Real name: Richard Swift
First appearance: Flash Comics#33 (September 1942)
Abilities: Thief, shadow manipulation
Worst act: Theft, murder
Quotes: "By now the entire city is clothed in blackness! See that no cop remains in this city for the next two hours!"
Created by: Gardner Fox (script) and Harold Wilson Sharp (art)
Much like Two-Face, Lex Luthor, the Cheetah, and Solomon Grundy (and to a lesser extent the Sportsmaster), we'll take a special look back one particular member of our featured hero's rouges gallery that caught my fancy.
Now, endless parade of guys in suits and mad scientists aside Jay Garrick did tackle a few costumed villains, but I figured we'd look at the one member who's still be used to this age-The SHADE!
Which, looking back is honestly surprising. Two-Face had quite a few appearances in the 1940s before being brought back in the Silver Age. The Shade? He appeared a grand total of once.
Going from Flash Comics#33, we see the Shade as yet another guy in a suit. The only thing that sticks out is the giant machine he has that can vacuum up light.
Don't ya just love golden age science? Yeah, something must have stuck in Fox's mind because the next time we see the Shade would be the Flash#123 where we see the first meeting of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen. From there what would be a generic thief would be changed to a more themed character before James Robinson would totally reinvent the character in the 90's to the suave character we know today.
I'll give Fox and Robinson credit. The Golden age version was just a plain thief but Fox reworked him into an oddly dressed fellow who stole entire city but kept him as a generic villain. Robinson stepped in and gave him a backstory and so many moments of pure cool I could probably do a year of just him.
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