Agent 327 is a Dutch comic book series that started out as a spoof of James Bond, hence the title, but gradually became something completely different. The stories are written and drawn by Martin Lodewijk (°1939) and center around Hendrik IJzerbroot, a spy working for the Dutch government. He is often sent to a mission by his chef, "The Chef", and accompanied by the tall, big breasted Femme Fatale Spy Olga Lawina.
Agent 327 is notable for the clever stories, extensive background research and exquisite art work. The early albums were mostly child oriented stories and ran from 1967 until 1983. In 2000 Lodewijk rebooted his old series and started new production. Since then several new albums have been published. This new incarnation differs considerably from the older albums with more adult comedy and references.
An animated adaptation named Agent 327: Operation Barbershop is being developed by the Blender Foundation, and a teaser can be viewed here
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Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Seeing Olga in mortal danger is this for IJzerbroot. In The Scourge of Rotterdam he defeats Ten Tonnes, a Giant Mook who would previously No-Sell most attacks, in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when he tried to toss Olga from the Euromast.IJzerbroot: When someone really makes me angry, I sometimes surprise myself.
- Beware the Skull Base: In The Forgotten Bomb, the fictional Eastern bloc country Zakkestan is shaped like a skull on the map. Upon seeing this IJzerbrood immediately has second thoughts about going there.
- Boob-Based Gag: The later albums contain lots of gags and puns involving Olga Lawina's considerable assets.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Olga Lawina, who uses her large breasts to hide all kinds of weapons, seduce men and uses her nude body to literally bodyguard her clients in bed.
- Catchphrase: "Grrutjes-nog-aan-toe, wat een geheim agent toch niet allemaal moet doen om incognito/onopgemerkt op zijn bureau/werk te komen."note - IJzerbroot says this traditionally on the first or second page of each story, when entering the office.
- Clothes Make the Legend: IJzerbroot always wears a tuxedo and is clean as a whistle.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Dr. Maybe uses the song "Denk toch altijd met liefd' aan je moeder" to torture Agent 327 into revealing information in "Dossier Dozijn min 1".
- Cool Car: Both in "Het oor Van Gogh" and "De Daddy Vinci-code" Olga Lawina at first drives a supermini which she then replaces with a still relatively small much cooler set of wheels - a Carver One and a Corvette C1 respectively.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The setting is similar to James Bond: a succesful and clean cut spy, a female secretary, a chief,... In one of the early albums the villain is called "Dr. Maybe", in reference to Dr. No.
- Olga Lawina's name is a pun on the name of Dutch singer Olga Lowina and the Dutch word for an avalanche: "lawine".
- Double Agent: Olga Lawina is actually a double agent, who works both for IJzerbroot and an evil network. Still, she always helps IJzerbroot out in the end.
- Double Entendre: Several.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- IJzerbroot was much taller in the early stories. His clumsiness also made him more of a Comedic Hero than the Action Hero he became later.
- Olga Lawina's breasts were a lot less visible and roundish, in-universe that change actually takes place within in the mini story "Dossier Minimum Bug".
- Also, the Shout-Out's to popular culture stuff weren't that excessive.
- Evil Versus Evil: It often turns out that Olga's network wants the Villain of the Week stopped as well, probably to protect their own interests.
- Femme Fatale Spy: The voluptuous Olga Lawina is a Swiss spy, who is very attractive and has rather large breasts. In the series she is a double spy, sometimes siding with Agent 327 but other times siding with the enemies, which makes her very unpredictable.
- Fictional Country: Zakkestan, Kwaïti, Marihuwijne, Colombuela,...
- It Was Here, I Swear!: Happens to Agent 327 and Olga Lawina in "De Gesel van Rotterdam", when a mysterious private clinic they investigated the night before turns out to be gone the next day, when they bring the police.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Barend the student spy.
- Master of Disguise: Agent 327, who always enters his office at the start of each album by dressing up almost unrecognizable to even his close associates.
- Ms. Fanservice: Olga Lawina, even to the point of being a Shameless Fanservice Girl
- Named After Somebody Famous: Olga Lawina was named after the Dutch singer Olga Lowina, her name being a pun on the word lawine (= avalanche) (she's Swiss).
- National Stereotypes: The comic strip makes use of this often.
- One notable subversion is the Swiss spy Olga Lowina. Apart from her stature and Princess Leia hairstyle, there's nothing remotely Swiss about her.
- Object-Shaped Landmass: In "Dossier Stemkwadrater", Dr. Maybe's lair is hidden on an island shaped like a question mark.
- Opening the Flood Gates: In "Dossier Stemkwadrater", Agent 327 invokes this trope after being taken captive by Dr. Maybe. He convinces the doctor to give him some time to think about his We Can Rule Together offer, finds a bathroom, locks himself inside and floods the place (even using toothpaste to block the cracks around the door). When Dr. Maybe's right hand man opens the door, the resulting tidal wave carries Agent 327 right back to the lab and takes out all the henchmen there, allowing 327 to get hold of the titular Stemkwadrater.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. IJzerbroot's disguises are quite good.
- Punny Name: Several characters have a name which is a pun.
- Reference Overdosed: Especially in the later albums Lodewijk went berserk with this!
- Rule 63: One of Agent 327's enemies is Wu Manchu, a female version of Dr. Fu Manchu.
- Running Gag:
- IJzerbroot always tries to enter his office in disguise, but usually something goes wrong, causing him to grumble: "Good grief! What a secret agent has to do nowadays to get to his office in secret."
- The song "Denk toch altijd met liefd' aan je moeder" by Gerda and Herman Timmerhout makes a cameo appearance in many albums.
- A lot of companies are named "Habraken".
- The secret identity of Victor Baarn.
- Shared Universe: With the comic book series "Johnny Goodbye" and the Belgian comic book series Nero. Wu Manchu was originally created for Johnny Goodbye before she was transferred to Agent 327. Detective Van Zwam, a recurring character in Nero, has a guest appearance in the Agent 327-stories "De ogen van Wu Manchu" and "De golem van Antwerpen".
- Shout-Out: Several!
- To Tintin:
- In De Gesel van Rotterdam the ship Karaboudjan and Allan Thompson appear, referencing The Crab With The Golden Claws.
- In Het Oor van Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh appears in our modern day and is smitten with Hergé's artwork in some Tintin albums. Snowy too has a cameo in this album.
- In Het Pad van de Schildpad Agent 327 tries to decipher a secret code and mentions that this would be up the alley for his Chef, because "his favorite comic strips are "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure".
- At the start of the album "De vergeten bom" the Yellow "M" can be seen sprayed on the door of a garage.
- To Tintin:
- Statuesque Stunner: Olga Lawina, who is both tall and beautiful.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Agent 327 is very small compared to the tall Olga Lawina.
- Trust Password: In order to enter his headquarters Agent 327 has to disguise himself, which often brings him into trouble and causes him to sigh about "the things secret agents have to do these days to enter their office nowadays."
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Olga Lawina stores her cell phone here. Her gun too, occasionally.
- Volcano Lair: Dr. Maybe has one in "Dossier Stemkwadrater", and it proves to be his undoing.
- We Can Rule Together: Dr. Maybe offers this to Agent 327 in "Dossier Stemkwadrater". Naturally, Agent 327 refuses.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Popular culture references are usually made under a very bad Punny Name.
