Throughout the past month, my fellow COBRAS have been presenting their takes on costumed adventurers who crossover with the espionage genre. This week, I’m taking a look at some of my favorite super-hero spies, unveiling a character one at a time from the banner above. In case you missed an entry, so far we’ve seen:
The introduction, in which I link to all of the other COBRAS entries
THUNDER Agents (that’s No-Man above)!
Dell Comics’ Werewolf
Today’s unveiled super-spy might look like a futuristic jockey with a funky hand, but in reality, Spyman was the creation of a young comic artist / escape artist named Jim Steranko for Harvey Comics. Steranko would go on to work on some World War II sergeant book for Marvel, I think.
Spyman concept sketch
Before we start this thing, let me mention up front that much, if not all, of what I know about Spyman comes from the fabulous Dial B for Blog. Robby Reed, the blog’s host, postulates that Spyman was drawn from the character Robert Culp played in the Harlan Ellison-penned Outer Limits episode “Demon With a Glass Hand” (which means that, essentially, I met Spyman), a man from the future whose robotic hand possesses powers when all the digits are connected. Steranko supplied the concept for publisher Joe Simon — a secret agent named Johnny Chance loses his hand to radiation while defusing a bomb, and has it replaced with a high tech super weapon prosthetic — and a splash page that featured a diagram of the hand (seen above in the original concept sketch, found on The Drawings of Steranko). The rest of the art was provided by equally talented artists like George Tuska and Dick Ayers.
Over the course of three issues, Chance as Spyman fought for the organization LIBERTY (with a headquarters housed under the Statue of Liberty — the torch ignites when Spyman is needed) against the forces of MIRAGE and villains like the Whisperer, Id Machine and Cyclops. Below, in three parts, is Spyman #2, story by Otto Binder, art by Dick Ayers:
