Spitfire and the Troubleshooters [COMICS]

It's hard to believe it's been thirty years since the launch of Marvel's New Universe line.  I remember being so excited about the idea when I was a kid--what could be cooler than to be in on the launch of a whole new crop of heroes and stories?  It would be like buying an issue of Fantastic Four # 1 in 1961 and never looking back!  Or so I thought.  The entire New Universe was shut down in just three years, with half of the original titles ending after the first year.  I actually only purchased a few issues when I was a kid (availability was quite limited where I grew up), but now I can go back and see what I missed.

Spitfire and the Troubleshooters was one of the New Universe launch titles that only made it to thirteen issues.  At first blush it might seem like an Iron Man rip-off (the idea of an armored super-suit is and was nothing new), but the title had a new spin on the concept.  The protagonist, Jenny "Spitfire" Swensen, is a university professor at M.I.T. with a brilliant crop of graduate students.  When Jenny's father is killed over the design for a new construction exoskeleton, Jenny finds herself in a running battle with the killers in a bid for both revenge and to keep the suit out of their hands.  Her students give her a hand, with some developing minor physical enhancements to become more useful. This isn't a story of a super hero fighting crime but instead a much more personal story.  Near the end of the series, with cancellation on the horizon, the comic takes a different tack and Jenny (and her super-suit) becomes an agent for a government agency akin to the CIA!  It was an odd shift, and unfortunately not a very successful one.

Issue # 1 starts with the murder of Jenny's father by an armored figure.  Jenny and her students soon hear about it, and Jenny finds a cryptic message left to her by her father--but to decode it, she needs to break into his (now sealed) office with the help of her graduate students (nicknamed "The Troubleshooters").  She finds a advanced "M.A.X. II" exoskeleton her father hid from his employer, a suspicious fellow named Fritz Krotze, and has to jump into it to do battle with someone wearing the original "M.A.X. I" design.  The robot battle is great, seeing Jenny and her students in their element at M.I.T. is fun, and overall it's a nice, solid start to the series.

Issue # 2 has a loveably cheesy cover caption "For the life of a Troubleshooter--Spitfire vs. THE DEATH TANK!"  Comics are so fun.  Jenny tests out the M.A.X. II suit out in an isolated area, while her Troubleshooters, back at M.I.T., sneak into Krotze's office to see if he knows that Jenny "stole" the suit that is (legally speaking) his property.  It turns out Krotze does know, and has send a secret Department of Defense project, a massive tank named Behemoth, to go get it back!  One of of the Troubleshooters, Giotti, ends up getting kidnapped and there's a huge battle between Spitfire and the tank, which ends with the tank getting hurled over the cliff.  Please avert your eyes whilst I say "tanks for nothing."

The Troubleshooters start to develop their augmentations in Issue # 3, with Tim adding mechanical legs so he can run fast ("Fastball") and Terry designing a cybernetic helmet that allows her to tap into nearby electronics ("Think-Thank").  I like the Troubleshooters as graduate students, but the augmentations and nicknames place them into partial super hero territory and I don't think it works well.  Anyway, Jenny wears the armor and breaks into Krotze's lab to gather proof of his wrongdoing and is caught by a visiting army general--she blasts him and flees, full of guilt.  We get the introduction of Krotze's mysterious backers ("The Club") and a professional terrorist/assassin named Steel Hawk.  Ominous!  Hey, I never promised Shakespeare.

Todd MacFarlane does the interior art to Issue # 4, and I don't mind pre-Image MacFarlane.  Jenny flies the Spitfire armor to Washington, D.C., to address a congressional committee.  She reveals who she is and Krotze's link to "The Club".  Because this is a New Universe title, each issue has a month's break "in story" to match the month's break between issues being published, which creates some interesting story angles.  Steel Hawk, for example, has held Krotze prisoner for the past few weeks and then murders him in a quite bloody fashion.  Once the body's found, Jenny's arrested for murder, and, coming on the heels of the Spitfire suit being wrecked by small arms fire, this is a blow.  Irony on the letters page:  "Trust us, this one's here to stay!"

Issue # 5 starts with three of the Troubleshooters breaking into a police evidence room where the damaged Spitfire suit has been stored while Jenny's been in jail.  There's a nice theme in this issue of her realizing she's messed up by repeatedly taking the law into her own hands, and coming to terms with what she's done.  This issue is the first crossover with another New Universe title, Star Brand, and it comes off a bit forced but is solid overall.

