After "Zero Hour", the Shade's origin was changed drastically. The Shade was retconned to an English gentleman named Richard Swift, a young man in the year 1838. One night in London, Swift is trapped amidst an unexplained mystical tragedy, which killed 104 people. The most immediate effect on him is the permanent loss of his memories prior to the incident. Coincidentally, a passerby named Piers Ludlow offers to take in Swift while he recovers. The whole affair is a setup; the Ludlow family is in fact a band of killers and swindlers, who have grown wealthy killing their wealthy business partners and then kill a vagrant in the vicinity to give the impression of a failed robbery/homicide. Before they can make Swift their next scapegoat, he reflexively unleashes his shadows, killing all the present Ludlows. Only a young pair of twins, absent from the excursion, survive. The following evening Swift meets one of his true friends, the author Charles Dickens.