Spyral

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Spyral in Grayson v1 #19.

Spyral is an intelligence agency that features in DC Comics.

Contents

History

Spyral was a secret intelligence agency that came to operate on Earth. The growing fears of the rise of superhumans meant that individuals sought a way to combat their power and turned to Dr. Netz. (Grayson v1 #14) As such, an agency was formed within the United Nations when Dr. Otto Netz emerged from seclusion in Argentia and took over its operations as Doctor Dedalus. (Batman Incorporated v1 #5) The organization began calling itself Spyral after Agent 0 rebuilt the department. (Batman Incorporated v1 #4) As part of Dedalus's own goals, he also created an eternal evolving enemy to challenge Spyral and secretly made Leviathan as a result. (Grayson v1 #14)

Many year ago, a young Alejandra Cortez was hospitalised and nearly died from a poisonous snake bite until her mother agreed to a cure offered by Spyral. This saw her being subjected to an experiment that cured her and gave her superpowers. As Culebra, she was was trained and molded by the agency to operate outside the law where she publicly operate as a villain with Spyral ensuring her family remained safe. (Suicide Squad v7 #10) Another terrorist threat that Spyral had combated was an organization known as Gladius with it being believed that this enemy had been eliminated years ago. (Batgirl Annual v4 #3) For a long time, Spyral had been on the trail of Talia al Ghul and were seeking to eliminate her. During her vendetta against Batman, Headmistress Kathy Kane was deployed where she entered the Batcave and terminated Talia by shooting a bullet into her head. Kane thanked Batman for bringing about a trap for Talia and told him not to find Kathy as she did not exist whereupon she disappeared. (Batman Incorporated v2 #13)

Batman came to send his own protégé Dick Grayson to infiltrate Spyral following the Crime Syndicate of America's near conquest of Earth. (Nightwing v3 #30) The goal was to ascertain the danger posed by the organization though this required Grayson to be declared dead to the world whilst he became an agent of Spyral. (Grayson v1 #1) Agent 24 also known as the Hood was on assignment following leads concerning another black market meta bio-weapon. This device was a biomech digestive processor with this enhanced stomach beng located on Farmington, Leicestershire. (Grayson v1 #2)

Following the death of Mister Minos, Helena Bertinelli became the new head of the Spyral organization, (Grayson v1 #9) Checkmate gathered intelligence indicated that the Fist of Cain intended to strike at the Vatican from one of their murder-churches beneath the city with Director Bertinelli tasking Agent 1 to stopping them. (Grayson v1 #10) After this mission, Matron Bertinelli established Spyral's mission as being to continue to maintain and collect privilege information where they buried those that could not be known and exposing those that must be known. (Grayson v1 #13) During one of Grayson's mission, he brought with him agents of the criminal named Mother to St. Hadrians Finishing School for Girls. However, this proved to be a trap as it led to the release of the engineered Icthys virus that programmed young children to turn them against adults. As a result, the entire student body of the school began targeting their Spyral tutors. (Batman and Robin Eternal v1 #19)

Afterwards, Grayson along with Tiger openly worked against Spyral with a number of their agents taken down in the process. As a result, Director Bertinelli went to the syndicate consisting of other spymasters to get their aid in taking out her rogue agents. (Grayson v1 #16) However, the Syndicate intended to eliminate Matron Bertinelli and staged an assault on Saint Hadrians. This led to Dick Grayson and Tiger intercepting the Syndicate to stop them from assassinating Helena Bertinelli though the Matron was badly wounded in the assault. In the confusion, Agent Katherine Kane and Frau Netz began their battle to become the heir to their father Otto Netz. This allowed Netz to take Matron Bertinelli as his new host body to continue life once more as Dr. Dedalus. (Grayson v1 #18)

Following the attack on the Parliament of Owls, Spyral changed the operations of their students to focus more on freelance peacekeeping with them being sent on field missions around the world in instances of otherworldly incursions in order to gather discarded technology. A student at St. Hadrians had stolen one piece of the technology causing her to get her comrades at her suite to escape but she was captured. (Nightwing v4 #27) In reality, Spyral had been subverted by Mr. Minos who disguised himself as Tiger and created the Second Hand to distribute older Spyraltech to criminal organizations in the world to allow them to kill superheroes. He also sought to lure Nightwing to him so he could steal his knowledge of various superheroes secret identities for his Minos File. (Nightwing v4 #30)

Spyral later had Culebra placed as a member of the Suicide Squad to serve as a spy on their behalf. (Suicide Squad v7 #10)

Overview

Agent 37 in Grayso v1 #2.

In appearance, Spyral was an intelligence agency that consisted of international team of experts who were considered the best of the best. (Batman Incorporated v1 #4) They were the world's premier specialists in mind erosion, brainwashing and misdirection to the point that they held that reality was an elaborate deception. (Secret Origins v3 #8) Their original mission statement was eliminating superhumans but this changed to uncovering their secret identities. (Grayson v1 #1) The symbol of the agency was that of an eye nestled within a web. (Nightwing v3 #30)

One of its branches was the Freedom Information Division that were able to hack places for classified data. (Grayson v1 #4) Agents in Spyral as part of their policy were allowed to nominate new partners. (Secret Origins v3 #8) It was said by them that the only operative one could trust was themselves. (Batman and Robin Eternal v1 #10) Spyral rules strictly forbid relationships from forming amongst their agents. (Grayson v1 #1)

