With Danger Girl, fan-favorite artist J. Scott Campbell and writer Andy Hartnell created a comic book world that was heavily informed by the blockbuster action movies of the 1990s. Dissatisfied with the "soap opera" tone of comics, Campbell crafted a "movie-comic book" with an emphasis on cinematography, statuesque figures and high-speed action inspired by Indiana Jones and James Bond movies in the artist's signature style.
While it might've been sold largely on the merits Campbell's art, Danger Girl is a satirical action spy comic that never takes itself too seriously. Given its proclivity for making pop culture references, action-movie one liners, innuendos and oddly specific accents, Danger Girl is almost essentially the '90s comic equivalent of Archer.
Spawning a countless number of crossover series, an poorly-recieved PlayStation game and a movie that's currently in development, Danger Girl is a fan-favorite series that's outlasted many of its peers and still has a presence today. Given the vast influence of the series, we will be taking a closer at the main Danger Girl cast, the original miniseries and Danger Girl's multitude of crossovers.
WHO'S ON TEAM DANGER GIRL?
The proverbial "Danger Girl" and main protagonist of the series is Abbey Chase, an outlaw polyglot treasure hunter with wicked handgun skills. J. Scott Campbell designed Abbey Chase to be the female version of an Indiana Jones and James Bond hybrid, and Abbey is essentially Danger Girl's resident Tomb Raider.
The Danger Girl from the land down under, Sydney Savage is a former Austrialian Special Forces agent turned whip-cracking, catsuit-wearing field agent. While Sydney's design is reminiscent of Emma Peele, Catwoman points out that Sydney's catsuit and bullwhip essentially makes her a bootleg Selina Kyle in 2005's Batman/Danger Girl by Andy Hartnell and Leinil Francis Yu, just before Sydney out-whips Selina.
Beyond those two core members, the Danger Girl field team usually includes a third member, usually Sonja Savage in most later stories. As her name implies, she's Sydney's sister and is a highly-skilled archer wither training from the Australian secret service.
OPERATION: DANGER GIRL
As former member of Her Majesty's Secret Service, Deuce founded the international team of female spies known as Operation Danger Girl. Serving as the proverbial Charlie to his trio of "Danger Angels," Deuce typically provides expository mission details while holding down the fort with Danger Girl's resident hacker Silicon Valerie on the Danger Yacht. As if his mannerisms, backstory and silver hair didn't make it obvious, Deuce is heavily inspired by the Sean Connery era James Bond.
Based heavily on Bruce Campbell, Johnny Barracuda is a spy providing back-up and beefcake for basically every Danger Girl mission, despite not being a member. Considering his massive ego and lecherous proclivities, Johnny Barracuda is basically a '90s era Sterling Archer. In fact, Sydney Savage mocks Johnny for owning a black turtleneck for every day of the week.
DANGER GIRL'S FIRST MISSION
After being saved by the Danger Girl field leader Natalia Kassle during a speedboat chase , Abbey Chase is recruited into Operation Danger Girl in the 1998 Danger Girl miniseries. Recruited for her archaeological and linguistic skills, Abbey assists her team in tracking down three mystical pieces of armor.
According to legend, when these three artifacts are assembled they transform the wearer into a magical Atlantean Ubermensch. Naturally, this legend gains the attention of the Hammer, neo-Nazis seeking world domination. With Major Maxim serving as their proverbial Darth Vader, Hammer obtains two of the artifacts. After tracking down the third artifact, Natalia betrays her teammates, revealing that she is a double-agent.
Reinforced by Johnny Barracuda and the ninja-spy Zero, the Danger Girls track Natalia to Hammer Island just in time for the ending of Raiders of The Last Ark: The Führer dons the armor, gets possessed by a demon and immediately begins sacrificing henchmen. Putting their differences aside, Abbey and Natalia commandeer an attack helicopter to defeat the Führer. Despite Natalia haphazardly falling out of the helicopter, Abbey decides to remain as a Danger Girl.
Since then, the Danger Girls have gone on numerous other missions to save the world as they've bounced around publishers and imprints like Image, Cliffhanger, WildStorm and IDW Publishing. Along the way they've also had crossovers with a diverse set of properties ranging from Army of Darkness to G.I. Joe and Batman.
THE DANGER GIRL MOVIE
Over the years, a few different attempts have been made to bring Danger Girl into the world of film. In 2017, Constantin Film first acquired the rights to produce a Danger Girl movie alongside a potential television series in 2017. Just in time for Danger Girl's 20th anniversary, J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell signing on as executive producers in 2018.
As of March 2019, Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow signed on to direct the Danger Girl film, rewriting an early draft of the script written by Umair Aleem. As of this writing, Danger Girl is set to start filming in 2020.