The series stars Jenny Swensen, nicknamed Spitfire due to her red hair and short temper. Jenny, a professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), steals her father's experimental "M.A.X." powered armor after he's murdered by his employer. Together with five of her students - the titular Troubleshooters - she then tries to bring his killers to justice.
Spitfire was one of eight titles launched to introduce the New Universe, a shared world unrelated to the existing Marvel Universe. It was initially billed as “the world outside your window”, a setting which only diverged from the real world when a single Mass Empowering Event granted some people superpowers.
However, Spitfire didn't strictly follow those guidelines - the M.A.X. armor and other hi-tech inventions predate the "White Event" that changed the world. It also largely ignored the existence of the new 'paranormals' - the superhuman Star Brand guest stars in one issue, but all other stories pit Jenny and her allies against normal humans or super-science, with no mention of superpowers.
Spitfire was initially written by Gerry Conway (Eliot Brown and John Morelli are also credited for the first issue's plot), but Conway left midway through the run - at a point when Jenny's identity had become public and her father's murderers were largely dealt with.
New writer Cary Bates swiftly resolved Conway's remaining plots and took Spitfire in a different direction, leaving the Troubleshooters and supporting cast behind. Jenny was forcefully recruited by the CIA and, as Codename: Spitfire, sent on overseas missions to confront villains using technology stolen from her father - or developing new hi-tech weapons of their own.
Bates himself left the series after Jenny's first CIA mission, a story which introduced her new partner, the unstable Jake Travest. Codename: Spitfire was cancelled shortly after his departure, with the last three issues written by three different writers.
The art team also changed frequently during the run but, between them, Herb Trimpe (the original penciller), Alan Kupperburg and Tony Dezuniga illustrated the majority of the series, with Bob Sharen and George Roussos providing color art for virtually all of the run.
After the series was cancelled, Jenny became a recurring character in other New Universe titles, eventually abandoning the M.A.X. armor and gaining superpowers of her own in the wake of The Pitt.
Once the New Universe was connected to the Marvel Universe, versions of Jenny also appeared in series such as Quasar and Exiles. An Untold Tales of the New Universe Spitfire story was also published in Amazing Fantasy to mark the 20th anniversary of the New Universe.
Another version of Jenny, this time renamed Jenny Swann, was one of the leads of the newuniversal reboot of the New Universe concept.
Spitfire includes the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc:
- Jenny never discovers that Roth forged the video message from her father.
- Steel Hawk is last seen being treated for his wounds in Scandinavia, after Varna rescues him, but neither ever returns for their revenge.
- "The Club", the international secret society that links Krotze, Steel Hawk and Saxon St. John, is never fully revealed or defeated.
- Jake Travest's instability and split personalities are never really followed up on. Although they are dealt with when he reappears as an antagonist in Psi-Force, piloting the stolen M.A.X. suit.
- An Arm and a Leg: Troubleshooter and Fragile Speedster Tim Ferris has both legs partially amputated after Steel Hawk catches him with a grenade.
- Arm Cannon: Troubleshooter Andy Meadows develops the Beamsplitter, a wrist-mounted Ray Gun. It's later used to kill him.
- Badass Normal: Arun Bahkti, the Steel Hawk, is just a very competent human with guns and grenades. Despite that he brings down the M.A.X. armor and almost kills Jenny, then kills one of the Troubleshooters and maims another.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Everyone directly involved in Dr. Swensen's death is dealt with by others before Jenny can take revenge on them:
- Dr. Swensen's murderer, the MAX I pilot Mick Bronson, tries to blackmail his boss Fritz Krotze, so Krotze kills him.
- The Club's assassin Steel Hawk then kills Krotze's assistant Faylen and beats Krotze himself to death (on the other hand, this then fuels a Frame-Up to get Jenny arrested for Krotze's murder).
- Banana Republic: St. John's base is on the politically neutral island of Puerto Rojo, not far off the coast of Florida.
- Blackmail Backfire: Mick Bronson, the MAX I suit pilot, tries to blackmail Krotze over Dr. Swensen's murder (which Bronson committed on Krotze's behalf). He makes this threat while they're alone in a laser test chamber. Krotze simply kills him with the laser.
- Codename Title: The title was formally changed to Codename: Spitfire for the last few issues.
- Dead Man Writing: This turns up twice, both from Jenny's father.
- Played straight in the first issue, when a password-protected message on his computer warns her not to let Krotze get the new M.A.X. armour.
- Subverted much later in the series, when Roth uses a Forged Message video, supposedly also left by Dr. Swensen, to manipulate Jenny.
- External Combustion: Richard Faylen spends a couple of weeks in hiding after Krotze vanishes, then tries to reclaim his car and get out of town. Steel Hawk's wired a bomb to the ignition, though.
- Fiery Redhead: Jenny's a redhead and her temper is why her father used to call her Spitfire.
- Flying Brick: Downplayed. The M.A.X. suit is armored, super-strong and flies, but it’s not that manoeuvrable.
- Forged Message: Edmund Roth tries to recruit Jenny to the CIA by showing her a Dead Man Writing video message from her father, telling her that he respects Roth and urging her to at least listen what he has to say. It's a complete fake and a subsequent scene shows the CIA scripting a follow-up in case she's still undecided.
- Fragile Speedster: Troubleshooter Tim Ferris develops the Fastback leg enhancements, allowing him to move superhumanly fast. He later loses them (along with his legs) after Steel Hawk ambushes him.
