Issues 1-70 of 'Shade - The Changing Man' Vol 2
Vertigo/DC Comics, 1990-1996
Writer - Peter Milligan
Artists - Chris Bachalo, Richard Case, Phil Gascoine, Daniel Vozzo, Mark Buckingham, Rick Bryant, Philip Bond, Colleen Doran, Mark Pennington, Bill Jaaska & more


Peter Milligan and the Vertigo Years

In July 1990, just six months after Shade's final appearance in Suicide Squad, the title and character were revived and revamped by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo. Coming at a time when DC were in the midst of the so-called "British Invasion" of creators, Shade was one of the last to debut in the first wave after Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and Grant Morrison's Animal Man.

This new series used some of the same names and concepts from the original, but these were few and far between; Rac Shade was now a lovelorn poet sent to Earth to stop a growing tide of madness from consuming the planet, while his M-Vest was now a Madness-Vest that he could use to warp reality. The comic still took place in the DC universe - John Constantine turned up for a three-issue story arc, Death of The Endless appeared in a subtle cameo in issue 50 and Shade appeared with a group of other Vertigo characters in 1999's Totems - and the original series was rationalized as being a story that Shade made up to amuse himself while traveling to Earth. However, this did not explain how the original Shade could work with the Suicide Squad.

Working from character designs by Brendan McCarthy, artist Chris Bachalo created a distinctive look for the comic which set it aside from the previous Ditko run and the characters' DC Universe appearances. Milligan made the stories uniquely surreal, and had a habit of killing Shade off only to bring him back in a changed form. In fact, Shade had five different forms throughout the series' run: a red-headed mopey poet; a woman; a black-haired madman; a red-haired, emotionless mod; and a bedraggled, unshaven obsessive.

The series followed its previously-mentioned antecedents from the British Invasion by using concepts and ideas which were at times controversial (for example, JFK's assassination and transgenderism) and unfamiliar with regular DC titles. To distinguish these more 'adult' themes, DC created a separate imprint to house titles such as Shade. This imprint, called Vertigo started in 1993 and Shade became one of the initial run of Vertigo titles from issue 33.

Shade was always a steady selling title for Vertigo. Though it never sold in spectacular numbers, it maintained a cult following. The title lasted 70 issues before finally being cancelled in 1996.