meta, he took Mellu to Dr. Sagan where he asked him to erase her memories of the madness to save Loron's life. The procedure required Loron to transfer the madness into Shade who had to process it without it destroying his own brain functions. Mellu came to have no memories of the incident with Shade struggling to prove his innocence and contemplating permanent exile to Earth. It was then a breakout was occurring from prisoners where Shade intervened only for him to be apprehended by agent Loron once she regained consciousness. Taken in by the authorities, the captive Shade was detained whilst they looked to arrange for his execution. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #4)
Shade
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Mellu Loron was a female Metan he was in love with at one point. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2) He had claimed that he would have no urge to live if she had died. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #4)
Powers and abilities
His powers were derived from his M-Vest that was described as being an illegal piece of technology. When activated, it generate force-field pulsations as it operated on emotions from the wearer where distortions formed from stress. The pulsating energy distorted people's perception of him according to their mental state with shock and fear combining with the pulsations to make Shade appear as a monster. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1) Even the wearers own mental state such as thoughts and actions could result in distortions which appeared as bizarre illusions. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2) Through the M-Vest, he was protected by a force field that acted as a buffer that safeguarded him from serious physical injury. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #1) Though he was not hurt by projectiles due to the forcefield, he was said to still feel their impact. Similarly, the forcefields form being distorted meant that they grew in size giving them far greater strength for physical attacks. Shade had said that he had not known the full extent of the abilities of the M-Vest. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2)
Earth's atmosphere made it difficult for Metans to detect powers or devices from Meta. (Shade the Changing Man v1 #2)
Notes
- Shade, the Changing Man was created by Steve Ditko where he made his first appearance in Shade the Changing Man v1 #1 (June, 1977).
Alternate Versions
- In Flashpoint: Secret Seven v1 (2011), an alternate version of Rac Shade appeared in the altered timeline of the Flashpoint.
In other media
Television
Films
Appearances
- Shade the Changing Man v1: (1977)
- Suicide Squad:
- Justice League Dark v1:
External Links
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