Shades are the foot-soldiers employed by Lord Vyce as he invades Earth, and other dimensions, to conquer them. After Linkara's abduction by Lord Vyce to gather information, the Shades made their first appearance.
When Iron Liz and Harvey Finevoice were reviewing Ewoks #9, Pollo found a way to return Linkara. Unfortunately Pollo had to teleport anything fitting Linkara's general height and weight in one wide burst back. This brought the Shades for their first battle with Linkara, Iron Liz, and Harvey.
The Shades are wraith-like beings who communicate in screeches, hisses, and other ghastly noises. They seem to follow a hive mind system like the Borg, going about what they were told to do from Lord Vyce. However, there does seem to be a ranking system or at least a numerical way of Cataloging shades, because when Lord Vyce asks for a report from his ship, he doesn't just ask for a report, he asks for a report from shade #1. At first, it was believed that they were some kind of biological beings that were either recruited, grown, or cloned by Vyce. Linkara discovers through his incarceration by Vyce that they are magically-charged robotic beings programmed to mindlessly follow him.
A single Shade makes a cameo towards the end of Youngblood #3 (the first part of the two-part finale of the Lord Vyce arc), where it's seen fixing Vyce's armor after it was damaged by Linkara during their battle in the JLA: Cry for Justice #5-7 review. Later, a multitude of Shades make a quick appearance in the second part of the finale, Doctor Who Classics #7, where they are easily gunned down and defeated by the invading Angry Joe Army.
The rest of the shades were put in the storage of Comicron-1 after Vyce's defeat. In Youngblood #4, a single shade was activated by Vyce under the guise of the new Pollo body. The shade was taken to the science lab where it makes repairs on Vyce and possibly gives him new upgrades. However, before it could properly finish, Linkara and Finevoice stormed in the science lab and took it down easily since Shades only get their strength by their quantity. The lone Shade activated the voice module for Vyce just before it was destroyed, revealing the true identity in the robot body.
