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* TheNudifier: In one strip, one spy creates an invisibility potion. While scheming about what he'll do to the other spy, the other spy pours a chemical into the potion. Then the first spy drinks the potion out in public, and freaks out when only his clothes disappear or turn invisible.
to:
* TheNudifier: In one strip, one spy creates an invisibility potion. While scheming about what he'll do to the other spy, the other spy pours a chemical into the potion. Then the first spy drinks the potion out in public, and freaks out when only his clothes disappear or turn invisible. [[RealityEnsues He then gets arrested.]]
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* BloodierAndGorier: Ever since Peter Kuper took over, many of the gags have become a lot more visceral.
to:
* BloodierAndGorier: Ever Although kept in check by the rules of BloodlessCarnage, ever since Peter Kuper took over, many of the gags have become a lot more visceral.
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[[caption-width-right:220:[-"The ColdWar may be over, but the Lukewarm War rages on!"-] ]]
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[[caption-width-right:220:[-"The ColdWar UsefulNotes/ColdWar may be over, but the Lukewarm War rages on!"-] ]]
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* GrayAndGreyMorality: Neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Their moral alignments are a matter of fan interpretation.
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* GrayAndGreyMorality: GreyAndGrayMorality: Neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Their moral alignments are a matter of fan interpretation.
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* MinimalistCast: With a few exceptions (the spies' leaders and the Grey Spy for example) the spies are practically the only people in their universe.
to:
* MinimalistCast: With a few exceptions (the spies' Aside from the leaders and the Grey Spy, all of whom are used very sparingly, the Black Spy for example) and the spies White Spy are practically the only people in their universe.
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* StrawLoser: Both spies, to the Lady in Grey.
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* StrawLoser: Both spies, to the Lady Woman in Grey.
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** Meta-example -- Prohías couldn't bring himself to let the Grey Spy lose because he didn't want to draw a woman suffering the usual fates of the loser in the comic. Eventually he phased her out because her inability to lose was boring. Peter Kuper brought her back.
to:
** Meta-example -- Prohías couldn't bring himself to let the Grey Spy lose because he didn't want to draw a woman suffering the usual fates of the loser in the comic. Eventually he phased her out because her inability to lose was boring. Dave Manak and Duck Edwing brought her back for two strips in 1988, and Peter Kuper brought made her back.into a recurring character.
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* EvilVersusEvil: Of course, neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Whether they're evil or not is a matter of fan interpretation.
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* GrayAndGreyMorality: Neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Their moral alignments are a matter of fan interpretation.
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* TakeThat[=/=]EveryoneKnowsMorse: Antonio Prohías wrote the comic as a coded "Screw you" to FidelCastro for attempting to arrest him as a spy for the CIA, by writing "By Prohías" in Morse code. He explained it all in the story shown in [[http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/aug/spyvsspy/010830.spyvsspy.html these]] [[http://tiny.cc/ceqdrw links]].
to:
* TakeThat[=/=]EveryoneKnowsMorse: Antonio Prohías wrote the comic as a coded "Screw you" to FidelCastro UsefulNotes/FidelCastro for attempting to arrest him as a spy for the CIA, by writing "By Prohías" in Morse code. He explained it all in the story shown in [[http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/aug/spyvsspy/010830.spyvsspy.html these]] [[http://tiny.cc/ceqdrw links]].
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* SatchelSwitcheroo: The Spies regularly pull this on each other.
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** Also for a short time a series of CG commercials for Mountain Dew.
to:
** Also for a short time a series of LiveActionAdaptation + CG commercials for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUBdj042--M Mountain Dew.Dew]].
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* CoolShades: The spies wore sunglasses in the oldest comics, but now their eyes appear naturally dark.
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** Now an element of the new ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' cartoon.
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** Now an element of the new ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' cartoon.
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* TheArtifact: The morse code message in the title panel, which spells out ''"BY PROHIAS"'', was kept after Antonio Prohias retired in 1987. All of the subsequent artists have used it as well.
