The Shade (Stargirl TV Series)

Richard Swift, known as The Shade, is a character in The CW and DC Universe series, Stargirl.
Tall and slim with an elegant 19th century way to his speech and manners, Richard is an English immortal who masks the horrors he’s experienced and people he’s lost in all his time alive with wry, witty retorts and a false sense that nothing really matters.
Richard, under his alter-ego The Shade, is a former member of the Injustice Society of America who abandoned the cause after betraying Jordan Mahkent. He returns to Blue Valley after the destruction of the ISA following their failed execution of Project New America. Upon his return, Richard befriended Barbara Whitmore and has a brief conflict with the new Justice Society of America until he demonstrates his heroism, revealing his friendship with Charles McNider and helping them defeat Eclipso. After forming a connection with Jennie-Lynn Hayden and Todd Rice, Shade becomes a mentor to the younger generation of heroes.
==Biography==
===Stargirl===
====Season One (2020)====
To be Added
====Season Two (2021)====
To be Added
====Season Three (2022)====
To be Added
==Powers and Abilities==
===Powers===
*Umbrakinesis: The Shade is a powerful being possessing unspeakable power. His most notable and dangerous power is the ability to manipulate, control, and harness shadows. He can command the shadows to take any form he desires, though he prefers hands or arms, as seen in both 2010 and the modern day. He can produce shadows on command, such as when he interrupted the JSA and Injustice Unlimited to create a barrier full of shadows that corrupted everyone's line of sight. Richard can also telekinetically move people and objects by making his shadows phase between corporeal and incorporeal forms. He tossed the new JSA around like rag dolls without lifting a finger, solely surrounding them in corporeal shadows. His powers are bonded to him at a cellular level, as his wounds leaked shadows when he was weakened from the Black Diamonds destruction. He retreated into the Shadowlands to recharge himself. When Eclipso started to merge Earth and the Shadowlands, Shade's powers were restored.
** Darkness Force Field: Using his power over shadows, Shade can generate a circular-shaped force field capable of blocking attacks. He was able to defend himself and the JSA from Eclipso's powers by placing a force-field of shadows around the group. He recreated this shield when he prepared to fight Eclipso. However, the shields he produced were not immune to physical attacks, as Eclipso walked through the barrier due to their shared origins of The Shadowlands.
** Electromagnetic Interference: Whenever Richard enters a lit area, his powers snuff out the lights. He uses this ability to conceal his entrances and exits, allowing him to slip in and out of an area undetected.
** Eye Transformation: When the Black Diamond was put back together, Richard's eyes turned black as a sign that his powers returned. He turned his eyes black again to threaten The Gambler.
** Flight: As Richard has the ability to turn into darkness, he can also use his shadow form to fly or "float" away.
** Shadow Stealth: The ability to disguise or cloak oneself within shadows, becoming virtually invisible. Richard's powers don't just allow him to control darkness, but also turn into shadows, allowing him to move between shadows, turn invisible, and evade attacks. He used this power to navigate Blue Valley undetected, slipping in and out of rooms undetected with others only noticing his presence when he declares it.
** Teleportation: Shade can use shadows to teleport himself from one location to another without leaving a trace of evidence behind. When using this power, he is surrounded in dark shadows that fade away after he leaves. He can also speak through shadows and communicate using them. If he is unable to teleport his entire body, he sends a ball of shadows in his place. When Richard seemingly died, his body faded into shadows before disappearing altogether. His teleportation is his most notable way of movement, preferring it over any other dramatic entrance or exit. He can also teleport other people alongside him. He took Courtney to Helix with him, while Pat jumped into the shadows and hitched a ride. Richard can also open shadow portals that people can walk through to travel from one location to another.
** Tentacle Generation: Richard is able to generate shadow tentacles to attack and restrain his foes and lift himself into the air to give himself a height advantage. He can also create objects with shadows. During the battle against the Justice Society, The Shade conjured a massive shadow hand to drag away Dr. Mid-Nite. He also created an arsenal of shadow tentacles in the form of elongated arms to defend himself against the Thunderbolt.
* Immortality: Because he serves as a vessel for the dark energy summoned from The Shadowlands, Richard is an immortal man, who has lived since at least the 1800s. He shows no signs of ever having aged since then.
** Enhanced Durability: Richard has some degree of enhanced durability. He crashed down through the island in the middle of the Whitmore-Dugan kitchen, and was virtually unscathed. He was also able to take the full blast of the Cosmic Staff at point blank range and get up relatively easily despite still taking damage.
