The rank and file members that put Hydra's sinister plans into motion tend to be faceless and nameless. But if you stop to think about it, there are a lot of questions surrounding the foot soldiers of the Marvel Universe's most infamous terrorist organization. What kind of people are they? Why do they do they do the things they do? And when they're done being a high tech foot soldier for the day, do they really step into the role of suburban family member?

David Mandel, a veteran writer of sitcoms like "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and recently-announced showrunner on "Veep," teams with artist Michael Walsh to answer all those questions and more in their one-shot "Hank Johnson: Agent of Hydra." The pair take readers to a unique domain of "Secret Wars'" Battleworld, where domestic life collides with the world of super spies.

The story, which follows the exploits of a low-ranking Hydra operative and arrives in stores August 26, has been gestating for almost two decades, Mandel tells CBR News. And while Hank's current adventure is just a one-off, the seasoned television pro says he'd be more than happy to book a return engagement should sales demand one.

CBR News: How does it feel to finally have this project about to be released after about 20 years of gestation?

David Mandel: It's very fun. Thanks to "Secret Wars" right now, there is a sense that anything can happen [in the Marvel U]. If I was writing a book in continuity, Nick Fury now looks like Sam Jackson and certain characters are dead or in different places. Because of the nature of Battleworld, though, I get to do my story with the original Nick Fury.

I have no problem with Sam Jackson Nick Fury, but when I thought of this idea in '95, Nick Fury was Nick Fury -- so it's been very fun to play in that classic playground with your Nick Furys and your Madame Hydras. Really, the whole reason to go to companies like Marvel and DC is to play with all the cool toys

At some point, I could have called this book "Agent of E.V.I.L." and gone to Image or something like that, but I didn't want to do that. This is fun to me because it's Hydra! It's fun to me because it's S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury. That's the fun of it.

This is something I actually pitched to Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada at Marvel Knights back in the 1990s. I point this out, because I've seen a few snarky comments on the Internet that there's a character called Bob, Agent of Hydra -- but this predates Bob! He might get a shout out in my book though, thanks to the Internet. I believe we'll find out where he's been transferred to.

Anyway, I pitched this to Jimmy and Joe around '95 or '96 at Marvel Knights, and they were sort of up for it, but the notion of messing with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra and the comedy of it just wasn't flying with the rest of Marvel back then.

What can you tell us about the domain that serves as the backdrop for your story?

The backdrop, and honestly, it's a backdrop of convenience, simply resets things to the early '90s, so we have characters like the classic Nick Fury and Madame Hydra. It allows me to play around in the world that I had originally conceived the story in.

The truth is, and I hope this isn't a big spoiler, there's not a lot of crossover [with other "Secret Wars" stories]. I do believe that it is possible to read all of "Secret Wars" without reading "Hank Johnson: Agent of Hydra" -- but you wouldn't want to! [Laughs]

What can you tell us about Hank? What's his world like, and how happy is he in it when your book begins?

A really good friend of mine, Peter Mehlman, who's a wonderful "Seinfeld" writer and novelist, once said to me, "If I was a little dumber, I'd be a lot happier." That's very much my guiding principle with Hank. [Laughs]

Hank is really me if I had worked for Hydra and I had a third kid. My wife and I were smart enough to stop at two. A third one would probably kill us. Hank's a guy who happens to work for Hydra, but quite honestly, he's dealing much more with the fact that his wife thinks they need a nanny to help out with the kids, and he's trying to reconcile that with his salary.

Hank's the sort of guy who comes home after getting the crap kicked out of him by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., and his wife hands him the baby and does not care that he got hit by Nick Fury. It's very much a guy dealing with the responsibilities of life that all the people such as myself, in their late 30s early 40s, are dealing with to some extent. Standing back and going, "Okay, so this is my life," [Laughs] and trying to reconcile that.

Hank is very much an everyman, and I think that is something that Michael Walsh really makes happen with his art. This is not a cartoonish comedy book. It's a slice of Hydra life. I think that's what's fascinating about it.