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** Same could be said for the White Spy in "Defection". When he thought the Black spy lost his job and was down on his luck, he felt sorry for him and decided to help him....only for the Black spy to turn on him and blow him up with dynamite.
to:
** Same could be said for the White Spy in "Defection". When he thought the Black spy lost his job and was down on his luck, he felt sorry for him and decided to help him....only for the Black spy to turn on him and blow him up with dynamite. dynamite.
* TheNudifier: In one strip, one spy creates an invisibility potion. While scheming about what he'll do to the other spy, the other spy pours a chemical into the potion. Then the first spy drinks the potion out in public, and freaks out when only his clothes disappear or turn invisible.
* TheNudifier: In one strip, one spy creates an invisibility potion. While scheming about what he'll do to the other spy, the other spy pours a chemical into the potion. Then the first spy drinks the potion out in public, and freaks out when only his clothes disappear or turn invisible.
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* CheshireCatGrin: Both spies whenever they're scheming.
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* PaletteSwap: The two spies, other than the colors of their clothing, look identical. And the 2005 Xbox game featured a Red spy and a Blue spy.
to:
* PaletteSwap: The two spies, other than the colors of their clothing, look identical. And the 2005 Xbox game featured a Red spy and a Blue spy. Lampshaded in one strip where the spies paint themselves in each other's colors without the other's knowledge to pull a trick...and then run into the other spy, who now looks like themselves. This either confuses them so badly or causes a big enough existential crisis that they ''both'' have to go see a psychiatrist. The same one. At the same time.
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* ZanySchemeChicken: The premise.
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After Prohías retired, he passed the strip on to others. Artistic duties later went to George Woodbridge (for one issue), Bob Clarke and then Dave Manak, all with Don "Duck" Edwing as the main writer (although other writers sometimes contributed, most often Andrew J. Schwartzberg). In 1997, coinciding with a ReTool of the magazine, artistic and writing duties went to Peter Kuper, who still does it to this day.
to:
After Prohías retired, he passed the strip on to others. Artistic duties later went to Bob Clarke, George Woodbridge (for one issue), Bob Clarke (one issue only), and then Dave Manak, all with Don "Duck" Edwing as the main writer (although other writers sometimes contributed, most often Andrew J. Schwartzberg). In 1997, coinciding with a ReTool of the magazine, artistic and writing duties went to Peter Kuper, who still does it to this day.
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** Also for a short time a series of CG commercials for Mountain Dew.
** A quick blackout segment on an episode of ''RobotChicken''.
** A quick blackout segment on an episode of ''RobotChicken''.
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typo
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** The Grey Spy would always win out over both spies. Prohías realized this (see WouldntHitAGirl below), but instead of having her continue to show up and predictably kill both Black and White spies, he quietly phased her out of the strip entirely.
to:
** The Grey Spy would always win out over both spies. Prohías realized this (see WouldntHitAGirl below), but and instead of having her continue to show up and predictably kill both Black and White spies, he quietly phased her out of the strip entirely.
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** The Grey Spy would always win out over both spies. Prohías realized this (see WouldntHitAGirl below), but instead of having her lose and/or be killed, he quietly phased her out of the strip entirely.
to:
** The Grey Spy would always win out over both spies. Prohías realized this (see WouldntHitAGirl below), but instead of having her lose and/or be killed, continue to show up and predictably kill both Black and White spies, he quietly phased her out of the strip entirely.
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** The Grey Spy would always win out over both spies. Prohías realized this (see WouldntHitAGirl below), but instead of having her lose and/or be killed, he quietly phased her out of the strip entirely.
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* SpinoffBabies: ''Spy vs. Spy Jr.'', which ran in ''MAD Kids'' magazine.
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* SymbolSwearing: White Spy once tricked Black Spy into swallowing a miniature speaker, then spoke profanities through the speaker once Black Spy's superior came in. The superior then had Black Spy executed for cursing him.
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* DisneyDeath: The spies always come back alive. Possibly because they're part of a larger spy organization and therefore are replaced (one comic had White Spy strafing a funeral held by Black Spies for one of their own. [[BatmanGambit Turns out they were hiding a surface-to-air missile]] in the casket). Or it could always be the TheyKilledKenny case.
to:
* DisneyDeath: The spies always come back alive. Possibly because they're part of a larger spy organization and therefore are replaced (one comic had White Spy strafing a funeral held by Black Spies for one of their own. [[BatmanGambit Turns out they were hiding a surface-to-air missile]] in the casket). Or it could always be the TheyKilledKenny TheyKilledKennyAgain case.
