Shade, the Changing Girl
Your new favorite alien heroine
By Soun Oeng Entertainment Editor

In lieu of the success of “Wonder Woman,” female heroines are increasingly taking leading roles both on screen and off. This diversity is also seen in comic books, where writers like Cecil Castellucci, Sarah Vaughn and Gail Simone have continued to push the boundaries for women. Castellucci challenges gender stereotypes in her latest work, “Shade the Changing Girl,” which has been noted by Vox as “one of the best new comic books of the fall.”
The story begins with Loma Shade, an Avian from the planet Meta, who decides to leave her homeland in order to explore different “feelings” like her idol, the Avian poet Rac Shade. With the help of the “madness coat,” which allows the wearer to travel through dimensions, she travels to Earth.
The series features a female-majority main cast, with a handful of males in supporting roles. It’s interesting to read a comic that opposes “traditional” narrative structures, and the story carries its own weight without solely targeting a female audience. Shade’s role as a hero contrasts Marvel’s Black Widow as she is not a token character for diversity nor is she fetishized. She wears a sleeveless coat over a school uniform rather than the infamous spandex super-suit that many male-written superheroines have donned in the name of “fanservice.” She seeks adventure and is able to strongly empathize with emotions, making her the relatable character that Black Widow is not.

Shade’s character development is smooth, giving readers a handrail to help follow the overwhelming plot. Despite the presence of two entities in one body (Shade and the human bully she now shares a body with) throughout the graphic novel, Castellucci does an excellent job in differentiating between them by allowing readers to recognize their differences and similarities. The beautifully colored illustrations feature mellow undertones, breathing life into the images. The artwork’s flexibility compliments the story as the psychedelic palette seamlessly brings the two worlds of Meta and Earth together.
The protagonist and antagonist are an interesting duo, given that they’re both women trying to break gender norms. Shade represents logic and rationality while Megan represents anger and force. They’re both characters who try to maintain control while adhering to their own rules.
This reflects the struggle of a similar duality in feminine identity that Castellucci gets at through Megan and Shade, because while they run parallel to one another in personality, they’re still two halves of the same whole. Castellucci is teaching readers to recognize both feminine and masculine traits in women and see them as the strong figures that they are. For Castellucci, strong feminine characters aren’t just physically strong, but instead are defined by the freedom to choose who they are as individuals, which is what paints the series as empowering.
