I can’t say I fully understand everything that happens in this issue, but I don’t know that I’m meant to. We know that the Shade knows an aboriginal stage magician who dresses like the Dude and has a eucalyptus tree in his house — it really ties the room together! — but we don’t know how they met. We know Shadey can make swans out of shadow matter that can defeat ancient fire demons with a kiss, but we don’t know how or why. Some of the dialogue is as perplexing as if it were written by the Ultimate Warrior: “These lands and the people of the old world will benefit in the shallow ways of the new human by the generosity of the elder when he dies.” Whuh? James Robinson is certainly building an interesting world around the Shade, bigger and stranger than Opal City, but every fragment of story seems to end with “but that’s a story for another time.” For any other character, this would get annoying fast, but this is the Shade we’re talking about here. His stories always begin in the middle. He’s lived for decades, met everyone, seen and done everything: If you began all of his stories at the beginning, it’d take you ages to catch up with the present. And if you really, really want backstory, stick around until the next issue, which is billed as a Times Past tale — one of my favourite kinds of story from the original Starman series.