"Yeah, I got it Lucas. Now get this: Comance and me been told to kill you. That means you're dead"
Shades
Growing up in Harlem Shades picked up the nickname early and is stuck with him. He gained the nickname because he always managed to have on a pair of designer sunglasses. He paid for them by committing robberies and other petty crimes with the gang called The Rivals. The gang featured both Carl Lucas (who would legally change his name to Luke Cage), Comanche and Willis Stryker who would later become known as Diamondback. During this time he also had a child with Reina Alvarez who would give birth to a son named Victor. While Shades attempted to be a good father he spent most of Victor's young life in and out of jail.
Eventually the gang split up and they all went their separate ways after Luke Cage was framed. Shades continued petty crimes while working with Comanche (think Hawkeye but black and a thief). When Luke Cage was arrested and held at Seagate Prison for crimes he didn't commit Shades and his sidekick Comanche were also arrested. They briefly reunited for protection but the alliance ended when Shades tried to persuade Luke into leading a prison riot. He did this because he knew Luke was much more charismatic, a better leader and pretty good at coming up with strategies and improvisations.
After Luke left one of the corrections officers at the prison was blamed for keeping the experiments performed on Luke secret. The guards name was Officer Rackham and he took out his anger on the prisoners. Specifically the black prisoners. During this time one of the inmates he beat was Shades. Eventually he was fired, not for the racist beatings, secret experiments or any of the other things he did. He was fired only because he kept getting caught and only after a new Warden was hired that personally caught him in the act.
Shades and Comanche then decided on revenge. They began digging a tunnel out of the prison with nothing but plastic spoons. Eventually they escaped, being the 2nd and 3rd prisoners to break out, only after Luke Cage. Committing robberies to fund themselves they traveled across the United States tracking Rackham. Eventually they found Rackham hiding in New York. At this time they had upgraded their gear, Shades had picked up a visor that fired energy blasts. They also began wearing disco costumes to gain entrance into the costumed crime fighter world, although Comanche looked more like one the village people.
Their plan was to create a protection business and use it as a way to have Rackham killed as an accident. That's because despite threats to kill people, at the end of the day Shades is just a crook and gun runner at the end of the day. He'll fight but he doesn't kill people. They attempted to recruit Luke Cage who had recently started his Heroes for Hire business. They agreed to help Luke get evidence to prove he was innocent if he helped them get revenge on Rackham who they claimed had evidence.
They didn't kill Rackham. When they confronted him the house was blown up by a vigilante named Stiletto. He wanted to kill the trio for breaking out of prison and felt a dirty police officer was an acceptable sacrifice. However Luke managed to save Shades and Comanche. The three agreed that there just wasn't any way they could have a reunion as they were too different now. They agreed to not mention these events and just go separate ways.
Shades and Comanche then began working for the first Bushmaster. Bushmaster was int he process of trying to force Luke Cage to kill Misty Knight with Shades and Comanche helping. When Iron Fist appeared and hit Cage they ran away because they thought Luke was dead. They didn't want to fight anyone that could kill Luke. They were done with Bushmaster after that.
Afterwards they began working for Ward Meachum. He was an industrial businessman who also had some illegal work he needed monitored and performed. During this time Meachum also helped upgrade their equipment to much higher levels and attire further. This came from the underground technologist named Nightshade. Getting rid of the silly costumes. They also received an incredible amount of training making them legitimate threats in a world of villains where they were being outpaced. However this meant they were in debt to both Nightshade and Meachum.
Their first mission put them in contact with Luke Cage. Luke initially laughed but he was caught off guard by their upgraded equipment and fighting skill. The surprise defeat of Luke allowed them to complete their mission easily. However he found them later and beat them senseless. Not to find out who they were working for, but because he didn't like the idea of losing to Shades and Comanche.
They continued working for Meachum and Nightshade but the life of crime started to wear Shades down. He began taking side jobs so he could pay back Ward sooner. Eventually he managed to save up enough money to pay back Meachum and leave the life of crime. What did he do?
He went back to Reina and Victor. Both were glad to have Shades in their life as a permanent fixture. Now back with his family and feeling bad about his time as a criminal he became a community activist. He focused on making the homes in Hell's Kitchen affordable for the people living there. While he truly had left the life of crime behind he wasn't perfect. He began sleeping with women he worked with. This led to Reina and Shades separating. Victor didn't take this well.
When Norman Osborn and the NYPD started physically forcing people out of an apartment building so they could build luxury condos, Shades and other activist moved in to protect residents from police brutality. Victor followed and participated in the protest. Choosing to live with Shades. Victor didn't know about Shades cheating, and he wasn't told. Shades just told him that he wasn't the perfect man Victor thought he was and he needed to go back to live with his mother.
With NYPD death squads quickly being formed Shades started carrying his optic blaster in case he needed to fight police, to protect people this time. Osborn sent Bullseye to blow up the building with Daredevil in it. Bullseye blew up the building with 109 people inside. Daredevil escaped and Shades managed to shield Victor from the blast and causing fragments of his visor to be embedded into Victor, giving him his powers. However that wasn't the end of Shades. Victor later gained the ability to see the chi ghosts of the 107 people who died. One of those was Shades who taught him to absorb more chi from the area and not just his own body. Shades has since appeared more times to teach Victor things about spotting weaknesses and being a man. He's like Luke seeing a force ghost of Anakin.
Abilities and Equipment
- Hand to hand fighter - Highly skilled boxer and street fighter, some martial arts training
- Optic Blaster -
- Marksman - excellent shot, stop carrying a gun when blaster was upgraded
- Strategist
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