The Shade

Oh come now, dear sirs, it's the Shade. How can anyone make the Shade unlikeable? He's perfectly charming and roguish, and verra verra British....And come on, he was friends with Wilde and Dickins. WHY IS THIS NOT A FULL SERIES? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, DC?Also, when is the Shade coming to The Flash tv show?

Mr. Robinson does not fail to provide more insight into the rich and layered world of Opal City and its relationship to the DC Universe. The Shade story fascinated me from the first page to the last. I was sad to see it end; however, I was thoroughly satisfied. Please sir, May I have more?

HUGE fan of James Robinson, I even liked his run on Justice League. Starman being one of my favorite comic runs ever, I knew I had to pick this up. The story is pure awesomeness. It ties into Starman very well, but you can read this without reading Starman. My only problem is the art, that's why it gets 4 stars not 5. Every few parts, the artist changes and it just doesn't work for me. If the book just had Cully Hammer (who was the first artist in the series) as the artist for all 12 issues, I would've easily given this 5 stars. This book is great and a great value

Book ReviewExcelent time-jumping story about an inmortal and the legacy he left throughout the years. One of DC Comics best standalone volumes in the New 52.Shipment Review:Delivered in excelent condition.

We really missed the Shade. An urbane, witty and decidedly pragmatic hero-who-used-to-be-a-villain, he makes me want to dig out my old Roger Zelazny's JACK OF SHADOWS. But then I'd be reading Zelazny for weeks....

Dark powers and an exploration into a underdeveloped character. Great comic in story and quality!

i was unfamiliar with the shade in anything other than a supporting role. both writing and art match well. i'll be continuing this series.

Big fan of Robinson's Starman, and liked the previous mini-series he did featuring the Shade. This story was supposed to provide the origin of the Shade. However, that story was really only focused on in the last chapter, and didn't provide much new information than was told in the last mini-series and left you with more questions than answers.

A book this good was seriously made at the time of the New 52?! I mean seriously I picked this up after reading the Flash story Speed of Darkness which introduced me to this version of the Shade so I look up his own book I was not disappointed. This book is really, really well written, jumps across DC Earth while switching between the present and various points of the 19th and 20th centuries and has a witty anti hero lead teaming up with colourful heroes from all over the planet.

I came across this comic by accident, and I felt hooked. The artwork was colorful and trippy. The story involves an anti-hero, the Shade, who was once a full-on villain in past DC Comics tales. Anti-heros have allure because they are not perfect and appeal to both our lighter and darker natures, so they create an effective balance between the fantastic escapism of a wild story and believability and human element so we can relate to it all better.The Shade is more or less immortal, and manipulates shadows and can even make them have solid qualities, and he can vanish within them and reappear in other places, and so forth. It's always a trick to present tension and conflict in a story where the lead character seems invincible, yet it is done well here! If you are not crazy about too many comic cliches and guys in capes flying around to foil the bad guys, this is a refreshing alternative. Of course, there are still some cliches, but none to taint the whole experience. The feel of the story is mature and smart yet funny at times. It takes place in multiple eras, and many places on Earth and elsewhere. There is always this nice overtone of blended flavors of Victorian/Gothic/HP Lovecraft/Supernatural/Strange/Modern.It is a limited series of only 12 issues, and doesn't drag on and on and linger on unnecessary points, and leaves any gaps up to your mind to fill. Anyhow, I was going to track down the separate issues, but found it simpler to just buy this volume which compiles it all into a neat package. It is printed full color on glossy paper, which is very nice. It has bonus alternate cover artwork interspersed throughout, and some simple character sketches at the back of the book. It is a series that has used different artists for different issues, which is nice for further variety, yet it flows. You don't turn a page and get shocked that everything looks so different that you wonder if you are reading the same comic.For the money it's a great buy. Such high quality printing, excellent art and story for $20 or under (average). I've seen compiled volumes for the same price on ragtag newsprint printed in black and white. Get it !

