Shade, the Changing Man by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo Omnibus Vol. 2

Shade the Changing Man Omnibus #2

by Peter Milligan, Chris Bachalo (Illustrator)

Madness Evolves—And So Does Shade

Shade’s body changes. His love fractures. His mind burns. From the alien absurdity of The Changing Woman to warping time alongside John Constantine, Shade’s latest incarnation tests the boundaries of identity, perception, and sanity.
As the Hotel Shade hosts celestial beings and cursed pregnancies, one thing is certain—this isn’t your average hero journey. It’s a transformative experience that deconstructs both narrative and the self, one surreal revelation at a time.

Collects: Shade, The Changing Man #38-70, Vertigo Jam #1, and Vertigo X Preview #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

1000 pages, Hardcover

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a whole, I did really enjoy this series. It would be a solid 4 star series, where I think it began to stall a little towards the end. Like it didn't quite know where it was going. There were definitely parts of this that made me think it deserved 3 stars - the narrative was weaker than the first half of the series, the character work less strong and more murky, really all over the place and choppy; the art was less ambitious in places and the madness began to felt more sane than it should; the writing of women got... possibly worse, it may have just been there were more women and they were around only briefly.

However, one thing I cannot fault the series on is how it evolves, how the characters evolve: it is fundamentally about change. I've never seen a character quite like Shade who went through so many variations through a single run. And the series changes its focus, and it's goals, and it's morals. At no point from the beginning could I guess where it would end, but the journey did feel like something special, and is something I won't soon forget.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second half of this run of comics from the 90s, which was one of my first "grown up comics" obsessions, in nice big hardback omnibus form. It's not always fulfilling and the last year of the comic is often a horrible mess but it's a worthwhile read. This lovely omnibus has LOADS of bonus features, making it the comic book equivalent of the Doctor Who season BluRay box sets.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The back half of Shade loses a little bit of the coherence of part 1, but still manages to end on a high note. Then again, this is my first time reading past the previously collected trades, and my high anticipation at finally being able to read this entire series may have set expectations a little too high. I look forward to reading this entire series again. And again…