Shade

The Shade (Richard Swift) is a comic book character developed in the 1940s for National Comics, first appearing in the pages of Flash Comics in a story titled "The Man Who Commanded the Night", scripted by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Hal Sharp. Debuting as a villain, the Shade was best known for fighting against two generations of superheroes, most notably the Golden Age and Silver Age versions of the Flash. He eventually became a mentor for Jack Knight, the son of the Golden Age Starman, Ted Knight, a hero the Shade had also fought. Though portrayed in Silver Age comics as a thief with a cane that could manipulate shadows, the character was reinvented in 1994 as a morally ambiguous Victorian-era immortal who gained the ability to manipulate shadows and immortality from an unexplained mystical event. In 2009, the Shade was ranked as IGN's 89th-greatest villain of all time. The Shade appeared as a major character from the season 1 finale onwards in Stargirl, played by Jonathan Cake. Character inspiration Charles Dickens' story The Old Curiosity Shop features an English rake also named Richard, and a dwarf named Quilp. In continuity, it is suggested that Shade's story inspired Dickens to write The Old Curiosity Shop. James Robinson has stated that he drew some inspiration for the Shade's mannerisms and speech patterns from the British stage and screen actor Jonathan Pryce.