Powers: Shade wore a Madness-Vest that allowed him to alter reality.

History: (Shade, The Changing Man II #4 (fb)) - Rac Shade was from the dimension Meta, and was a highly emotional and romantic dreamer, a lover of poetry and nature. At thirteen he fell in love with Radhu, a neighbor girl, and snuck into her room to watch her sleep. Her father was upset by this, and it was decided that Shade must undergo the Metan confirmation; a sacred surgeon removed the madness borne by Metans from his mind so he could be a respectable young man. They could not completely eradicate Shade's emotional nature, and his personality profile perfectly fit a candidate for the Changemasters. Master Changemaster Wizor taught him the skill of astral projection, and showed him the unseen places where a Metan could travel to Earth for three hours at a time. Shade loved Earth, and Wizor told him days of change were coming, and as a Changing Man he'd ensure that these strange days wouldn't affect Meta. He was given a M-Vest to harness the power of madness, and assigned to bring the American Scream back to the Area of Madness, from which he'd escaped to Earth. Shade was engaged to Mellu, and had to tell her he wouldn't see her for a bit. Upon entering the Area of Madness he soulcasted down to Earth, and Wizor promised him his body would be safe in the Area until his mission was completed.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #1) - Shade's soul needed a body to inhabit, but would kill the former occupant, so he chose serial killer Troy Grenzer, who was moments away from being electrocuted by the state. Shade's entry into our reality caused a burst of madness, and the prison was enveloped with a glow and bizarre illusory thing. Kathy George's parents had been killed by Grenzer, and she was in Louisiana for his execution. Shade, having escaped the prison, begged her to drive him away, and promised he was a vistor from another realm, and not Grenzer at all, although he felt the remains of his subconscious. Kathy George had experienced hallucinations since witnessing her parents murder, so the madness that accompanied Sahde didn't bother her much, but she still believed him to be Troy Grenzer, and planned on killing him. They drove out of Louisiana and staid at a small hotel, and after Kathy worked up some drunk courage she came at Shade with a knife. Shade still wasn't in control of the M-Vest, and summoned illusory versions of Kathy's parents and Grenzer, who went after her. Kathy fought back and stabbed the false Grenzer to death, which she found therapeutic. The hotel proprietors recognized "Troy" and called the police, but Shade manifested an anthropomorphic electric chair, and they fainted. Kathy had nothing better to do, and finally trusted Shade to an extent, so she staid on the run with him.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #2, 3) - Shade saw madness in the skies, and told Kathy to follow it. He hoped that when he reacclimated to using the M-Vest his memories would cease to be fuzzy, but until then he knew he had to pursue the American Scream. They drove to Dallas, and were stopped at a roadblock. Shade changed his face so he wouldn't be recognized, but he chose the visage of JFK. This confused the highway patrol, and Kathy drove through their barricade. Shade sensed the American Dream was manipulating someone obsessed with the JFK assassination, but he didn't know what that was, so Kathy explained the national tragedy to him. They reached Dealy Plaze, where a giant stone Kennedy Sphinx demanded to know who killed him, and ate those who failed to answer his riddle. Shade used his powers to save a woman and her child from the sphinx, and followed the madness to the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald had his sniper nest, admitting he was just winging it. Duane Trilby, who was obsessed with writing the definitive book on the JFK assassination had been possessed by the American Scream. Shade and Kathy blacked out, and awoke as Kennedy and Jackie in the motorcade right before the assassination. Duane arrived, and forced Shade / JFK's head down, saving him. He told the Kennedy's he'd made it his life mission to solve his murder, which was really a distraction from him not understanding why his daughter Mary-Ann had to die of a heart defect. JFK told him they were going to the White House together, and make the most of his presidency. Shade finally came to his senses, and all three returned to the present day and themselves. Kathy was freaked out, and Shade was sorry to tell her she was part of the madness now too. The Kennedy sphinx swallowed Kathy when she couldn't answer his riddle, and Shade needed to pull Duane out of his madness and away from the American Scream. He appeared to him as Mary-Ann and showed him shadows of the past, of which there were multiple branching possibilities. A government or mob hit was the most likely culprit, but there were many others who could or did kill Kennedy, but Shade needed him to realize one hand was behind all the outcomes. The American people were all guilty he said, because they had to kill their god-king to keep his legend pure. Shade ended the visions, to find that Kathy had escaped the sphinx by herself. Duane came unhinged when Shade refused to turn back into Mary-Ann, and shot him dead. He answered the Sphinx's riddle, dispelling the Scream's presence. Shade expected this outcome, and had switched mind and body with Duane, so with the Scream gone they resumed their own identities, and Duane was dead by his own hand and Shade alive. Federal agent Stringer had been pursuing Kathy and Shade since Shade's entry to our plane, and finally tracked the duo down.