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Added \"Take That\" and \"Everyone Knows Morse\" and the source links.
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* SpyVersusSpy: [[TropeNamers Why else would we call it that]]?
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* SpyVersusSpy: [[TropeNamers Why else would we call it that]]?that?]]
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* TakeThat[=/=]EveryoneKnowsMorse: Antonio Prohías wrote the comic as a coded "Screw you" to FidelCastro for attempting to arrest him as a spy for the CIA, by writing "By Prohías" in Morse code. He explained it all in the story shown in [[http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/aug/spyvsspy/010830.spyvsspy.html these]] [[http://tiny.cc/ceqdrw links]].
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Moving to correct Namespace.
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[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2009-8-5-Spy_vs_Spy_9432.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:220:[-"The ColdWar may be over, but the Lukewarm War rages on!"-] ]]
A recurring cartoon feature in ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' magazine, originally created by the Cuban exile Antonio Prohías. The characters debuted in issue #60 (January, 1961).
As the title implies, it is about two spies, Black and White, who constantly try to outdo (usually read as: "kill") each other with varying levels of success. Sometimes a plan goes off without a hitch, sometimes the other Spy has a hidden countermeasure that makes everything blow up in their faces (literally, whenever possible). Occasionally, a female Grey Spy would show up to do them both in.
After Prohías retired, he passed the strip on to others. Artistic duties later went to George Woodbridge (for one issue), Bob Clarke and then Dave Manak, all with Don "Duck" Edwing as the main writer (although other writers sometimes contributed, most often Andrew J. Schwartzberg). In 1997, coinciding with a ReTool of the magazine, artistic and writing duties went to Peter Kuper, who still does it to this day.
There are a small set of different games based on the series, the first being the most ported of all of them.
----
!!''Spy vs. Spy'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AcmeProducts: These often pop up in Kuper's strips.
* AnimatedAdaptation
** For ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' sketches. They follow the scripts of various strips to the letter most of the time.
** Now an element of the new ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' cartoon.
* AnyoneCanDie: Over, and over, and over again. Except Grey Spy.
* ArtEvolution: The spies went from looking like [[http://www.ybcw.com/images/1961_original_spy_vs_spy.jpg this]] to [[http://www.spyvsspyhq.com/spy130.jpg this.]] (Note especially that their inverted black eyes with white pupils started out as black sunglasses with white reflections)
* BackwardsFiringGun: Occurs in one strip drawn for a series of paperbacks.
* BadassLongcoat: Both worn by both spies.
* BloodierAndGorier: Ever since Peter Kuper took over, many of the gags have become a lot more visceral.
* CartoonBomb: Regularly deployed by both spies.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The first gag had both spies trying to poison each other. ''Neither one died''!
* CheatedAngle: The Spies' heads are almost never shown from the front. (Check the page image for ThisIsGonnaSuck for an aversion.)
* ChocolateBaby: In one of the little mini-comics you'll find permeating the margins of Mad Magazine, White Spy arrives home to find his obviously pregnant wife Grey Spy knitting a little black spy suit. Of course in the first place BOTH Spies' skin are the same color. You never hear about the Red and Blue spies being "Racist".
* ContinuityNod: Occasionally the spies will reuse previous plans with new twists.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The strip's been running in color since 2001, but many depictions and animations of the Spies still portray them in a monochrome world.
* DisneyDeath: The spies always come back alive. Possibly because they're part of a larger spy organization and therefore are replaced (one comic had White Spy strafing a funeral held by Black Spies for one of their own. [[BatmanGambit Turns out they were hiding a surface-to-air missile]] in the casket). Or it could always be the TheyKilledKenny case.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Sometimes the losing spy dies from falling.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Whenever the Grey Spy is around.
* EvilVersusEvil: Of course, neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Whether they're evil or not is a matter of fan interpretation.
* FemmeFatale: The Grey spy.
* ForegoneConclusion: The title strips at the top of early-to-mid era comics would depict another instance of the two fighting each other, but with a clear victor. Smart readers eventually noticed that the spy who won the title strip would lose the main comic.