* Dimensional Manipulation: Since Richard's umbrakinesis powers come from the Shadowlands, he has the ability to access the realm. He can open doorways that lead to and from the Shadowlands, which are accessible by any individual in the proximity of these "doorways". However, he is incapable of discerning if a target is stranded in the Shadowlands, as he had no idea Dr. McNider was trapped in The Shadowlands for ten years.
* Pyrokinesis: Richard possesses some power over fire. He burned his phone number into a business card that he gave to Barbara. This fire left a "scent" of darkness that Jennie-Lynn Hayden was later able to track using her ring.
* Regeneration: After the Black Diamond was put back together and Richard could access his powers again, he instantly healed from the wounds Eclipso inflicted upon him.
* Sensing: Richard attempted to track the Black Diamond by touching its empty box, following the residual power of the diamond left in the box. He also sensed when The Gambler stood behind him, and later, knew where Todd Rice was located in Helix. His connection to Todd was accompanied with physical pain and was only activated in close proximity
===Abilities===
*Genius Level Intellect:
=== Weakness ===
* Light:
** Green Lantern's Ring:
* Vunrebility:
* Overconfidence:
=== Former Weakness ===
* The Black Diamond:
* Connection to Green Lantern's Ring:
==Relationships==
===Family===
===Allies===
*Barbara Whitmore
*Mike Dugan
*Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl
*Pat Dugan/S.T.R.I.P.E.
*Yolanda Montez/Wildcat
*Rick Tyler/Hourman
*Beth Chapel/Dr. Mid-Nite
*Cindy Burman/Shiv (former enemy)
*Artemis Crock/Artemis (former enemy)
*Cameron Mahkent/Icicle Jr.
*Jakeem Williams
*Thunderbolt
*Jennie-Lynn Hayden / Jade
*Todd Rice / Obsidian
*Larry Crock/Sportsmaster †
*Paula Brooks/Tigress †
*Solomon Grundy
*Charles McNider/Dr. Mid-Nite (close friend)
*Jay Garrick/The Flash
*Steven Sharpe/The Gambler † (temporary ally,)
===Enemies===
*Injustice Society of America (Temporary Allies)
**Jordan Mahkent/Icicle †
**Henry King Sr./Brainwave †
**Eclipso †
*Ultra-Humanite †
*Shiro Ito (Defeated)
*Sylvester Pemberton/Starman
*Rex Tyler/Hourman †
*Ted Grant/Wildcat †
*Alan Scott/Green Lantern †
*Johnny Thunder †
*Wesley Dodds/Sandman †
==Quote==
==Trivia==
** Richard's appearance in "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two" is portrayed by an unknown and uncredited actor, as Jonathan Cake was not cast at the time of filming.
** The Shade is responsible for the disappearance and believed death of Dr. Mid-Nite.
** He has been seen in the ISA's portrait in nearly every episode of the first season leading up to his first physical appearance in "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two".
** Despite his inability to age, Richard is human.
** The Shade is the second oldest human character on the show, overtaking Dragon King and Charles McNider, but not as old as Justin, who is over 1,000 years old.
** The Shade is the only member of the ISA who hasn’t lost a fight to the JSA.
*** He is also one of two people to overpower the Thunderbolt. The other being Eclipso.
** Dr. Mid-Nite claimed that the dark energy that possessed The Shade “needed a vessel” hinting that The Shade’s powers may be sentient.
** Richard’s catchphrase is “Damnation”.
** While Richard does seek to protect children and sometimes other adults from danger, he appears to value his own life above anyone else’s. This is evidenced when Richard lied to Courtney and tricked her into fusing the Black Diamond back together so he could heal himself even though he knew what Eclipso would do to her if she did.
** The Shade has been hinted to be a very wealthy individual. He drives a 1967 Jaguar, told Barbara he would pay a ridiculous amount for the items in the American Dream's archives, and The Gambler saw his bank accounts as worthy of draining after Shade left the ISA.
** "Sylvester" claims the Shade killed Jay Garrick and Wesley Dobbs in the Season One premiere when the ISA massacred the JSA, but Shade denies killing any JSA members as he told Pat in Chapter Eight: Infinity Inc. Part Two.
*** However, with the revelation that Sylvester was actually dead at the time and it was the Ultra-Humanite in Sylvester's body that confronted him who stated this, it is unknown if this accusation has merit as it could have been a ploy to enrage the Shade.
****
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