Dans sa présentation moderne, The Shade fait son apparition dans le premier n° du magazine "Starman" publié par DC Comics en 1994. Le scénariste britannique James Robinson (né en 1963) venait d'obtenir l'autorisation d'Archie Goodwin de relancer le personnage de Starman, né au cours du Golden Age des comics et qui avait connu divers avatars plus ou moins logiques. L'une des idées de Robinson était de resituer l'ensemble des épisodes précédents, et particulièrement les différents titulaires du nom "Starman", dans une continuité.Mais dans cette série qui a été publiée jusqu'en 2001 et qui est désormais disponible dans une intégrale en 6 volumes (' The Starman Omnibus 1 ' et s.), l'histoire des Starmen se double notamment d'une histoire de The Shade, au point que ce personnage semble parfois menacer de récupérer le comic book !Wikipedia précise qu'à l'origine, The Shade est un des ennemis de divers super-héros du Golden Age, et plus particulièrement du Flash. Robinson nous le présente comme un personnage à la longue histoire criminelle mais qui est devenu très attaché à la ville d'Opal, donc à son héros Starman et à sa police, personnifiée par la famille 0'Dare. Il s'est assagi, à défaut peut-être d'être en paix avec lui-même.Tout au long de la série "Starman", nous apprenons par divers flashbacks mettant en scène ce mémorialiste quelques uns de ses principaux méfaits et notamment son opposition avec la famille Ludlow. Chacune de ses apparitions apporte alors un élément de terreur à un comic book qui n'en manque pas avec The Mist comme principal ennemi des Starmen !En effet, l'immortel The Shade tue sans pitié ni remord (apparent) grâce à sa capacité de piloter une sombre force qui peut soit vous désosser soit vous expédier dans un endroit obscur et terrible (the shadow void) dont on ne peut réchapper.Ce recueil reprend les 12 n° de la série limitée que DC Comics a confié à James Robinson en 2011, mais en dehors du mouvement général conduit par ailleurs sous le nom de "The New 52!". Mises à part diverses apparitions ponctuelles, c'est la première fois depuis Starman que The Shade revient dans une série d'une certaine durée et probablement la première fois que cette série lui est consacrée.Aux dessins, on trouve Cully Hamner (#1-3), Darwyn Cooke (#4), Javier Pulido (#5-7), Jill Thompson (#8), Frazer Irving (#9-11) et Gene Ha (#12). Une telle rotation, et tant de styles différents, pourraient inquiéter mais en réalité, à chaque dessinateur correspond une histoire ou un story-arc précis.Au moment où Robinson nous refamiliarise avec The Shade, alias Richard "Dickie" Swift, ce dernier mène une vie apaisée sinon oisive, en couple avec Hope O'Dare, dans sa chère Opal City. "You need an adventure" lui glisse la policière. The Shade, qui toutefois a déjà presque 2 siècles d'existence derrière lui, en convient. Et l'aventure ne tarde pas à arriver qui va lui imposer de faire face à ses responsabilités de patriarche...La série complète le tableau des "flash-backs" lus dans 'Starman', ajoute une intrigue bien actuelle, et permet d'aller à la rencontre de différents personnages. Certains ont déjà été croisés dans 'Starman' (cf. Simon Cusp) mais la grande majorité est nouvelle.On l'aura compris, cette série attirera les fans de 'Starman' mais elle se révèlera parfois ardue à lire pour les néophytes. Robinson n'écrit pas ses dialogues comme Bendis !L'une des très bonnes surprises de la série est la rencontre de The Shade avec sa "fille" (c'est compliqué mais expliqué !) à Barcelone, avec aux dessins de susnommé Pulido (pas grand-chose en ce moment sur le Web en termes de biographie le concernant...), bien que de prime abord son style soit pour moi un "acquired taste". Le dernier chapitre conte les origines de The Shade en 1838. Cooke n'est pas à contre-emploi puisqu'il lui est confié d'illustrer un flash-back qui prend place dans les années 1940 aux USA.Trahisons conjugales, démons, vampires, égyptologie barrée, pirates de haute mer, Charles Dickens et bien d'autres sont au programme d'un volume qui toutefois ne convainc pas totalement et ne constitue par le "page turner" que l'on aurait pu espérer.*** et 1/2 The Starman Omnibus 1

It is evident that James Robinson loves this amoral character from his Starman sequence. He has quite simply written his best story since that eponymous series. The book is a joy from beginning to end, explaining as it does much of the backstory to the character. Great to see the blue Starman and a member of the O'Dare family at the start of the book too.We need more writing of this quality- the sheer exuberance of the writing jumps from the page. Oh, and the art is consistently good, too!