* FriendlyEnemy: The spies would often hang out together, even though they are setting traps for each other.
* GambitPileup: A staple of the series. At least one strip will have one spy's plan completely turned on its head by an unexpected decoy... and quite a few strips play everything straight just to specifically subvert this.
* GambitRoulette: A particularly notable example is the black spy staging his own decommissioning from his embassy in an elaborate scheme to kill the white spy.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Happens often, usually thanks to one of the spies tinkering with the other's trap.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Too many times to count.
* InstrumentOfMurder: Weapons disguised as musical instruments occur a few times.
* LudicrousGibs: Prohias wasn't shy about drawing shoes, hats, and dentures flying all over the place after an explosion. Later comics began to graphically illustrate heavy wounds, once Peter Kuper took over.
* MaximumCapacityOverload: Deliberately done in one comic, with White tricking Black into carrying several 1000-pound weights on an elevator (he thinks they are White's secret plans).
* MinimalistCast: With a few exceptions (the spies' leaders and the Grey Spy for example) the spies are practically the only people in their universe.
* MurderByCremation: In the last strip in the short-lived Sunday strip, Black Spy becomes a victim to this.
* NiceHat: All three spies wear them.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished
** Mild example. In one particular strip, Black sees a girl trapped in a cage on top of a wooden pole. He climbs up, intending to help her only for the cage to fall down and trap him at the bottom of the pole. It was a trap from White and he's seen taking his disguise off and laughing at a shocked Black.
** Same could be said for the White Spy in "Defection". When he thought the Black spy lost his job and was down on his luck, he felt sorry for him and decided to help him....only for the Black spy to turn on him and blow him up with dynamite.
* OhCrap: The losing spy sometimes realizes too late that he's been ''had'', resulting in either this trope or ThisIsGonnaSuck.
* OutGambitted: Provides the page image.
* PaletteSwap: The two spies, other than the colors of their clothing, look identical. And the 2005 Xbox game featured a Red spy and a Blue spy.
* PieInTheFace: EveryEpisodeEnding in the much LighterAndSofter ''Spy vs Spy Jr.'', which ran for a short time in ''Mad Kids''.
* ShoePhone: There are several examples of this, as the two spies use these to kill each other. Examples include special shells that disguise their firearms as certain props like hairdryers and cameras. They disguise bombs as harmless items from time to time as well, like books, teeth, and credit cards.
* SilenceIsGolden: No-one in the entire comic's run has spoken an understandable word (although a Spy uses a recording of himself saying "Stick 'em Up" in one strip); Prohías spoke almost no English when he began drawing the strip, but his earlier Spanish-language comics like ''El Hombre Siniestro'' contained precious little Spanish. It was simply his style.
* SpyVersusSpy: [[TropeNamers Why else would we call it that]]?
* StuffBlowingUp
* StrawLoser: Both spies, to the Lady in Grey.
* SundayStrip: A very short-lived version in 2002, drawn by Manak and written by Edwing.
* TheTelevisionTalksBack
** In one strip, White Spy climbs into Black Spy's television to shoot him through it. Turns out Black Spy's remote holds a machine gun.
** In an earlier strip, the White Spy set up a camera to see if the Black Spy would show up. He appeared to be there, but he was actually inside the TV.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Provides the page image. Generally, if a Spy finds out too late he's been had, it'll be either this trope or OhCrap.
* TooDumbToLive: The losing spy, on certain occasions. Also, when the Grey Spy shows up, if the two spies wouldn't drool over her and try to win her, they wouldn't end up in her traps.
* WouldntHitAGirl
** Meta-example -- Prohías couldn't bring himself to let the Grey Spy lose because he didn't want to draw a woman suffering the usual fates of the loser in the comic. Eventually he phased her out because her inability to lose was boring. Peter Kuper brought her back.
** Prohías may have had qualms with it, but [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=spy%20vs%20spy&order=9&offset=0&offset=48#/d14rsg2 some fans show no mercy.]]
* XanatosGambit: Related to the above. While the Grey Spy always won she was eventually phased out of the comic entirely. Considering how the Black and White spies can't prema-kill each other maybe they lost on purpose.