The Skullgirls had been taught that they were to avenge their comrades if any of them were killed. (Nightwing v4 #27) One branch within the organization was the Information Freedom Division responsible for gathering intelligence on other organizations. (Grayson v1 #4) Central to the organization was a trinity of beings known only as Spyder that appeared to the director of the agency. (Grayson v1 #10)

Hypnos were devices used by the agency where they were able to get others to perceive what the user desired them to see. (Grayson Annual v1 #1) Senior agents were able to trigger Subliminal Post-Hypnotic Suggestions within fellow agents whereby their Hypos emitted a mild shock into the person's brain allowing them to be knocked out. (Grayson v1 #2) Hypnos interrogation of subjects took a practiced and concentrated hand with even these operators still causing brain damage in the individual. Such a procedure was also harmful to the Hypnos operator as they could suffer from Post-Mental Integration Trauma. (Grayson v1 #6) Mission information could be uploaded directly onto an agent's Hypnos. (Grayson v1 #4) Such was the extent of their memory technology that they had Hypnos Memory Files that could wirelessly transmit information. (Secret Origins v3 #8) The largest application of this technology was the Somnus Satellite that was designed to disperse a large scale signal that mimicked the effects of the Hypnos implants. Spyral made use of it to target large scale geographic areas in cases where such areas needed to be deluded. A smaller scale transmitter was also present at St. Hadrians Finishing School for Girls that could be activated to wipe knowledge of Spyral headquarters existence in case it was ever breached by large powerful forces. (Batman and Robin Eternal v1 #19)

Students at St. Hadrians were provided a life-signs monitor for the comrades in their assigned suite with it going red if one of them were dead. (Nightwing v4 #27) Nanite trackers was another tool used to track the location of Spyral agents by the agency though these could be disabled through the use of an EMP. A computer system known as Spyral-Tech that could be operated by voice command was present on their vehicles to assist their agents. (Grayson v1 #10) In order to communicate with the head of Spyral, agents sometimes made use of the Mental Image Simulation Theatre (M.I.S.T.) though it was recommended to discontinue use if there were any feelings of temporary blindness, permanent loss of brain functions or feelings of deja vu. (Secret Origins v3 #8) Agents were coated with nanobots that could be remotely activated to kill the operative if they were deemed a threat. However, an electromagnetic pulse was able to knock the nanobots offline thus preventing them from achieving their goal. (Grayson v1 #14)

Another tool were spherical drones known as the Deep Eyes defense net that could be controlled by agents. (Grayson v1 #13) For protection of their facilities, they made use of spider-appearing security drones. (Grayson v1 #14) One vehicle used by their agents was a high-speed helicopter that was called the spyralcopter. (Grayson v1 #7)

Members

Students of St. Hadrians Finishing School for Girls in Grayson v1 #4.
  • Luka Netz : a female brunette haired senior agent designated as Agent 0. (Grayson v1 #12)
  • Mister Minos : a secretive male head of Spyral who shifted the focus of the organization from elimination of superheroes to uncovering their identities. (Grayson v1 #1)
  • Helena Bertinelli : female high ranking agent in Spyral and partner to Dick Grayson where she operated under the codename of Matron. (Grayson v1 #1)
  • Alia : a short-blonde haired female operative known as Agent 8 where she was partnered with Tiger. (Grayson v1 #3)
  • Tiger : a male operative known as Agent 1 where he was partnered with Alia. (Grayson v1 #3)
  • Dick Grayson : recruited by Spyral after his identity was revealed to the world during Forever Evil and given the designation of Agent 37 but secretly tasked by Batman with bringing down the rogue intelligence agency. (Grayson v1 #1)
  • Santiago Vargas : formerly Agent 33 where he was on a mission to retrieve Kathy Kane but she seemingly died on the mission causing him to quiet the agency and adopting the mantle of a vigilante named El Gaucho. (Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! v1 #1)
  • George Cross : a male operative who operated as a vigilante hero in England calld the Hood where he was also designated as Agent 24 in Spyral. (Grayson v1 #2)
  • Gianni Dracul : Agent 19 was a male with long white hair who took the role of a Mafia agent whilst he was deep undercover. (Nightwing v4 #26)
  • Robert Brink : a male agent who was on assignment but died only to be resurrected as part of the Challengers of the Unknown but he refused the mission leading to him dying the moment he stepped out of Challengers Mountain. (New Challengers v1 #1)
  • Obscura : a female agent who attempted to recruit Plastic Man to stop an international criminal conspiracy. (Plastic Man v5 #1)

Notes

  • Spyral was created by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham where they made their first appearance in Batman Incorporated v1 #4 (April, 2011).
  • In an interview on Comicsbeat, Grayson Co-Writer wrote, "Keep in mind that Spyral’s whole thing is spreading disinformation and mind control, and sometimes we may be playing the Spyral game on the readers. That’s how we keep ourselves entertained: by being the villains that we portray in the comic book."
  • Grayson Co-Writer Tom King commented on the organization, "The power of Spyral is the power of lies. They'll hit you in the face if they have to, but they'd rather find a way to manipulate you into walking into a wall. At this point, Spyral is focused on mapping out the secret identities of the DCU's superheroes, and that's why they're collecting these organs. Or at least that's what they're saying. Honestly, I don't trust those guys. I've walked into too many walls."

Appearances

  • Batman Incorporated v1: (2011)
  • Nightwing v3:
  • Grayson v1:
  • Batman and Robin Eternal v1:
  • Robin War v1:
  • Nightwing:
  • New Challengers:
  • Plastic Man:
  • Action Comics v1:
  • Event Leviathan v1:
  • Suicide Squad v7: (2021)

External Links

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