SPY 13

David Doughty is an agent with British Military Intelligence.

His activities, which are impressively many, take place during the Second World War. As the opening to one of his recorded adventures declare, while Britain "owed her continued existence to the selfless heroism of her sons in khaki, navy and air force blue ... there were other heroes, unknown and unsung, who gave themselves just a unsparingly to their beloved country. These were the secret agents who gambled with death behind the enemy lines. Men like David Doughty - Spy Thirteen."

For someone with so many exploits available, we really know very little about the man. His name, of course. And his codename. But not much else, as would befit a man who would, when a mission was complete, "slip back, unnoticed, into obscurity until his country had need of him again". His reputation is already quite solid at the beginning of the War and it is explained that Spy 13 has been an operative for some time before the hostilities commenced.

We are told that he is the younger son of the Duke of Seinchester which gives him a lot of experience dealing with the upper crusts of society. He is also seen more than once in the theater and entertainment districts where he is well known and liked among the actors and musicians.

We know his approximate age is 30 based only on his appearance when he is not in disguise. He is blond-haired and rather square-jawed with a handsome but rugged look. Athletic but not particularly large which allows him to move about without attracting attention. When not in character, he does assume a bit of a swagger but it seems to come more from just having a good time taking on impossible odds and coming out on top. He definitely has a wry sense of humor which he loves to share with his opponents.

The fact that he is able to assume so many roles in so many places in Europe and North Africa, we have to assume his command of languages is impressive, certainly German and Italian and likely Arabic as well. Japanese might also be one as he does spend time, though not that much, in the Far East.

He is a practiced paratrooper as well as an underwater expert. He is very good with his fists and is a lethal shot with hand guns, rifles, and machine guns, as his enemies see frequently.

Most impressive, though, is his exceptional skills with disguises. He has obviously had considerable training in applying makeup and other devices to be able to take the place of a wide range of people and mimicking their behavior to pull off the deception. He routinely travels with his disguise kit, making sure before many missions that his supplies in it are fully stocked for he never knows when he will find it important to be seen as someone else. That skill with languages comes in very handy here as well, especially his ability to handle dialects.

Good Lines:
- About to examine a suspicious container, Spy 13 says, "It doesn't look like a bomb ... so let's hope they're not famous last words!"

These are interesting and most very enjoyable short adventures. There might be a lot of pages to most of the adventures (64) but since there are only two panels per page, that does not give anywhere as much room as might be thought by the page count.

The black and white artwork is good but at times looks hurried (this from a man who cannot draw a stick figure). Still, no panel is ever wasted and nothing important is hard to recognize or understand. 

Action is by far the important part of these stories and the writers and artists definitely excel at those. And there is an impressive amount of variety as well, not to mention landscapes and regions.