Spitfire (New Universe)
| Spitfire and the Troubleshooters | |
|---|---|
Issue #1 cover
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Publication date | October 1986 - October 1987 |
| Number of issues | 13 |
| Main character(s) | Professor Jenny Swensen |
| Creative team | |
| Creator(s) |
Eliot R. Brown Jack Morelli |
Spitfire and the Troubleshooters (renamed Spitfire with issue #8 and Codename: Spitfire with issue #10) was a short-lived comic book series from Marvel Comics' New Universe line. It followed "Spitfire" (Professor Jenny Swensen) and a group of brilliant but eccentric college students as they used high-tech powered exoskeletons to combat the mysterious terrorist organization called The Club.
Following the series' cancellation, Swensen was redesigned as the armor-skinned paranormal Chrome, and became a regular character in DP7.
A different version of the character – Dr Jennifer Swann – was introduced in 2007 as part of Warren Ellis' newuniversal, a single-title reworking of the New Universe concepts.
Spitfire and the Troubleshooters was created for the New Universe line by Eliot R. Brown and Jack Morelli. Brown recalls that it was Morelli who first came up with the idea of doing the series. On Spitfire's conception, Brown commented, "It was more than Iron Girl, it was a different technological attitude, more reality-based. Iron Man was not unreal, but Iron Man as a concept did too much. Even in the 1980s, the suit was so smart, it could have gone off and had its own adventures. I tried to do something that was more of a garbage can with legs and a good brain in it, something more mechanical." The concept of the Troubleshooters was based on a series of escapades Brown shared with a childhood friend, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while visiting him at the MIT campus in the mid-1970s.
Brown and Morelli wanted to write Spitfire and the Troubleshooters themselves, going so far as to take reference photos of the MIT campus and petitioning for Herb Trimpe to be the series artist. However, when Brown approached Bob Harras to turn in the first half of the script for issue #1, he saw that Harras had already accepted a completed script from Gerry Conway. Issues #4 and 5 saw dramatic turns in the series plot, as Fritz Kroetze (originally marked as the main villain of the series) is killed off, and the Spitfire armor is destroyed, leaving protagonist Jenny Swensen an ordinary human. Conway remained the regular writer until issue #6, which he co-wrote with his replacement, Cary Bates.
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