Shade the Changing Man: Difference between revisions

[[File:Shade_the_Changing_Man_60_Cover_2394.jpg|frame|Shade in his armor on the cover of issue 60.]]

 

 

 

The reboot was written in 1990 under Britwave author [[Peter Milligan]] and then-fledgling artist [[Chris Bachalo]]. Like the work of previous British authors [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[Alan Moore]], the series was highly experimental, combining history, mythology, literary allusions, and genre deconstruction. The series would run seventy issues, reaching its conclusion in 1996.

The series has a cult following, but can be difficult to find, although the first 19 issues have been republished in TPBs. In 2003, original author Peter Milligan teamed with Madman artist Mike Allred to write a one-off Shade story for Vertigo's tenth anniversary special.

 

 

* [[Affably Evil]]: The Devil, who comes across as a civilized, cultured gentleman {{spoiler|who eventually stabs Shade in the back. He is the Devil, after all}}.

* [[Alternate Universe]] - Meta.

** Not to mention the fact that Shade's reality altering powers are presented as an allegory for the authorial act of creation.

* [[Ax Crazy]]: Troy Grenzer and the supermarket gunman in the sheepskin jacket. Shade also has a short bout of it during his deal with the Devil.

'''Shade:''' He's not interested in souls. And he's not really the Devil. And he's not as bad as you think. Quite easygoing, really. }}

* [[Beat Still My Heart]]: Shade's heart is stolen by a squatter in his home after a battle. He embarks on [[Incredibly Lame Pun|a half-hearted rescue of it and when he finally catches up to it, has a heart-to-heart talk with it]]. {{spoiler|And then steps on it when he decides he's better off heartless.}} It appears from time to time, still beating, moving under its own power, and even has internal monologues.

* [[Blessed with Suck]] / [[Cursed with Awesome]]

* [[Changed My Jumper]]: On the rare examples of time-travel, it was easily [[Handwaved]] by Shade only appearing to personalities known to stay under the influence of substances, sometimes including hallucinogens. In one unique aversion, all of Hotel Shade and everything inside reverted gradually to earlier analogues and fashions, until they finally arrived in colonial Salem. Constantine mused on the fit of various underwear through history.

* [[Dysfunction Junction]] - played straight with some characters, subverted by other characters who are just trying to seem more interesting than their actual background would suggest, and inverted by others who come across perfectly stable in spite of having every reason to go mad.

* [[Emotionless Girl]]: The Passionchild, an androgynous pretty boy who incited emotion to the psychotic degree in everyone around him, but never expressed anything. He didn't even speak until Shade cracked into his inner world, and found nothing.

* [[Enemy Within]]: For Shade (thanks to the [[Green Rocks|power of madness]]) Hades became an [[Enemy Without]] and an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] in the same story arc. He also seemed to become less threatening and more helpful, so perhaps it's for the best that he vanished the scene before [[Badass Decay|Spikeification]] set in.

* [[Expository Hairstyle Change]]: Every time Shade {{spoiler|dies}}

* [[Gender Bender]]: Shade's consciousness leaps into the body of a recently murdered woman. Unfortunately, he was unable to alter her body to resemble his old one until he solved her murder and put her soul at rest. This led to various comical scenes with Shade experiencing the [[Male Gaze]], his first period and sex as a woman.

* [[Who Shot JFK?]]: The second and third issue give us a Sphinx with JFK's head that asks people this question and eats them when they're unable to answer. The JFK-Sphinx's madness is fueled by a Kennedy admirer-turned conspiracy theorist. In the end, he's forced to ask the question, {{spoiler|and says we're all responsible, for letting the President's death overshadow his life}}, but the real truth is {{spoiler|confronting the manifestation of his obsession allows him to come to terms with the death of his young daughter, which he can only blame on life's unfairness}}.

* [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?]]: In the final issues, after [[The DCU|DC]] had decided to cancel, Lenny is describing Shade to her father.

''(both look out of panel)'' }}

 

[[Category:DC Comics Series]]

[[Category:Shade the Changing Man]]