My Favorite 2025 Comic Book (so far)
Is he a villain? A tragic hero? Both? Neither?
The character first appeared in 1940s Golden Age DC Comics (as a villain in exactly one issue of Flash Comics), and then he was revived in a mid-1960s issue of The Flash (also as a villain). And he has continued to endure in the sixty years since the Silver Age!
James Robinson wrote him perfectly in the 1990s Starman series. Geoff Johns wrote him perfectly on the Stargirl television series. He has even had his own multi-issue comic series in two different decades! (He was less of a villain in all those appearances.)
And now he has returned! A couple of weeks ago saw the publication of The Flash: Bad Moon Rising Specail #1. Strictly speaking this comic is labelled as Part 4 of a multi-part Flash story, but it works very well as a stand-alone Shade story if a reader is not up-to-the-minute in the goings-on over in The Flash.
The Shade is definitely not a villain in this comic. The 40-page story is beautifully written and perfectly drawn; this is my favorite comic book issue up to this point in 2025. I was not familiar previously with writer Alex Paknadel nor with artist Daniel Bayliss but I will definitely be watching for their future work!