They're dangerous, they're girls...what more do you need?
Infamous Fanservice comic artist J. Scott Campbell's first solo foray into the comic world, Danger Girl is notorious for many reasons, two of which are the ridiculous amount of cheesecake in the book, and the lengthy timeframe between issues, sometimes exceeding a year. The series is a satirical, yet sometimes dark, take on the espionage genre, and centered on Abigail Chase, a former treasure seeker who gets sucked into the Danger Girl team by happenstance when their paths cross during her encounters with a hostile nemesis. Abbey, as she was mostly known, pretty much played the straight woman to the rest of the quirky team.
The Danger Girls consist of Sydney Savage, reckless thrill-seeker extraordinaire from the Land Down Under, who has a thing for whips and catsuits; Natalia Kassle, the Russian assassin/resident ice queen, Silicon Valerie, the teenage techno-geek who has expertise in all things computer-related, J.C., a Canadian mechanic with an affinity for tinkering and creating mostly bizarre yet useful inventions for the team. Later on, the team is joined by Sydney's sister Sonya.
Their leader is Deuce, a former agent for Her Majesty's Secret Service who was recruited by the United Nations to lead the first all female spy team. More or less he's a caricature of Sean Connery, right down to the facial expressions and mannerisms.
The series debuted in March, 1998 and is still ongoing. The series spawned a PlayStation game and a TV Pilot Movie, though the former was the only one that actually made it past the concept stage. It has, however recently been optioned for the big screen, to be directed by Todd Lincoln and produced by the same people that worked on the Hitman film.
Not related to The '60s television series Danger Man, aside from the common espionage theme.
Danger Girl contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Abbey, Sydney and Sonya.
- A-Cup Angst: Valerie suffers from frequent bouts of insecurity because she is nowhere near as well-endowed as her teammates.
- Amazon Brigade: The main field team which consists of three women.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Serum X, the Super-Soldier compound created by Dr. Von Kripplor that fuels Maxim.
- Awesome Aussie: Sydney Savage and her sister Sonya.
- Badass Biker: Back In Black has Abbey and Sydney posing as bikers to take down a biker gang who stole a Native American artifact. They are joined by a female biker named Ruby and her own all-women biker gang named the Black Widows.
- Badass Bookworm: Abbey is a scholar with great knowledge of foreign languages, ancient civilizations and mystical artifacts. She's also a master markswoman and demolition expert.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Danger Girl team (Natalia, Sydney, and Valerie respectively) when Abbey meets them. Later Abbey, Sydney, and Valerie after Abbey's recruitment and Natalia's betrayal.
- Brain Bleach: When the Peach strips down to join Abbey in a hot tub, while she pretends to be attracted to keep her cover-up, she's shown mentally reaching for a barf bag.
- Chair Reveal: In Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #4, Agent Zero shoots what he thinks is his target through the back of a chair. He then walks round to the front of the chair and instead finds a dummy rigged to a bomb with three seconds left on the timer
- Dead Foot Leadfoot: Happens in Trinity #2 when Sydney is ambushed while driving through London. She shoots the driver of the SUV, causing him to slump forward on the accelerator; much to the panic and dismay of his partner. An inevitable crash ensues.
- Depraved Dwarf: Dynamo Kid is a member of the Nazi organization the Hammer.
- Doom Troops: The Hammer Empire soldiers are ominous enough, and Major Maxim is pretty much what they'd be like if Doctor Von Kripplor's Super Serum worked on anyone else.
- Dragon Lady: The Chase has Anastasia Kilbourne, a master of edged weaponry who Sonya describes as "a tattooed ninja assassin". She even has a tattoo of an oriental dragon running all the way up the right side of her body.
- Evil Overlooker: The cover we're using as the page image has Major Maxim in this role.
- Explosive Leash: In Trinity, Prince Amahz fits explosive slave collars to harem slaves that prevent them from getting more than a specified distance away from him. He fits one to Abbey when he captures her to ensure her cooperation.
- Expy: Most obviously Deuce to Sean Connery's James Bond, and Johhny Barracuda to Bruce Campbell, but much of the first arc also reads like an extended homage to G.I. Joe, with The Hammer standing in for Cobra, Agent Zero for Snake Eyes, Assassin X for Storm Shadow, Natalia Kassle for the Baroness... Heck, even some of the vehicles that appear look like they were directly inspired by classic Joe or Cobra craft.
- Major Maxim is an imposingly-sized field commander clad head-to-toe in black life support/augmentation equipment serving a decrepit old puppetmaster in charge of an evil empire, rather like Darth Vader. He also appears to borrow elements from Batman villain Bane as well as Hellboy villain Kroenen.
- Also, Bland-Name Product versions of Mario and the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys incarnation of Hercules on Valerie's introduction spread.
- Eye Awaken: Maxim
- Fan Disservice: The Peach undressing and leaping into a hot tub with Abbey.
