This week, Six Secrets is on a mission to uncover the secret lives and the stories-behind-the-stories. From Batman’s spooky scripter to Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, we reveal the hidden spy hands behind major superheroes.
Propaganda heroes
When American spies need a sneaky propaganda tool to win hearts and minds they turn to subliminal messaging. During WWII, the US delivered its anti-Nazi mantra through comic book heroes. The experiment was so successful they’ve carried on into the 21st century commissioning comics and characters for covert operations in South America, Australia, the Middle East, and far beyond.
When Tom King finished working as a CIA counterterrorism officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was ready to tackle another enormous challenge: scripting Batman comics. Whether tackling terrorists or writing about heroism, King thrives under pressure and loves being close to the action.
Former FSB spies Janosh and Victorya Neumann fled Putin’s Russia with a list of Moscow’s most influential money launderers and a vague plan to contact the CIA. Their comic book, Almost American, illustrates their life on the run but there’s much more to this dark story. Rory Bremner hears their extraordinary story of life-or-death escape over international borders.
DC Comics editor Alice Marble was an 18-time Grand Slam tennis champion when she was involved in a car crash, miscarried her child, and days later learned of her husband’s death. Feeling she had nothing left to lose, Alice agreed to lead a dangerous espionage operation. Her mission was to seduce her former lover, a Swiss banker suspected of laundering money for the Nazis.
Jack Kirby is renowned for creating epic superheroes The Hulk and Captain America. Much less is known about his life as a real-life spy. Kirby worked for US military intelligence on the frontline during WWII, sneaking into towns to draw reconnaissance maps and sketch out the positions of Axis forces. His life in the shadows didn’t stop there, however.
Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston was a Harvard-educated psychologist who invented his own lasso of truth: the early polygraph test. He was fascinated by deception and led a secret life that compelled him to create his own superhero spy - inspired in equal measures by suffrages and centerfolds.