* XylophoneGag: In a rare example of the trope working, White Spy rigs a piano to squirt nitro glycerin into Black Spy's mouth when he pushes certain keys. Boom.
!!The games provide examples of the following tropes:
* ArtificialStupidity: It is exceptionally easy to bait the A.I. into your traps. Even on hard and/or the last level(s) of the game.
** Most notably, the time bomb trap placed in a room with a pickup will almost always get them in any port of the first game. They never learn that going out and back in would save them the trouble of having to try and stop you from running straight for the exit.
** AIBreaker: Operation: Booby Trap has numerous field hazards, which the AI knows not to stand in. The AI also knows it can jump through most (but not all) of these. However, the AI has the following quirk: When the AI retreats from you without moving up or down, it will stay just off the edge of the screen and wait a second to recover some health. HOWEVER, if you so much as inch towards the computer, [[TooDumbToLive he will approach you regardless of health and attempt (briefly) to stand next to you so that he can punch you.]] You should see where this is going: stand at the edge of a damage hazard, repeatedly bait the computer into said hazard fast enough to where he doesn't recover health, and let the computer DIE FROM THE HAZARD.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The computer will never lose the knife (first game and all ports except the GameBoyColor) and knows EXACTLY where each item is (Extremely apparent on Operation: Booby Trap, where the first two items the computer picks up will invariably end up being Attache Case and Key Item in that order)
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: The key items you lose in the first game get hidden in the room you died in, and you just lose 30 seconds on your clock (and have to wait 5 seconds to respawn). Operation: Booby Trap dumps your items into a random chest ([[LuckBasedMission even booby trapped ones]]) without decreasing your timer, but the respawn time is 10 seconds. However, the respawn timer is MORE than enough for most competent players -- and the A.I. -- to bolt for the exit if they have everything, and on Operation: Booby Trap, dying when your opponent has all the items is almost a guaranteed loss.
* FanRemake: [[http://kyolucanized.web.fc2.com SPYvsSPYvsSPYvsSPY]]. Thinking of two spies can't satisfy you? [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin We have FOUR!]]
* LifeMeter: Operation: Booby Trap actually has a visible one, and traps in that game do not instant-kill. It does, however, slow you down after taking so much damage.
* OneHitPointWonder: Traps effectively turn the victim into this on everything except Operation: Booby Trap.
* TimedMission
* TooDumbToLive: You shouldn't get killed by the same trap you set 5 seconds ago. Especially if you've got EVERY key item on you.
* XRaySparks
----
[[caption-width-right:220:[-"The ColdWar may be over, but the Lukewarm War rages on!"-] ]]
A recurring cartoon feature in ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' magazine, originally created by the Cuban exile Antonio Prohías. The characters debuted in issue #60 (January, 1961).
As the title implies, it is about two spies, Black and White, who constantly try to outdo (usually read as: "kill") each other with varying levels of success. Sometimes a plan goes off without a hitch, sometimes the other Spy has a hidden countermeasure that makes everything blow up in their faces (literally, whenever possible). Occasionally, a female Grey Spy would show up to do them both in.
After Prohías retired, he passed the strip on to others. Artistic duties later went to George Woodbridge (for one issue), Bob Clarke and then Dave Manak, all with Don "Duck" Edwing as the main writer (although other writers sometimes contributed, most often Andrew J. Schwartzberg). In 1997, coinciding with a ReTool of the magazine, artistic and writing duties went to Peter Kuper, who still does it to this day.
There are a small set of different games based on the series, the first being the most ported of all of them.
----
!!''Spy vs. Spy'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AcmeProducts: These often pop up in Kuper's strips.
* AnimatedAdaptation
** For ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' sketches. They follow the scripts of various strips to the letter most of the time.
** Now an element of the new ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' cartoon.
* AnyoneCanDie: Over, and over, and over again. Except Grey Spy.
* ArtEvolution: The spies went from looking like [[http://www.ybcw.com/images/1961_original_spy_vs_spy.jpg this]] to [[http://www.spyvsspyhq.com/spy130.jpg this.]] (Note especially that their inverted black eyes with white pupils started out as black sunglasses with white reflections)
* BackwardsFiringGun: Occurs in one strip drawn for a series of paperbacks.
