Alexander Pace

"Shade"

First Appearance: Forte #29 (original), Forte 2000 #146 (latter)

A member of the ancient order of crimefighters called "The Blade Runners", Alexander Pace was raised and trained in their ways and became one of their costumed operatives, calling himself "Shade". His mission took him to New York in the late 80s, where he witnessed a mob murder and rescued a blind woman named Sylvia Pane. To protect the woman, he went into the witness protection program with her, pretending to be her boyfriend. They were relocated to Seattle, where he picked up his activities as Shade and teamed, for a time, with the local hero group Forte. With them to watch over Sylvia (who would go on to become the sorceress called "Blind Faith"), he disappeared and continued his clandestine life with the Blade Runners. Operating throughout Europe, he followed the trail of his order's sworn enemy, The Knight of the Light, to Rome, where he discovered a larger plot to bring death and destruction to the whole of the Earth. In a final battle against superior numbers, Shade lost his life. But sensing his death, Sylvia put the new Forte team on the trail of his killers, which led them not only to avenge his murder, but to discover what he had found, his final act in a lifetime of dedication and service to mankind not ending in vain. Shade lived and died a hero, and will always be remembered as a friend to Forte.