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #4) - Shade was drawn back to the Area of Madness, leaving behind a two-dimensional outline of his body. Stringer took Kathy into custody, and listened to her story about Shade. He chose to leave Kathy and the outline alone in the interrogation room and observe them. In the Area the American Scream said he'd destroy Shade's soul and mind until he was just a mouth, pelting him with a torrential storm and leaving him mired in mud while he fully remembered his past. The Scream showed him his decaying body, telling him that the Changemasters that sent Sahde after him had betrayed him, and he'd be locked in the body of Tony Grenzer. Kathy entered the Area through Shade's outline, and he feeling of love snapped Shade out of his despair, enabling him to return to Earth. Kathy and Shade found themselves in Arizona, and took a hotel room. Kathy said she wanted to know everything about Shade because she foresaw them getting together, even though she admitted the prospect was insane. Shade managed to transform Troy's body to resemble his own, and created a proper Metan outfit to wear.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #5, 6) - Shade and Kathy ran out of money, and Shade asked her what to do next. She said they could get a job or they could starve. They made their way to Hollywood, where American Scream was distorting reality to create films about the stars and producers of Hollywood Monsters, revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. The Scream killed the director of the film, and turned him into one of the monsters in the movie. He pursued two moviegoers to their daughter's house, and Shade arrived in time to prevent anymore killing, aside from ending the director's half-life. Shade and Kathy returned to their lodgings only to find that the American Scream had turned the interior into an elaborate movie set. Kathy told Shade she'd go mad if she didn't get a drink in her. In the midst of the Busby Berkely set the Scream summoned a number of ordinary citizens, who fell into the set's waters and were devoured by the shark from Jaws. Shade and Kathy were sucked into the exploitation film Biker Trash before being forced to reenact scenes from the action flick Lethal Acting. Kathy was strapped into a chair in an empty theatre and forced to watch her parents being murdered until Shade saved her. She told Shade that when she was in the Kennedy sphinx she'd met Duane's daughter, and knew she was a spirit and not part of the madness because she'd given Kathy her stuffed toy which still existed once she was out of the sphinx. She told Shade she suspected the M-Vest could contact the spirit world, and her experience was proof that there was life after death. SDhade knew she wanted to see her parents again, but tried to dissuade her from the idea. Their conversation was cut short by a tidal wave, and at Kathy's suggestion Shade used the M-Vest to rewrite Scream's script, even as he submerged all of Hollywood into multi-layered movies. Their plan worked, beating back the madness, and Shade located the video camera the Scream had possessed to terrorize Tinsel Town. He smashed it to bits, and reality returned to normal.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #7) - Shade used the M-Vest to create money, and played a card hustler until he gained some physical money. Kathy used the money to get drunk, but Shade said he couldn't rish losing his senses, and was worried about her drinking. Kathy told him not to lecture her, and assured him she didn't have a problem. In their sleep the madness stream brought them to NYC. The Scream latched onto a prisoner named Greely who volunteered burying the nameless on Hart Island. He saw himself as ending up as one of the nameless, and the Scream made his plea for the humans treated like refuse into a garbage storm that consumed Manhattan. The garbage turned everyone it touched into homeless and forgotten vagrants and junkies, using the potential within them to fall, and showing them what might have been. Kathy was transformed into an alcoholic living in the slums of Alphabet City. The Scream created a garbage golem, and Shade entered it to reach Greely's cell. From there he went to Hart Island, and the grave of the nameless man Greely had buried. He saw his whole history, from a hopeful young man looking to make a name for himself in the city to his slide into alcoholism. His name was Gregory Stephenson, and once Shade gave Greely that knowledge the Scream lost his power over him, and NYC was restored to relative normalcy. Kathy was still in the slums, and Shade went searching for her, but the madness stream swept him away from the city to pursue Scream.

