Jasper Sitwell

Jasper Sitwell
Jasper Sitwell Art by Carlo Pagulayan.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Strange Tales #144 (May 1966)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Jasper Sitwell
Team affiliations	S.H.I.E.L.D.
Abilities	Trained in espionage, firearms, hand-to-hand combat

Jasper Sitwell is a fictional comic book espionage agent in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Strange Tales #144 (May 1966).

Publication history

Jasper Sitwell appears as an agent of the fictional espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning in the feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales in 1966, and continuing into the subsequent series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1968. He became the S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to defense industry contractor Tony Stark (Iron Man) beginning in the "Iron Man" feature in Tales of Suspense #93 (Sept. 1967), and continuing into that subsequent series as well. He was seldom featured from the early 1970s until the 1988 miniseries Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., and then again in the 1996-1997 series Iron Man Vol. 2. Sitwell afterward appeared in a three-issue arc of the superhero-team series The Avengers in 2000, and in Punisher War Journal #1 (January 2007).

Fictional character biography

Young, crew cut, clean-cut Jasper Sitwell graduated at the top of his class at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, with particularly high marks in airborne jump school and underwater maneuvers. When first introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D. Executive Director Nick Fury, the new agent's eager-beaver attitude meets initially with mock (and occasionally real) frustration from Fury and second-in-command Dum Dum Dugan, but Sitwell soon proves himself and earns his fellow agents' respect — albeit tinged with occasional humor aimed at his youthfulness and idealistic naïveté. Mentored by Fury himself and occasionally appointed interim director when Fury is on solo missions in the field, Sitwell later is assigned to Stark Industries as liaison between S.H.I.E.L.D. and that defense-industry contractor, which designs and manufactures much of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ordnance and equipment.^[1] There he confronts costumed assassins and terrorists such as Grey Gargoyle, Spymaster (who shoots him and puts Sitwell in a coma for a time),^[2] and A.I.M., and even romances Whitney Frost (Madame Masque),^[3] a one-time Stark paramour. Sitwell is eventually reassigned back to S.H.I.E.L.D., but continues to play a role in the affairs of Tony Stark from time to time. When Obadiah Stane takes over what was by then named Stark International, Fury sends Sitwell on an ultimately failed attempt to retrieve Stark's Iron Man armors.^[4]

Sitwell, like most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership at the time, is seemingly killed by a self-aware, renegade "Deltan" variety of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s artificial human "Life Model Decoys", and replaced by one such LMD, which was then installed as Executive Director.^[5] The real Sitwell later turns up alive after having been brainwashed by a faction of the terrorist organization HYDRA, placed in suspended animation, released as part of a plot against Fury, and eventually deprogrammed.^[6] He has since become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top interrogator, often paired with fellow agent Jimmy Woo.^[7] He has also worked closely with G. W. Bridge, mainly in an attempt to neutralize the threat of the Punisher.^[8]

Sitwell was one of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who refused to join Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. organization in the wake of the Skrull Secret Invasion. He would join with Dum Dum Dugan to form a mercenary paramilitary group, dubbed the Howling Commandos, that would engage H.A.M.M.E.R., HYDRA and its associate "Leviathan" program, alongside Nick Fury's Secret Warriors.. One of these many skirmishes sees Jasper lose his friends Eric Koenig and Gabriel Jones.^[9]

He also works with Nick Fury in regards to the underground activities of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.^[10]

During one of the Winter Soldier's mission, a brainwashed Black Widow was brought into custody at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters; she injured Nick Fury and killed Sitwell before escaping.^[11]

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Jasper Sitwell appears in Ultimate Fallout. He informs Nick Fury that they will be decreasing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget by 30 percent, and is a Government operative, as opposed as the Mainstream Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. position.^[12]

In other media

Film

Jasper Sitwell first appeared in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor, portrayed by Maximiliano Hernández. He reprised the role in the Marvel One-Shots short films "The Consultant" and "Item 47," and in the 2012 film The Avengers. Hernández will reprise the role again in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.^[13]

Television

• Jasper Sitwell appears in the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Come the Conqueror", voiced by Tom Kane.

• Hernández reprises his role as Sitwell in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode titled "The Hub". ^[14]

See also

• List of S.H.I.E.L.D. members

References

External links

• The Grand Comics Database
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Iron Man Armory: Jasper Sitwell