Ed Brubaker’s Velvet: Spy Brilliance Seven Years in the Making
Ed Brubaker understands spy fiction: the undeniable seductions of knowing the unknown, the tangled webs of deception and the consuming flirtations with death. The iconic comic scribe also understands that readers secretly crave access to these globetrotting adventurers and death-defying exploits. It’s why the work of long-standing authors like Ian Flemming and John le Carré continue to be adapted for modern film audiences.
But comics are Brubaker’s domain, and he’s damn good at making them; the latest evidence is Velvet, an ongoing Image series that explores the dark underbelly of international espionage. However, Brubaker, along with Captain America partner-in-crime Steve Epting, shrugs off the machismo conventions typical of Hollywood’s conventions, and instead focuses on Velvet Templeton. This smoldering femme fatale, fulfilling the Moneypenny role of clandestine organization ARC-7, erects a steely veneer hiding a decade of wars and turmoil. As she looks for answers to questions buried in her past, she must also traverse a spy network out for blood.
As this series propels through its second arc, Paste caught up with Brubaker to talk about his particular penchant for spycraft and why comics are the perfect medium for both espionage and explosions. Also keep an eye out for Paste’s review of Brubaker’s new comic, The Fade Out, with pencils from Sean Phillips.
Paste: In past series, such as Incognito and Fatale, your letters and back matter have always highlighted your love for spy and noir fiction. You’ve worked on supernatural noir, and super-powered spies, and even your Marvel work tapped into that Cold War spy fiction vein. When you conceived this story, what was the original idea or thought that grew into Velvet?
Brubaker: Velvet was something that sort of gnawed at me for years because of a love of old spy movies and characters like Modesty Blaise and the Black Widow. Or stuff like that old movie Deadlier Than the Male, and Raquel Welch in Fathom. I grew up watching all those movies and stuff like Danger: Diabolik. So the original idea was just looking at those kinds of stories and fictional spy worlds from a slightly different perspective, and then Greg Rucka made me watch The Sandbaggers and there was a whole episode about the Director of MI6 needing to find a new Girl Friday. All those things combined to spark my imagination.
And then after the initial idea — and the name — I spent about six or seven years figuring it out and waiting for Steve Epting to be done with his Marvel contract so we could do it. And in those years, Velvet’s history and my ambitions for the series really changed and grew into something much more their own thing.
Paste: What I’ve loved about Velvet from the very opening pages was how it battles against the reader’s preconceived ideas of spy stories. We see our stereotypical spy in X-14 get blown away before the title page, and transition to Velvet, a “secretary” who is much more than she seems. Velvet Templeton is a powerful woman in a decade and field that is often portrayed as male-dominated. Was this commentary on gender roles something you wanted to explore when writing Velvet?
Brubaker: I don’t know if I’d say I want to explore any specific thesis, as much as try to tell an intriguing story, but part of why Velvet is interesting to me is writing about a woman in that world, certainly. That’s another reason it takes place during the Cold War, because that was also a period of massive cultural change around the world, and a big part of that being the women’s movement. So yeah, an overlooked woman in that era turning out to be one of the deadliest people alive is a lot of fun to explore.
Paste: Velvet Templeton is a character who lives on two emotional extremes. She’s a cold and calculating spy, but also has love for her husband and empathy for other characters. Is it hard to write a character that lives on such opposite ends of the emotional spectrum?
