Shade, the Changing Man #27
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIssue #27 opens the 'Shade, the Changing Woman' arc — one of the earliest sustained, earnest engagements with gender-identity themes in mainstream American comics. By forcing Rac Shade's consciousness into a female body and refusing to play the premise strictly for comedy, writer Peter Milligan used the series' foundational identity-in-flux metaphor to ask genuine questions about what gender feels like from the inside — years before such questions entered the wider pop-cultural conversation. The arc arrives at a pivotal structural juncture: it was Milligan's narrative solution to the death of Shade's previous body at the end of 'The Road,' ensuring that Shade's perpetual transformation remained the engine of the storytelling rather than a gimmick. It is also the first issue on which guest penciller Colleen Doran takes over from regular artist Chris Bachalo, giving the arc a visually distinct, quieter register that suits its introspective concerns.
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After the six-issue 'Road' arc (issues #20–25) left Shade literally bodiless and dissolving into the madness around him, Milligan needed a structural reset. Editor Karen Berger, who had been the architect of DC's British Invasion creative wave — recruiting Milligan alongside Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison — shepherded the book through this transition. Berger had green-lit the series under DC's 'Suggested for Mature Readers' banner in 1990, giving Milligan the latitude to tackle controversial subject matter that would have been impossible on a standard DC title. For this arc, Bachalo stepped aside and Colleen Doran stepped in as penciller, with Mark Pennington continuing as inker, Daniel Vozzo as colorist, and Todd Klein as letterer — a full creative-team handoff that nonetheless maintained the book's tonal identity. The cover of issue #27 — designed by Brendan McCarthy and reworked to read 'Shade the Changing Woman' in pinks and purples — immediately signals the thematic territory the arc intends to occupy.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: September 1992 (internal records suggest a July 1992 on-sale date); published by DC Comics under the pre-Vertigo 'Suggested for Mature Readers' label.
- Issue title: 'Shade, the Changing Woman: Hermaphrodite' — the first chapter of the three-part 'Shade, the Changing Woman' arc (issues #27–29).
- Story premise: Shade's disembodied consciousness takes over the body of a woman who is dying in a car accident; her psyche pushes through just as Troy Grenzer's once did, compelling Shade to solve the unresolved traumas — and murder — connected to her life.
- Guest penciller Colleen Doran replaces regular series artist Chris Bachalo for issues #27–29 (and #31–32); Bachalo had been the primary visual architect of the series since issue #1.
- Full credits for #27: Writer — Peter Milligan; Pencils — Colleen Doran; Inks — Mark Pennington; Colors — Daniel Vozzo; Letters — Todd Klein; Assistant Editor — Lisa Aufenanger; Editor — Karen Berger.
- The cover of #27 was redesigned by Brendan McCarthy (who had provided original character designs for the Milligan-era Shade) to display the 'Shade the Changing Woman' title in a distinct color palette, making the gender shift explicit from the newsstand.
- Issue #27 is included in the DC/Penguin Random House 'Shade, the Changing Man by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo Omnibus Vol. 1,' which collects issues #1–27.
- The series would become one of the inaugural Vertigo titles six issues later (with issue #33, March 1993); DC created the Vertigo imprint partly to accommodate the kinds of adult themes — including the gender-identity material pioneered in this arc — that distinguished the book from standard DC fare.
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