Espionage Depiction in Graphic Novels

Definition

The clandestine world of international espionage has been a fixture in comic books and graphic novels for decades, offering readers culturally and politically charged adventures that spotlight the shadowy world beyond the headlines and reflect the United States’ shifting relationship with spies.

Introduction

For as long as the comics medium has existed, writers and artists have offered readers a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of spies and saboteurs as they scheme and plot to defeat foreign powers, invaders from outer space, or supervillains planning global domination. Originating in the days of organized crime and bootlegging and continuing through World War II, the Cold War, and the most recent struggles against international terrorism, the spy genre has been well mined over the years by comic book creators. Occupying a middle ground between the unblemished good of heroes and the unashamed evil of villains, spies and secret agents are forced to walk the line between the two extremes. As the comic book medium matured, so too did the depiction of this morally muddy reality, with as much attention paid to questioning the authority of those who direct the spies as the motives of those whom the spies fight.

The birth of the modern comic book industry took place in the early 1930’s, but it was arguably the 1940’s and particularly World War II that cemented so much of the vernacular of comics in the American psyche. The superhero genre dominated during that time, thanks in no small part to those crusaders’ status as ideal symbols of the United States’ heroic role in the battle against the Axis forces. But spies also played a vital role in the comics of the period, often finding themselves rubbing shoulders with the spandex-clad heroes that occupied comic books’ colorful covers and at times becoming akin to superheroes themselves.

Golden Espion-Age

When comic books first appeared on newsstands, crime fighting in burgeoning urban centers was of paramount importance, and the earliest secret agents in the paneled pages matched wits with bootleggers, criminal kingpins, and occasionally foreign agents trying to strike a blow against American sovereignty. Secret Agent X-9 appeared in a comic strip of the same name and eventually in comic books published around the world. Later known as Secret Agent Corrigan, he was created by detective novelist Dashiell Hammett in 1934 and illustrated by Alex Raymond. Over the years, and occasionally in cooperation with the FBI, Corrigan fought against smugglers, arms dealers, racketeers, and military saboteurs. By the time the United States entered World War II, a virtual renaissance in comic book storytelling was also occurring, and secret agents such as Corrigan were tasked with tracking down Nazi infiltrators and working to preserve peace and liberty.

Perhaps the most prominent figure associated with espionage in the Golden Age was not a spy himself but the scourge of all foreign spies determined to ferret out Allied secrets. Alan Armstrong, also known as Spy Smasher, debuted in issue 2 of Whiz Comics (1940) alongside Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, and Dan Dare. He employed hand-to-hand combat and his Gyrosub to battle enemies of freedom throughout the 1940’s, facing an agent known as the Mask and the Nazi America-Smasher, among other foes. Although not a secret agent in the same mold as the Cold War-era agent James Bond, Armstrong exemplifies the hybridization of the spy and superhero genres that proved popular during World War II.

Agents of Change

Trading the moral certitude of the Allied crusade against the Nazi threat for the uncertainty of the nebulous battle against communist forces in the protracted Cold War of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the United States found itself indulging in far more ambiguous entertainment as it struggled to reconcile prosperity with paranoia. Emblematic of the thinking pervading US sensibilities of the time is the comic book villain Yellow Claw, created by Atlas Comics, a precursor to Marvel Comics, and first appearing in Yellow Claw1 (1956). In keeping with the Asian stereotypes that had permeated Western pop culture during World War II, the Claw is an unflatteringly depicted Chinese communist warlord who looms over American cityscapes and threatens the American way of life through his nefarious international network of spies and scientists. Later included among the characters in the Marvel Universe, the Yellow Claw was a symptom of the fear that would plague the United States for decades to come.

While the Cold War inspired some dark and disturbing storytelling and incorrect, insulting racial stereotypes, it also sparked satirical jabs at the conflict, best captured in the sharp-witted Spy vs. Spyseries that first appeared in MADmagazine in 1961. Created by Cuban expatriate Antonio Prohías, the strip blends humor with pointed political commentary as two identical beak-nosed secret agents—one dressed all in black, the other in white—and an occasional gray-clothed female spy match wits, set traps, and blow each other to bits hundreds of times. This satirical conflict has continued for decades, even long after Prohías’s departure from the strip in 1987.