Issue # 6 has a really dumb cover, but for some reason I like it anyway.  While the Club gets Steel Hawk ready to assassinate the British Prime Minister, the criminal case against Jenny is dismissed.  The Troubleshooters track down Steel Hawk's hide-out and survive his machine gun fire by hiding behind a hay bale! (who knew they were bulletproof?)  Steel Hawk gets away, and the Troubleshooters discover the assassination plot with only minutes to spare!

Issue # 7 shows how a month "in story" between issues makes cliffhangers really awkward, as Jenny's stopping of the assassination is done through a less exciting flashback.  Still, I like the book because it's not not a "villain of the month" super hero story.  Steel Hawk, who was foiled but escaped, identifies the Troubleshooters and travels to M.I.T. with a freakin' bazooka!  He blows the legs off Terry ("Fastball") and kills poor Andy ("Beam-Splitter").  Things just got real, y'all!

"Revenge!" shouts the cover of Issue # 8.  The comic has taken an interesting direction at this point, as the Spitfire armor is still wrecked and the Troubleshooters are getting knocked off.  Not what one would expect!  Jenny is "abducted by mysterious abductor" according to my notes, and asked to work on building a new M.A.X. suit.  It turns out, the United States government is testing her.  Meanwhile, the alive/mobile Troubleshooters track down Steel Hawk and ambush him at a massage parlor (is nothing sacred?), but then a ninja rescues him!  Bet you didn't see that coming.

So it turns out the ninja was Varna, Steel Hawk's lover.  Issue # 9 reveals that Jenny's spent a couple of weeks more or less imprisoned at a secret government facility led by a certain Edmund Roth.  Jenny's steadfastly refused to recreate the M.A.X. suit (knowing the government will make it into a weapon), but then she sees a video recording of her father that makes her reconsider--not realizing that the video was a fake!  Jenny thinks she's leaving the facility with another detainee, Jake Travest, but then it turns out the plane they're on is taking them to Afghanistan because the Russkies have knock-off M.A.X. suits!

After disabling one of the Russian suits in the beginning of Issue # 10, Jake and Jenny fall in with Afghani "freedom-fighters.  Jenny gradually realizes that Jake is bat-shit crazy.  The series is renamed "Codename: Spitfire" as the Troubleshooters are dropped for this new "secret agent" direction as Jenny and Jake work as government operatives against The Club.  I'm sad, because I'd rather see more M.I.T. shenanigans.

Issue # 11 helps us remember that the Sandinistas were a thing in American consciousness in the late 1980s, as Jake gets captured and interrogated by them.  This issue is poorly written and confusing with flashbacks, but it turns out that Jake and Jenny are on a mission to rescue a journalist when the Spitfire suit gets scrambled, Jake gets captured, and the journalist turns out to have been already killed.  Jenny disobeys orders to "disavow" Jake and rescues him instead.  Why she's loyal to the little psychopath I'm not sure.

There's been a bunch of different writers in the last few issues, which contributes to the storylines being all over the place.  Issue # 12 sports bad artwork, but an okay story that has something to do with a stolen fighter plane and Jenny's father's anti-militarism.  My notes are vague, but I don't plan to re-read it!

Issue # 13 is the big send off.  Jenny receives orders to rescue a captured CIA agent in "Puerto Roja" who was attempting to infiltrate the facility of a technology developer named Saxon St. John.  Saxon has been developing armor to sell to The Club, and has to be stopped.  Jenny gets a new partner for this gig (a tech expert named Willy Deeve) and a new suit that sports pecs and abs!  I would I had those.  Jenny & Willy defeat an armored dude on Puerto Roja, infiltrate Saxon's castle stronghold, destroy the lab after a big fight, and (I think) rescue the CIA agent.  There's a lot of agonizing in the issue about the dehumanizing influence of technology, but I'm too busy surfing my IPhone to give the matter any serious thought right now.  The ending of the series is actually kind of depressing.  "This concludes the adventures of Spitfire", we're told.

If tears are in your eyes, buck up with the knowledge that Spitfire makes some appearances in other New Universe titles.  As for the Troubleshooters?  Hm, that I don't know if I can help you with.