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Rac Shade

Rac Shade

36 appearances · Bronze Age · 1978–2021 · 3 key issues
Who is Rac Shade?

Rac Shade is a fugitive agent from the planet Meta who flees to Earth after being falsely accused of treason. Using the powerful M-Vest — a device that warps reality and perception — he works to clear his name while navigating an alien world.

Bronze Age DC has its share of fascinating wildcards, and Rac Shade — introduced in Justice League of America #150 in 1978 by Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin — is one worth tracking down. Spanning an impressive arc from 1978 all the way to 2021, this character has turned up across some of DC's most eclectic titles, from Action Comics Weekly to Justice League Dark and Adventures of Superman, sharing pages with heavyweights like Superman and Vixen along the way. With three key-issue appearances flagged by collectors, Rac Shade carries real significance beyond mere cameo status, representing the kind of deep-catalog DC figure that rewards the curious reader willing to dig. Forty-three years of appearances is a testament to enduring resonance — this is exactly the sort of character that makes the DC Universe feel genuinely vast and worth exploring.

Identity

Real name. Rac Shade

Affiliations. Formerly Suicide Squad

★ First appearance
Shade, the Changing Man #1
Jun 1977

Top series

Covers through the years — 1978–2018

Justice League of America #150 1978
Justice League of America #150
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #20 1986
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #20
Action Comics Weekly #637 1989
Action Comics Weekly #637
Vertigo Jam #1 1993
Vertigo Jam #1
Shade, the Changing Man #45 1994
Shade, the Changing Man #45
Vertigo Visions: Ten Years of Artwork on the Edge #[nn] 2003
Vertigo Visions: Ten Years of Artwork on the Edge #[nn]
Justice League Dark #1 2011
Justice League Dark #1
Justice League Dark #3 2012
Justice League Dark #3
Batman #52 2018
Batman #52

Appearances

Justice League of America (1960)
All New Collectors' Edition (1978)
Cancelled Comic Cavalcade (1978)
The Comics Journal (1977)
#49
Hembeck: The Best of Dateline: @!!?# [Hembeck Series] (1980)
#1
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985)
#20
Suicide Squad (1987)
Superman (1987)
Adventures of Superman (1987)
Action Comics Weekly (1988)
Checkmate (1988)
#18
Vertigo Jam (1993)
#1
Shade, the Changing Man (1990)
#45
Vertigo Visions: Ten Years of Artwork on the Edge (2003)
Justice League Dark (2011)
I, Vampire (2011)
Batman (2016)
#52
DC Comics: The New 52 10th Anniversary Edition (2021)