Patch on the Genre

Spies have always played a role in the crime-fighting escapades of the superhero world. Batman’s faithful butler, Alfred Pennyworth, was revealed to be a former British intelligence operative, which shed some light on his ability to engage in reconnaissance and man the Batcave. The fate of Peter Parker’s parents was initially a mystery, but Amazing Spider-Man Annual5 (1968) reveals that they were secret agents who had fought Captain America’s archenemy, the Red Skull.

Perhaps the most famous comic book spy is Colonel Nick Fury, the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D, an organization devised by Stan Lee as Marvel’s answer to the clandestine agencies that employed Bond and his ilk. Having first appeared in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos in 1963, Fury debuted in this Bondian role in Strange Tales in 1965 before moving to his own self-titled series filled with high-tech weaponry, robotic duplicates, and enemies such as Baron Strucker and HYDRA, A.I.M., and even the Yellow Claw. With Lee scripting and Jim Steranko providing expressive and visually inventive artwork, Fury’s escapades were some of the most fondly remembered tales of the era and set the standard by which comic book spies would be measured.

Although he is likely the best-known spy in film and literature, Bond himself was notably absent from comics in the 1960’s and 1970’s, apart from a single-issue adaptation of Dr. Noin DC Comics’ Showcase43 (1963). He later appeared in an adaptation of For Your Eyes Only (1981) published by Marvel, but further adaptations and attempts at original series from several publishers were met with limited success, making the quintessential secret agent a footnote in the history of comic book secret agents.

License to Thrill

Writer Greg Rucka, who had previously garnered acclaim for the miniseries Whiteout (1998) and Whiteout: Melt (1999-2000), made a significant contribution to espionage comics with Queen & Country (2001-2007). The series follows British secret agent Tara Chace and offers readers a more realistic look at the bureaucratic workings behind the exploits of espionage agents. Using her sexuality as a weapon in the war against her nation’s enemies, Chace is not an invincible superheroine but a flesh-and-blood person capable of making mistakes. This grittier approach to the secret agent adventure, combined with artwork by Steve Rolston and other artists that juxtaposes cartoonish exaggeration with realistic backgrounds, makes Queen & Countryone of the more intriguing chronicles of genre.

Chace is not the only female character to redress the gender imbalance in espionage-themed comics. J. Scott Campbell’s tongue-in-cheek Danger Girlfirst appeared in 1998, mixing Charlie’s Angels kitsch with explosive action. Marvel’s superhero/spy hybrid Black Widow, also known as Natasha Romanova, switched sides over the years, first appearing in the 1960’s as a villain but becoming more visible as a hero in later decades through her work with groups such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. In 2007, DC introduced a new Spy Smasher, US government agent Katarina Armstrong. Described by her creators as somewhat inspired by antiterrorist agent Jack Bauer from the television show 24, Armstrong blurs the lines between right and wrong in the pursuit of her goals.

Impact

By the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the increasingly complex relationship between citizens and governments, those with authority and those under it, had become a major concern within American popular culture. As such, the already murky world of secret agents became murkier, with loyalties difficult to determine and the traditional dynamic of good versus evil finding little parallel in contemporary storytelling. Writers found a way to take the more enticing, fanciful elements of the genre and balance them with a look at the political and bureaucratic forces that shape the secret agent’s constantly shifting world. Spies in comics of this period often became victims of their own leaders, lost souls trapped between ethics and duty. Even those who donned masks or capes in the comic book world found their roles far less defined than they had been in the past.

One such character that epitomized this changed genre was creator Ed Brubaker's Velvet. This characterwhose full name was Velvet Templetonwas introduced in the mid-2010s. Velvet reimagined the role played by James Bond-like male spy characters. Velvet, who lives a cover as a secretary, undertakes hazardous spy missions against global crime syndicates and foreign intelligence agencies.

Bibliography

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