Writer: James Robinson
Pencils: Teddy H. Kristiansen/Christian Hojgaard/Bjarne Hansen/Kim Hagen
Inks: Teddy H. Kristiansen
Letters: John Workman/Bob Pinaha/Jen Bruzenak
Colors: Gregory Wright
Assistant Editor: Chuck Kim
Editor: Archie Goodwin

#6, April 1995
1882: Backstage, Back Then

Jack reads a passage from Shade’s Journal. Back in 1882, Shade (a recent arrival to Opal City) is meeting there with his friend Oscar Wilde, who is on a tour of America. The two are talking about writing and how Shade inspired characters in the works of both Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen. Wilde is about to tell Shade about another Immortal he knew, who he was thinking of writing a story about when they are interrupted by a young man named Jason Mayville. He takes “Mr. Black” aside to talk business. It seems that his sister has become enamored with a hypnotist named Lune, who works with the Pepper Troupe: a traveling stage show of sorts. He fears his sister is being hypnotized and that Lune is after his family fortune. He asks for Shade to give the man a good talking to and a scare. Shade agrees to do so for a moderate amount of money and a secondary price to be named later.

Shade goes to the circus and uses his teleportation powers to get backstage. He talks to Lune and determines that the Mayville girl is indeed being controlled. He advises Lune to leave town. Lune refuses and summons several armed members of the troupe, noting that he was going to give a part of the fortune he stands to access to them. Shade fights off those who attack him and kills the entire troupe. The next day, Shade has lunch with Oscar Wilde again and tells him that his secondary price for saving the girl was a plot of land with several rose bushes. The monetary price is a bit more substantial: ten percent of all Mayville owned. Wilde is about to tell Shade about this other Immortal he met when Jack discovers the last page of that section ripped out.

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