The Shadow-Thief

The Shadow-Thief

(pop culture)Billed as “The Shadow-Thief of Midway City!,” the fallacious supervillain was introduced in a Silver Age (1956–1969) Hawkman story created by comics greats scripter Gardner Fox and artist Joe Kubert. In The Brave and the Bold #36 (1961), two-bit cat burglar Carl Sands' experiments with shadow projection allow him to accidentally contact a creature from an otherworldly dimension. In return for saving the creature's life, Sands is rewarded with a Dimensiometer, enabling him to shift his body into a two-dimensional, intangible “shadow” state, and a pair of ebony gloves, permitting him to hold material objects while in shadow form. With his newly acquired gadgets, Sands embarks on a life of crime as the Shadow-Thief (sometimes Shadow Thief). The Shadow-Thief can move quickly and quietly across and through most surfaces and materials, while remaining impervious to physical contact and attack. One of the original members of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, the Shadow-Thief has battled many superheroes in the DC Universe but is considered one of Hawkman's major adversaries. At the hands of scripters John Ostrander and Timothy Truman and artist Graham Nolan, Shadow- Thief was overhauled in Hawkworld #5 (1990) to fit his post–Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity. The alien Byth hired ninja Carl Sands to steal Hawkman's spaceship and gave him a Thanagarian shadow-field generator for his troubles. The Shadow-Thief continued to battle his favorite rival, Hawkman, but expanded his territory when he murdered Ronnie Raymond, the hero Firestorm, in Identity Crisis #5 (2004). Movie bad guy James Remar voiced the villain in his 2005 TV debut as one of the Legion of Doom on Justice League Unlimited (2004–present).