The Shade

Name: Unknown

Relatives: Unknown

Allies: NY midtown local drug dealers

Enemies: Spider-man, Richard Cranston, those he took to the astral plane. Indirectly - Doctor Strange

Powers: Strength slightly above average. Can transport matter and himself to and from the astral plane. Can become intangible. Needs others to enter the Astral Plane into an energy-like cocoon in order to regain tangibility in the real world.

Origin: Shade was the cellmate of a sorcerer in jail, and said sorcerer set up a ritual to go to the Astral Plane. As he was near the end of the ritual, Shade interrupted the ritual and entered the Astral plane instead. The sorcerer went crazy and he was changed into The Shade.

1st Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man V2 #40

June 2002

Origin: Amazing Spider-Man V2 #40

Last Seen: Amazing Spider-Man V2 #42

Fear Rating: 3 (out of 10)

The Shade Appearances
Date	Issue	Comments
1/02	Amazing Spider-Man #478	Only a behind the scene appearance.
6/02	Amazing Spider-Man #481	Battles Spider-Man for the first time.
7/02	Amazing Spider-Man #482	Spider-Man learns the origin of the Shade.
8/02	Amazing Spider-Man #483	The Shade is defeated in the Astral Plane by Spider-Man.

Brief History

Upon returning to our dimension, the Shade realized that in order to prevent becoming intangible and ethereal he had to take people to the Astral Plane and place them into strange dimension-magic draining cocoons. He began taking tearaways and drug addicts, and was helped in this by the drug dealers at the school where Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, worked as a science teacher. Spidey eventually confronted Shade, after learning of his existence from one of his young students named Jenny, who lived in a bad area of town full of drug addicts. Spider-Man was on the verge of defeating the Shade, when the Shade decided to take off and enter the Astral Plane. Spider-Man now needed help.

He received that help from an investigator that brought him to Richard Cranston, who had a symbol burned into his neck similar to the Shade. While learning how to gain the Astral Plane in prison (for murder), Richard became very close to his goal. A fellow inmate stole his "ticket" into the Plane, just as Richard formed a pentagram and cast a spell to enter it. Richard ended up in an asylum. Then, enlisting the aid of Dr. Strange and the Hand of Vishanti, Spider-Man went to the Astral Plane himself and confronted the Shade. He rescued his many victims, and threw Shade into one of his own cocoons causing an explosion that apparently killed him. Spidey left, apparently not feeling any guilt for killing a man.

Thanks to Robert Norton for writing the profile

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