Superheroes and Spies

Compare and Contrast

(A post on Faith Hunter's blog during my blog tour for Wet Work in 2018)

Faith suggested I blog about superheroes and spies.

I confess, I haven’t done a compare and contrast essay since grade school and, as old as I am, that was so long ago that not only did I have to walk uphill to school both directions, no one called child protective services about the fact I was walking miles away from home without adult supervision.

While superheroes clearly dominate the cinematic universe these days, there was a time when the big tent-pole movies and hot television shows were spy thrillers: James Bond, Jason Bourne, Alias, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., etc.

Truth told, superheroes and spies have a lot in common. After all, they fight bad guys in the never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way, and they have secret identities which are crucial not only to their effectiveness, but also in protecting their loved ones from harm. They both work outside the parameters of the norms, procedures, and laws which regulate both mundane citizens and most legal authorities and military personnel. And, of course, there’s that whole saving the world thing, which they tend to do on a semi-regular basis. They also both have to worry about collateral damage from their actions, though superheroes tend to worry more about the magnitude of the collateral damage, while spies worry more about the practical and political consequences of such damage on their agency and their livelihood.

But, they do have some differences, too. Differences which impact how stories and books about them are written.

Superhero characters (and, thus, superhero tales) have to deal with powers that can be extreme and, frankly, overwhelming. When your character can withstand gunfire, crush mere mortals with impunity, fly at supersonic speeds, and sometimes literally alter time, it can be difficult to create a real peril for them to confront to create the tension necessary to propel the plot and reader forward. Either the big bad has to be really big and really bad or you have to create contrivances to make the superhero a bit less awesome in the early parts of the story (a crucial Achilles’ heel, the need to be at multiple locations at once, a need to recharge frequently, an impediment to using full powers, or whatever). And, the fact that superheroes are often instantly recognized by the general public when in superhero mode affects their ability to gather clandestine intelligence, deny responsibility for actions they take, and manipulate events unseen, all of which affect the types of storylines available to the writer. On the other hand, the lines of moral authority tend to be fairly well-drawn for most superheroes, allowing the writer to enlist the readers’ zeal/patriotism/righteousness to both drive the story forward and provide a satisfying conclusion.

Despite occasionally having cool gadgets that make up somewhat for their lack of super powers, spies have considerably more concerns about their lack of power. Their mortal status creates easy peril, they often lack the manpower or weaponry to accomplish their goals by brute force, and they generally have a much greater risk of betrayal or abandonment by their supposed support structure, which can disavow them, burn them, cancel tactical support, or even cashier them (without severance pay!) at will. They also generally have to deal with smaller scale or more obscure or obtuse missions, which may require a bit of exposition or other effort to convince the reader are sizeable threats worthy of concern. Having no spandex suits, stylish masks, or self-donning mechanical suits, spies also must deal with the same issue that confronts undercover cops every day and night—having their cover blown by a random encounter with someone from their past or by some critical gap in information their cover personality would know, but they do not. While this creates easy tension at any time the author needs some, it also, by its nature, tends to emphasize the duplicitous and less than savory aspects of the spy’s occupation, often sacrificing some likeability/relatability in the process.

Finally, spy tales seem to me to be somewhat more at risk than superhero tales of being overtaken by events in the real world. It’s not that often that cosmic powers, supernatural forces, and threats from supervillains suddenly become mooted by advances in technology, but spy skills can be. Worse yet, political developments can sometimes undo carefully crafted missions set in present time.

While plenty of exceptions exist counter to the generalizations in this discussion, both superhero stories and spy tales need to maintain moral authority, avoid unnecessary collateral damage, and deal with issues surrounding secret identities. Superhero stories tend to do so in big, bold, colorful ways (even if the predominant color can be deepest black), while spy tales tend toward more intimate, more complicated, and more ambiguous ways.

I guess the question is if there was an anthology of stories of Spies vs. Superheroes (which there totally should be!), would the superheroes crush their underpowered adversaries, or would the spies so confuse, befuddle, and undermine the superheroes that they turn them against each other, assuring the spies are the last ones standing (or, perhaps, skulking about in the shadows)?

Me? I tend to be a spy guy. My Dick Thornby Thriller series is about a regular guy who just happens to be a spy. He’s not James Bond; he’s not Jason Bourne. He’s a guy with some skills, but also with a wife and a kid and a mortgage, as well as a boss who thinks he uses too many explosives.

I started off his adventures in Net Impact, released a few years back by Alliteration Ink and just re-released with a snazzy new cover. Wet Work, the second adventure in the series was just released this summer, with a new case, a new partner, new twists on real-world issues, and plenty of big, new explosions.