- Fanservice: Constantly, and of both the female and male variety despite the title.
- God Guise: In Revolver, natives believe that Abbey is their sun goddess returned because she has blonde hair.
- Good All Along: Prince Anko in Viva Las Danger. The heroes believe he is using the jewel to drain people of their youth but in reality he is trying to destroy the jewel and lure out its creator who turns out to be Xyra who was posing as the team's ally.
- High-Dive Escape: In Renegade #1, Abbey is cornered by Anastasia and her headhunter allies atop a cliff in the jungle. She escapes by diving off the cliff into the river below. However, the stretch of river she jumps into is infested with crocodiles.
- Hurricane of Puns: Expect to see this often in the stories from the 90s and 2000s. Especially from Johnny and Sydney.
- Imagine Spot: In the appropriately named Delusions of Grandeur side story, Valerie imagines herself in the roles of the various more badass members of the Danger Girl team while they take her role as the soft-spoken nerdy character of the team.
- Mad Scientist: Complete with "German" accent.
- Murderous Thighs: Used by Abbey to wrest information from a guard in the first series.
- Marshmallow Hell: In The Chase, Valerie complains about Sydney's large breasts pushing up against her while they and Sonya are in the cramped space of a small van.
- My Hero, Zero: Agent Zero.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Many of the female characters wear outfits with a neckline so deep it reaches their stomachs, most notably Sydney with her zipped-down Spy Catsuit.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Even on a team that otherwise consists of Fanservice incarnate, Slicon Valerie is still quite a looker.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Assassin X to Agent Zero.
- Old Soldier: Deuce is clearly past his prime but manages to fend off a squad of Hammer assassins alone and escape with no real injuries.
- Pineapple Surprise: Happens to a mercenary in Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness, when his own possessed hand pulls the pin on a grenade he is wearing on his vest.
- Abbey herself pulls this on an enemy early in the original comic.
- Pretty in Mink: Abigail wears a mink coat when infiltrating a high class party.
- Runaway Train: In The Chase, Abbey attempts to escape by leaping on to a passing train. The bad guys employ knockout gas that renders the crew unconscious, leaving Abbey on a runaway train.
- Ruthless Modern Pirates: Mayday begins with April Mayday and her gang of cutthroats taking over a freighter, which leads to them running into the remains of Hammer Island and discovering Natalia's body.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: As much as it's possible to convey this in a comic, when Abbey, in a white t-shirt, goes swimming. Subsequent panels seem to indicate she's not wearing anything underneath, with the heavy implication her shirt is now see through.
- Shoe Phone: Deuce employs a few devices like this, such as his pineapple communicator.
- Show Some Leg: Unsurprisingly, the girls use this tactic. A lot.
- Spy Catsuit: Sydney wears an archetypal example.
- Thought by many to be a Shout-Out to Vanessa's in the original Austin Powers considering proximity of releases and the comic's penchant for references.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Sonya Savage. She manages to make a bow seem like a sensible choice in a setting where most of your foes are toting automatic weapons (or worse).
- Steal It to Protect It: The PlayStation game has a level where Sydney Savage must infiltrate the British Museum and steal a doomsday artifact before the Hammer syndicate can beat her to it. This is the only mission in the game where you're not allowed to kill anyone, instead using knockout gas and tranquilizer darts to take down museum guards while figuring a way to get through the vault.
- Super Serum: The blue, glowing, apparently radioactive liquid Doctor Von Kripplor tests on a hapless prisoner, one Agent Falcon. It fails spectacularly, reducing him to blue sludge. Apparently, it's meant to turn people into Major Maxim-the only successful test subject, a huge, burly man in a gas mask and red goggles.
- Those Wacky Nazis: the Hammer is initially described as an alliance between Neo-Nazis and former KGB agents, but - by the end of the first story arc - it's mainly Nazis.
- Vapor Wear: Sonya Savage wears skintight snakeskin trousers with lacing up the side that reveals that she cannot be wearing anything under them.
- Waterfall Shower: Abbey and Ash take one, to wash off zombie goo, in Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #5.
- Who Is Driving?: Happens in The Chase #2, when Anastasia attempts to kill Valerie in the back of the van Sonya is driving (having already shoved Sydney out of the van). Sonya dives into the back to save Valerie, leading to this exchange:Valerie: Sonya?! What are you doing?!Sonya: What does it look like? I'm kicking her ass!Valerie: But if you're back here—WHO'S DRIVING THE VAN?!
- Whole-Plot Reference: The initial miniseries borrowed a lot of elements from Hellboy's "Seed of Destruction" storyline.
- Yellow Peril: The Kama from the "Kamikaze" two-shot story. They are an organization of Japanese villains founded by a Japanese Axis general from World War 2 and seek to conquer the world using an anti-matter weapon.