* BadassLongcoat: Both worn by both spies.
* BloodierAndGorier: Ever since Peter Kuper took over, many of the gags have become a lot more visceral.
* CartoonBomb: Regularly deployed by both spies.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The first gag had both spies trying to poison each other. ''Neither one died''!
* CheatedAngle: The Spies' heads are almost never shown from the front. (Check the page image for ThisIsGonnaSuck for an aversion.)
* ChocolateBaby: In one of the little mini-comics you'll find permeating the margins of Mad Magazine, White Spy arrives home to find his obviously pregnant wife Grey Spy knitting a little black spy suit. Of course in the first place BOTH Spies' skin are the same color. You never hear about the Red and Blue spies being "Racist".
* ContinuityNod: Occasionally the spies will reuse previous plans with new twists.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The strip's been running in color since 2001, but many depictions and animations of the Spies still portray them in a monochrome world.
* DisneyDeath: The spies always come back alive. Possibly because they're part of a larger spy organization and therefore are replaced (one comic had White Spy strafing a funeral held by Black Spies for one of their own. [[BatmanGambit Turns out they were hiding a surface-to-air missile]] in the casket). Or it could always be the TheyKilledKenny case.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Sometimes the losing spy dies from falling.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Whenever the Grey Spy is around.
* EvilVersusEvil: Of course, neither spy is portrayed as good OR evil, since both of them are equally ruthless towards each other. Whether they're evil or not is a matter of fan interpretation.
* FemmeFatale: The Grey spy.
* ForegoneConclusion: The title strips at the top of early-to-mid era comics would depict another instance of the two fighting each other, but with a clear victor. Smart readers eventually noticed that the spy who won the title strip would lose the main comic.
* FriendlyEnemy: The spies would often hang out together, even though they are setting traps for each other.
* GambitPileup: A staple of the series. At least one strip will have one spy's plan completely turned on its head by an unexpected decoy... and quite a few strips play everything straight just to specifically subvert this.
* GambitRoulette: A particularly notable example is the black spy staging his own decommissioning from his embassy in an elaborate scheme to kill the white spy.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Happens often, usually thanks to one of the spies tinkering with the other's trap.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Too many times to count.
* InstrumentOfMurder: Weapons disguised as musical instruments occur a few times.
* LudicrousGibs: Prohias wasn't shy about drawing shoes, hats, and dentures flying all over the place after an explosion. Later comics began to graphically illustrate heavy wounds, once Peter Kuper took over.
* MaximumCapacityOverload: Deliberately done in one comic, with White tricking Black into carrying several 1000-pound weights on an elevator (he thinks they are White's secret plans).
* MinimalistCast: With a few exceptions (the spies' leaders and the Grey Spy for example) the spies are practically the only people in their universe.
* MurderByCremation: In the last strip in the short-lived Sunday strip, Black Spy becomes a victim to this.
* NiceHat: All three spies wear them.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished
** Mild example. In one particular strip, Black sees a girl trapped in a cage on top of a wooden pole. He climbs up, intending to help her only for the cage to fall down and trap him at the bottom of the pole. It was a trap from White and he's seen taking his disguise off and laughing at a shocked Black.
** Same could be said for the White Spy in "Defection". When he thought the Black spy lost his job and was down on his luck, he felt sorry for him and decided to help him....only for the Black spy to turn on him and blow him up with dynamite.
* OhCrap: The losing spy sometimes realizes too late that he's been ''had'', resulting in either this trope or ThisIsGonnaSuck.
* OutGambitted: Provides the page image.
* PaletteSwap: The two spies, other than the colors of their clothing, look identical. And the 2005 Xbox game featured a Red spy and a Blue spy.
* PieInTheFace: EveryEpisodeEnding in the much LighterAndSofter ''Spy vs Spy Jr.'', which ran for a short time in ''Mad Kids''.
* ShoePhone: There are several examples of this, as the two spies use these to kill each other. Examples include special shells that disguise their firearms as certain props like hairdryers and cameras. They disguise bombs as harmless items from time to time as well, like books, teeth, and credit cards.
