The Shade first appeared in the 1940's as an adversary for the original Flash. Eventually he would become a constant thorn to both Jay Garrick and Barry Allen. Eventually in the 1990's the Shade was revealed as Richard Swift, an immortal Englishman who gained his powers in a 1838 incident. As the Shade, Swift gets his powers from the Darklands, an extradimensional darkness which offers him the ability to wield shadow constructs and travel great distances. These powers also made him seemingly immortal, and so powerful that Doctor Fate once suggested even the Spectre would have problems dealing with hi,.

Eventually the Shade became more of an antihero, often mentoring Jack Knight in his legacy role as the Starman of Opal City, while retelling tales of his previous exploits, including his friendship with Charles Dickens as well a his ages long battle with the Ludlow family who sought revenge for prior incidences. His motives often ambiguous, the Shade is a staunch defender of his adopted home, Opal City, and often finds himself battling alongside the heroes despite his questionable history.

The Shade has a pretty simple look, and because such I put him off for a longtime until I could find a head that I felt closely resembled how he is often depicted. I finally settled on this FF Movie Reed Richards head as I thought the hairstyle and shape of the face was a pretty decent look, and the fact that Ioan Gruffud is Welsh, also put me in the right vicinity, lol. Besides the head I used a DC Universe Uncle Sam body and hat (sure it would've been nice to have a Mad Love tuxedo Joker body handy but such is life). I switched the coat to a Movie Masters Joker coat so he didn't look like just another DCUC figure in spats and tails. I also switched the hands to the Multiverse Suicide Squad Joker hands since they were ungloved and the proper size. I also used the cane from the same Joker figure just resculpted a handle that looked enough like the eagle-handled cane the Shade was often carried. Besides that I repainted some dollhouse glasses I picked up online, and added the energy burst from an ML Nico Minoru figure (repainted black) and the tentacles from an Agent Venom figure to represent his powers.

So it's a simple look, but I think the overall appearance is a good representation of the character. If you're interested, I'd recommend the 1990's Starman series by James Robinson, as well as the The Shade series' by Robinson as well. I'm also posting a custom La Sangre figure, who was a character that appeared in a 3-issue arc of the most recent The Shade maxi-series. Please check her out as well!

And thanks for looking at the Shade!