(Shade, The Changing Man II #8, 9) - Shade arrived in San Francisco, where the Scream had endowed aging hippy Arnold Major with the power to see into different aspects of reality. Major populated each realm with communes, and Shade explored the Pink Heaven Commune filled with the power of love and flower children. Major told Shade to stop fighting the Scream, and to allow America to spiritually die so it could be reborn. Shade just wanted to leave and find Kathy, and managed to briefly manifest in NYC,m where Kathy had hit rock bottom with her new friend Lenny. Shade was pulled back to Pink Heaven where Flowerchild convinced him to make love to her to keep the energy flowing. The experience convinced Shade that Major's vision was correct, and the American Scream's madness could be channeled to recreate America as a nation of love. Shade's subconscious was transformed into a giant fetus, and manifested in Lenny's apartment. The fetus told Kathy he loved her, even if his conscious mind didn't realize it, and asked her to help him pull away from Arnold Major be calling to him. Shade saw cracks in Major's work, and when he upset Major he was attacked by werewolf boy scouts. Major tried to merge himself to Shade and Scream, and succeeded to a degree. Shade entered the All the Girls Really Like Me Commune, where the members were dissatisfied with Major. Major said he was a jealous god, and blinded the complainers. Pink Heaven began to unravel, but Major refused to admit that the Scream was manipulating him for his own ends. The Pan-Weirdness Church of America, who saw the madness spreading across the country as divine, broke into Lenny's apartment and proclaimed Shade the fetus as the Anti-Weird and prepared to burn him alive. Lenny and Kathy fought off the cultists while Shade, seeing Major on a crucifix, finally made him see that his vision of love was really one of ego, causing his worlds to crumble. Shade emerged from his fetus self, and Kathy demanded the cultists leave. Kathy decided to spend the night with Shade, but as passion dulled his reason yhe manifested the dying Major, turning off Kathy. Lenny reported that the government had performed a surgical strike on the center of San Francisco, destroying Major and his communes.

(JSA #35) - The Ultra-Humanite used Johnny Thunder s Thunderbolt to conquer the world, and imprisoned Black Lightning and virtually every superhuman on Earth in stasis tubes, only reviving them when he needed mind-controlled slaves to serve in his personal guard the Thunderfront. Shade served as a member of the Thunderguard when they attacked the JSA, the only heroes not under the Humanite's control. The JSA used a device that disrupted the braincaps Humanite used to control the Thunderfront, leaving them unconscious but freed from Humanite s mental domination. The JSA later defeated Humanite.

(Hellblazer I #268) - John Constantine's life was torn apart by madness, a curse put on him by Carew, a magician obsessed with John's friend Epiphany. John ended up in a hospital ward, and summoned Shade back to the world. Shade first contacted Lenny, who'd gotten her life together, and reminded her she owed him. Lenny broke John out, and brought him to Shade, who was inhabiting the body of one of the catatonic patients. Shade said John had practically begged for him, so he demanded a kiss on the mouth.