* SilenceIsGolden: No-one in the entire comic's run has spoken an understandable word (although a Spy uses a recording of himself saying "Stick 'em Up" in one strip); Prohías spoke almost no English when he began drawing the strip, but his earlier Spanish-language comics like ''El Hombre Siniestro'' contained precious little Spanish. It was simply his style.
* SpyVersusSpy: [[TropeNamers Why else would we call it that]]?
* StuffBlowingUp
* StrawLoser: Both spies, to the Lady in Grey.
* SundayStrip: A very short-lived version in 2002, drawn by Manak and written by Edwing.
* TheTelevisionTalksBack
** In one strip, White Spy climbs into Black Spy's television to shoot him through it. Turns out Black Spy's remote holds a machine gun.
** In an earlier strip, the White Spy set up a camera to see if the Black Spy would show up. He appeared to be there, but he was actually inside the TV.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Provides the page image. Generally, if a Spy finds out too late he's been had, it'll be either this trope or OhCrap.
* TooDumbToLive: The losing spy, on certain occasions. Also, when the Grey Spy shows up, if the two spies wouldn't drool over her and try to win her, they wouldn't end up in her traps.
* WouldntHitAGirl
** Meta-example -- Prohías couldn't bring himself to let the Grey Spy lose because he didn't want to draw a woman suffering the usual fates of the loser in the comic. Eventually he phased her out because her inability to lose was boring. Peter Kuper brought her back.
** Prohías may have had qualms with it, but [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=spy%20vs%20spy&order=9&offset=0&offset=48#/d14rsg2 some fans show no mercy.]]
* XanatosGambit: Related to the above. While the Grey Spy always won she was eventually phased out of the comic entirely. Considering how the Black and White spies can't prema-kill each other maybe they lost on purpose.
* XylophoneGag: In a rare example of the trope working, White Spy rigs a piano to squirt nitro glycerin into Black Spy's mouth when he pushes certain keys. Boom.
!!The games provide examples of the following tropes:
* ArtificialStupidity: It is exceptionally easy to bait the A.I. into your traps. Even on hard and/or the last level(s) of the game.
** Most notably, the time bomb trap placed in a room with a pickup will almost always get them in any port of the first game. They never learn that going out and back in would save them the trouble of having to try and stop you from running straight for the exit.
** AIBreaker: Operation: Booby Trap has numerous field hazards, which the AI knows not to stand in. The AI also knows it can jump through most (but not all) of these. However, the AI has the following quirk: When the AI retreats from you without moving up or down, it will stay just off the edge of the screen and wait a second to recover some health. HOWEVER, if you so much as inch towards the computer, [[TooDumbToLive he will approach you regardless of health and attempt (briefly) to stand next to you so that he can punch you.]] You should see where this is going: stand at the edge of a damage hazard, repeatedly bait the computer into said hazard fast enough to where he doesn't recover health, and let the computer DIE FROM THE HAZARD.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The computer will never lose the knife (first game and all ports except the GameBoyColor) and knows EXACTLY where each item is (Extremely apparent on Operation: Booby Trap, where the first two items the computer picks up will invariably end up being Attache Case and Key Item in that order)
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: The key items you lose in the first game get hidden in the room you died in, and you just lose 30 seconds on your clock (and have to wait 5 seconds to respawn). Operation: Booby Trap dumps your items into a random chest ([[LuckBasedMission even booby trapped ones]]) without decreasing your timer, but the respawn time is 10 seconds. However, the respawn timer is MORE than enough for most competent players -- and the A.I. -- to bolt for the exit if they have everything, and on Operation: Booby Trap, dying when your opponent has all the items is almost a guaranteed loss.
* FanRemake: [[http://kyolucanized.web.fc2.com SPYvsSPYvsSPYvsSPY]]. Thinking of two spies can't satisfy you? [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin We have FOUR!]]
* LifeMeter: Operation: Booby Trap actually has a visible one, and traps in that game do not instant-kill. It does, however, slow you down after taking so much damage.
* OneHitPointWonder: Traps effectively turn the victim into this on everything except Operation: Booby Trap.
* TimedMission
* TooDumbToLive: You shouldn't get killed by the same trap you set 5 seconds ago. Especially if you've got EVERY key item on you.
* XRaySparks
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