- Frame-Up: Steel Hawk takes advantage of Jenny's testimony that she wanted revenge on Fritz Krotze to kill him and frame her for his murder.
- Fun with Acronyms: The M.A.X. armor acronym stands for Man Amplified X-periment.
- Inconsistent Coloring:
- The Russian versions of the M.A.X. suit that Jenny sees in Afghanistan are yellow when they first appear, but are colored in the usual M.A.X. red for the next issue.
- Steel Hawk has a darker skin tone in his first appearance, but is colored as white in all other issues.
- Inside a Computer System: Troubleshooter Teresa Roberts develops the Think-Tank, a helmet which connects her mind to the computer back at their base and then, via that, to any computer with a phone connection. Rather than a virtual reality interface, the visuals she sees are actually hallucinations created by her mind as she struggles to make sense of it all.
- Karma Houdini: Roth has Jenny kidnapped and beaten up, threatens to have her beaten to death, fakes a message from her dead father to manipulate her and then, when she's still reluctant to sign up with the CIA, has her flown to Afghanistan and forced to parachute into a war zone. Jenny daydreams about beating him up, but she never finds out about the faked messages - and when the series ends he's still her boss and hasn't been punished for any of this.
- Last Episode, New Character: CIA agent and master engineer Willy Deere is introduced as Jenny's new partner for the final issue's mission against Saxon St. John. He's also redesigned Jenny's M.A.X. armor before they meet, presenting her with a sleeker, improved version for the mission.
- Love Triangle: Played with. Teresa's fallen for Giotti, who's initially oblivious as he's preoccupied by his Teacher/Student Romance crush on Jenny. And Jenny herself seems oblivious to Giotti's interest.
- Mad Doctor: As part of his attempts to develop an obedient cyborg army, Saxon St. John, the villain of the final issue, carries out horrific experiments on test subjects kidnapped from the population of Puerto Rojo. Those experiments include vivisection and he's directly compared to Dr. Mengele in-universe.
- New Season, New Name: This happens twice.
- Spitfire and the Troubleshooters became Spitfire on covers after Steel Hawk's murderous attack on the Troubleshooters. However, it kept the old Artifact Title elsewhere, for copyright statements and other purposes.
- The series was then formally renamed to Codename: Spitfire at the end of the first CIA story.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After Andy's death a vengeful Giotti ambushes his murderer, Steel Hawk, while he's receiving a massage. He’s unarmed, undressed and Giotti very nearly beats him to death with the Strongarms before Varna arrives and rescues him. Even so, the next time we see Steel Hawk he's in a Scandinavian hospital, heavily bandaged, and a doctor claims he may never recover.
- No Man Should Have This Power: In the final issue, after villain Saxon St. John's death, Willy Deere is looking forward to the technological progress that the CIA can make with the villain's research into cybernetics. Jenny, less cynical and all too aware of how the Mad Doctor experimented on innocents, decides that it's better to destroy it instead. For bonus points, the weapon she uses to destroy it is the laser that Deere's built into her new armor.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Dr. Karl Swensen's murder puts the M.A.X. armor into Jenny's possession, persuades her to involve the Troubleshooters and starts her quest for justice.
- Powered Armor: The M.A.X. suit is powered armor, but the late Dr Swensen intended it for peaceful purposes, not combat. Played straight once Jenny's modified it, though - and also played straight for the MAX I prototype and the Russian replicas Jenny encounters in Afghanistan.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Subverted. Giotti has a huge crush on Jenny, his professor, which everyone except Jenny seems to be aware of. He doesn't really act on it, though.
- The Prankster: The Troubleshooters are MIT pranksters before Jenny recruits them. When they first appear they're assembling a tractor in chairman Dibble's office.
- Put on a Bus: Justified and exaggerated. When Roth kidnaps Jenny and she goes to work for the CIA, she loses touch with every character who's previously appeared in the series. That includes the four surviving Troubleshooters, her ex-boyfriend Bernie and Detective Sloan.
- Ray Gun:
- Troubleshooter Andy Meadows uses the Beamsplitter, a wrist mounted energy gun.
- In the final issue, Willy Deere builds combat lasers into his new iteration of Jenny's M.A.X. armor.
- Stop Hitting Yourself:
- Steel Hawk kills Andy Meadows by twisting his arm behind his back and shooting him through the chest with his own wrist-mounted Beamsplitter energy blast.
- After getting revenge on Steel Hawk, Eduardo Giotti bolts the Strongarms to his furniture and has them wrestle themselves into self-destruction.
- The Team Normal: Eric Chin is the only Troubleshooter who doesn't develop a hi-tech wearable gadget.
- Technological Pacifist: Dr. Karl Swensen, who was insistent that his inventions shouldn't be used by the military.
- Vetinari Job Security: In issue #5, Jenny's engineer buddies try to operate the robot without her. Not only do they fail miserably, but they overheat the robot's power pack, and only the intervention of Ken "Star Brand" Connell prevents the resulting explosion from taking out downtown Boston.
- Virtual Ghost: One of the later issues reveals that Dr. Karl Swensen's left a basic version of this behind, with a simulation of his personality. It's only able to communicate via text and interface with the M.A.X. armor - at which point A.I. Is a Crapshoot comes into play and its Technological Pacifist programming almost gets Jenny killed on a mission.