(Hellblazer I #269, 270) - Kissing Shade John thought about the time he'd kissed Kathy George, and how unforgettable she was. John sensed that Shade was no longer a gentle poet, but malicious and eaten alive by bitterness. John convinced Shade and Lenny to have a drink at the pub with him, and when Lenny mentioned that Kathy thought John was sexy Shade threw a fit and destroyed their table with a bolt of energy. Lenny said she'd fulfilled her obligation to Shade, and had him send her home, reminding him she was Kathy's friend, not his, and if Kathy had listened to her she would have dumped Shade. After many desperate attempt Epiphany finally got a hold of John on the phone, and asked if he had messed with her potions, because her healing salve had further scarred her face. He hadn't, but said he'd help her, even though she emphatically said she didn't want to see him, and he didn't want him to see her scarred face. Shade said he wanted something from John, he wanted him to resurrect Kathy George, and John was having none of it. Reality started disappearing in front of John again, and Shade brought him to another world, the underside of the universal subconscious, threatening to strand him there if he didn't help him bring back Kathy. He said John should have taken her from him when he had the chance, and John suddenly understood the jealousy and hatred Shade was exuding at him. He lied and said he never thought of Kathy after their kiss, and promised him the dead needed to move on, and interfering only hurt them. He seemed to convince Shade, and they returned to Earth and Epiphany's lab, where she'd overdosed on pills. Commented that she reminded him of Kathy. Epiphany shot awake and vomited, the pills she took were another remedy, albeit a desperate one. John almost confessed his love for her when he was afraid she was dead, and she encouraged him to go on. Shade examined her healing salve, and determined that his arrival on Earth caused parallel infections of madness. Since John loved her face, the madness tried to destroy it. Epiphany talked about blaming Carew, who thought he loved her, and John's intuition kicked in. Epiphany lured Carew to the lab, and John took him up to the roof, causing him to think he was being consumed by hellfire. Shade asked Epiphany if John ever mentioned Kathy, and was furious when she said he didn't He manifested Kathy's wardrobe in her lab, and started blubbering over it, causing John to rush downstairs. Carew had used the whispered curse to make Constantine lose his mind if he ever started wanting Epiphany, which resulted in his madness, which he put an end to by murdering Carew. Shade offered to take Epiphany back to Meta, to fix her face with the madness. John pleaded with her to stay, admitting he loved her, and saying they should get married because he wasn't getting any younger. Epiphany was tempted, but decided to leave with Shade, who was pressuring her, for Meta.

(Hellblazer I #271, 272) - On Meta Shade repaired Epiphany's face, and made her into the double of Kathy George. He'd built Kathy World, an entire world dedicated to her, and when Epiphany reminded him she wasn't Kathy he said she would be. He gave her Kathy's diary, and told her to memorize it. Epiphany played along, and pretended that she was Kathy, make Shade deliriously happy, until he rough language struck him as something his sweet good Kathy would never say. Epiphany admitted she was trying to lull him into false security so he'd stop guarding her, at which point she'd look for poisons to feed to him and kill him. Shade was horrified, and she said she was a Greaves, and that's how they handled their business. Shade threw a fit, and agreed to send her home with her proper place. Kathy found herself back in London, but in the year 1979. John wasn't mad enough to contact Shade, so in an act of last reort he pitched himself out the window and passed through Meta. Shade was reading Kathy's journal, fuming over some of her nicer comments about John, and told John to leave because Epiphany wasn't with him anymore.

Comments: Created by Michael Fleisher & Steve Ditko.

Shade, the Changing Man received a profile in Who's Who in the DC Universe #7.

A version of Shade, the Changing Man unchanged from the Crisis on Infinite Earths appeared in post-Crisis Suicide Squad stories. Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths stated that the stories in Shade, the Changing Man II took place on pre-Crisis Earth-85, but this causes more continuity problems because the Shade from Shade, the Changing Man II appears in Hellblazer and JSA, and his enemy American Nightmare fought both Superman and Spectre.

Powers: Shade wore a M-Vest that presented a monstrous distorted version of himself, and gave him superhuman durability and flight.