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 #144 (cover-dated May 1966) and continuing into the subsequent Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic-book series 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 (Jan. 2007).
Fictional character biography
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 â€" 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. There he confronts costumed assassins and terrorists such as Grey Gargoyle, Spymaster (who shoots him and puts Sitwell in a coma for a time), and A.I.M., and even romances Whitney Frost (Madame Masque), 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.
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. 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. He has since become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top interrogator, often paired with fellow agent Jimmy Woo. He has also worked closely with G. W. Bridge, mainly in an attempt to neutralize the threat of the Punisher.
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.
He also works with Nick Fury in regards to the underground activities of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.
During one of the Winter Soldier's missions, a brainwashed Black Widow is brought into custody at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters; she injures Nick Fury and kills Sitwell before escaping.
Other versions
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.
In other media
Television
- Jasper Sitwell appears in the animated TV series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Tom Kane.
- Jasper Sitwell appears in three episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) titled "The Hub", "Yes Men", and "End of the Beginning", and is portrayed by Maximiliano Hernández (who reprises his role from Marvel films). His appearance in the latter episode takes place immediately before Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Film
- Jasper Sitwell appears in several films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Maximiliano Hernández:
- Jasper Sitwell first appeared in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.
- Hernández reprised the role of Jasper Sitwell in the Marvel One-Shots short films The Consultant and Item 47. In The Consultant, Phil Coulson informs Jasper Sitwell that the World Security Council wishes Emil Blonsky released from prison to join the Avengers Initiative. They see him as a war hero and blame the devastation in New York City on Bruce Banner. The Council orders them to send an agent to ask General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross to release Blonsky into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As Nick Fury does not want to release Blonsky, the two agents decide to send a patsy to sabotage the meeting. At Sitwell's urging, Coulson reluctantly sends "the Consultant"....Tony Stark. In Item 47, Jasper Sitwell and Felix Blake pursue Bennie and Clare when they obtain a discarded Chitauri gun. Jasper Sitwell tracks the couple down to a motel room which is wrecked in the subsequent confrontation with all the stolen money blown to pieces. Instead of killing the couple, Sitwell invites them to join S.H.I.E.L.D. with Bennie assigned to the R&D "think-tank" to reverse engineer the Chitauri technology and Claire becoming Blake's assistant. Sitwell's reasoning for recruiting them, is because Bennie was the only person outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. that was able to figure out how to use the Chitauri gun and that Claire could be mentored by Blake.
- Jasper Sitwell appears in the 2012 film The Avengers.
- Jasper Sitwell appears in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He initially appears as a hostage aboard the pirate-captured vessel Lemurian Star, which had been launching targeting satellites for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Project Insight. Sitwell is later revealed to be a Hydra infiltrator within S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon force him to divulge Hydra's plans for absolute world domination via Project Insight and were going to use Sitwell to board the Insight Helicarriers, but the Winter Soldier attacks their car and throws Sitwell into oncoming traffic.
Video games
- Jasper Sitwell appears as a supporting character in the Facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, specifically in its Marvel XP section.
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