DC Comics fans will recognize the name of tonight’s episode of The Flash—“Shade.” When I think of Shade, I always think of James Robinson and Tony Harris’ amazing STARMAN series—read it! —but, Shade is actually a long-time Flash villain.

Unlike many characters in the DC Comics pantheon, there has only ever been one Shade—Richard Swift. For the purpose of this article, we are going to examine his power sets and origin. What makes Shade, Shade?

The origin of the name “Shade” has even deeper literary roots than comic book history. It is derived from Dante’s famous epic poem The Divine Comedy (how is that for some recommended reading?). Within this context, “Shade” refers to the perpetual darkness found in Hell. Darker than dark. Blacker than black. Many literary scholars also believe that this use of the word “Shade” is where the phrase “a shade of vampires” (indicating a gathering), comes from.

Richard Swift was the first character to call himself Shade published by National Comics before they became known far and wide as DC Comics. He debuted in FLASH COMICS #33 published in September of 1942. It’s important to know that this was the era of the original Flash, which is to say, Jay Garrick, rather than Barry Allen.

If this is indicative of any possibility that John Wesley Shipp may be returning to the role of Jay Garrick in order to fight a monster made of shadows, then I am absolutely excited about that!

That being said, much like the events of tonight’s episode, the eponymous villain did go on to do battle with the first Flash in the red cowl, Mr. Barry Allen himself. As with many of the Golden Age and Silver Age Flash Comics rogues, Richard Swift was a run-of-the-mill thief whose antics needed to be interrupted by the Fastest Man Alive. What made him unique from many of his contemporaries was that he had the power to manipulate shadows, and they were harnessed through a magical cane. It is interesting to have Shade’s cane be both a medium to control power flow and a defensive weapon as well, as opposed to something like a magic wand that is largely passive without its magical element attached.

But, what exactly does “shadow manipulation” entail? As with various magic-based abilities across comic books, that’s often hard to nail down. From what Richard Swift has done in various comics, I can let you know that, among other things, it means control over darkness and light, travel over great distances in short amounts of time, creation of constructs out of shadows (think Green Lantern), immortality and slowed or non-aging.