Darnell Wade (Earth-616)

Darkveil
Name	Darnell Wade
Current Alias	Darkveil
Aliases	Shade
Affiliation and Relationships
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′ (1.83 m)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Green
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Drag queen, entertainer, retail sales
Base of Operations	Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Sina Grace, Nathan Stockman
First	Iceman (Vol. 4) #4 (December, 2018)
First	Iceman (Vol. 4) #4 (December, 2018)

History

Darnell Wade was born in Brooklyn and raised in multiple foster homes. Being passed from one home to another, Darnell took comfort in reading about the many superheroes based in New York.

In his mid-20s, while working days at a secondhand clothing store, Darnell began moonlighting as Shade, a drag queen inspired by New York superheroes. With his best friend, Spillin' Tea-yana Taylor, Shade hosted a lip-sync night it Astoria. However, Shade's real ambition was to be the star of a drag queen competition show. Unfortunately, when Tea was selected as a drag competition contestant, she snubbed Shade on national television, ending their friendship and leaving Shade with nothing but an apartment with the electricity turned off and a desire to disappear. At that moment, Shade's mutant powers manifested, allowing him to control Darkforce energy to teleport himself and others.

Excited by his new powers, Shade agreed to emcee New York's first Mutant Pride Parade. He also helped the X-Men fend off Mister Sinister's mutant-Iceman-golems.

Later, using his powers, Darnell went on a "shopping spree" with a friend that ended when the police arrived, Darnell losing his friend while he escaped through the Darkforce. Vowing to now only use his powers to bring light and joy into the world, Darnell has rebranded his drag/hero persona as Darkveil.

Darkveil was next seen emceeing at Java A Go-Go during Iceman's birthday celebration.

Attributes

Powers

Darkforce Teleportation: Darnell is a mutant with the ability to teleport herself and others through the Darkforce Dimension.

Abilities

Lip-syncing

Trivia

• According to co-creator Sina Grace, Shade was inspired by RuPaul's Drag Race alumni The Vixen, Monét X Change, Dax ExclamationPoint (who frequently cosplays as Storm), and Shea Couleé, the latter of whom was also used as a photo reference for the character.
• Shade is seemingly Marvel's first drag queen superhero.

See Also

• 5 appearance(s) of Darnell Wade (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Darnell Wade (Earth-616)
• 8 image(s) of Darnell Wade (Earth-616)