Walsh is a good choice too, since he's just coming off a run on "Secret Avengers" where he drew sort of the intersection between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

Yeah, and he's really digging it. It's always great to have someone like him for someone like myself who is newer to comic book writing. I think we're kind of splitting the difference of the Marvel method. I'm definitely describing action and writing dialogue so that he knows what's happening, but at the same time, I'm sort of relying on him to help me lay the story out on the page. We make a good team.

We also have a really great cover by Amanda Connor. It's a pretty cool little salute to Steranko. It was fun to get Amanda to do that, and it was also nice, because I had pitched it to Jimmy and Joe so long ago. It was wild to be able to write to Jimmy and say, "Hey, do you remember that idea from 20 years ago? Could you ask Amanda to send me an e-mail if she's interested in doing a cover?" That was fun, and it felt like a way to keep Jimmy involved even though there's no longer a Marvel Knights.

It sounds like the supporting cast Michael is drawing includes Hank's family, his Hydra comrades, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. all-stars like Nick Fury, the Contessa and Dum Dum Dugan.

Exactly. I don't want to give the farm away, but don't be surprised to see M.O.D.O.K. Don't be surprised by some reference to Von Strucker and his family. I think Baron Zemo may even make an appearance. We've got Madame Hydra as well. You're definitely going to get the classics.

Does your story involve an ordinary day for Hank Johnson, or an extraordinary one?

It's an ordinary day in Hank's life, but this ordinary day happens to involve what a lot of us would consider extraordinary things. The opening of the book is sort of a salute to Jim Steranko. The first two to three pages are basically an homage to Jim's incredible "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." #1, with Nick Fury scaling the Hydra tower, coming in the roof, descending, throwing something on the ground, and instead of one Hydra guard we see two. He shoots one and knocks the other one out. Fury then runs out of the room, and the one agent sits up and grabs his head. That's Hank, and that's the start of our story.

Instead of following Fury out the door, which is what a regular comic book might do, we go home where Hank is now sitting with a bag of frozen peas as the kids are late for school and his wife hands him the baby because she has something to do. That's the beginning of a very ordinary day in the life of somebody who got the crap kicked out of him by Nick Fury, which is extraordinary. So it's sort of a mix of both. [Laughs]

I know you've got a busy day job as show runner for HBO's "Veep," but if readers respond to the adventures of Hank Johnson, would you like to tell more stories with the character?

I would. It's definitely hard to jam everything you're thinking about into a single issue. I'm used to doing at least 10 episodes of a show in a season.

We're going to find out that Madame Hydra gets a little "handsy" with the male recruits. We're going to see Hydra's Human Resources department, and how one goes about filing a sexual harassment complaint. There's lots to explore, and yeah, I'd be knocked out to figure out a way to continue this thing.

You're best known for your work on TV, but you've done a few comic projects here and there, like a story in the "Rocketeer Adventures" anthology series and co-writing a "Jingle Belle" story with Paul Dini.

With the Jingle Belle story, God bless Paul Dini who was very kind to give me the co-credit there. I think it was more that I threw a couple of ideas Paul's way and he turned it into something. I am a big fan of Paul's and a fan of Jingle Belle.


"The Rocketeer" was a real labor of love. Dave Stevens [the Rocketeer's creator] was a very good friend of mine. Upon Dave's death, my friend Kelvin Mao and I helped his family bring "Rocketeer" over to Scott Dunbier and IDW. We participated in the reprinting and recolorization of the original "Rocketeer" stories and got them back into print which was Dave's dream.

Somewhere in there, I had the idea for this story that was kind of an Adam Strange parody, which I did as a comedy. I loved the fact that Scott let me do that. At the time, nobody was really doing comedy, especially at the big companies.

It seems like more and more comedy writers are coming to comics these days, like Brian Posehn and Paul Scheer.

The jump from comedy writing to writing comic books is not a far one. This may sound like comedy writer racial profiling, but I think part of what makes you a good comedy writer is that once upon a time you spent a lot of time in your room reading only comic books [Laughs] and perhaps not necessarily going out with the prom queen or what not. So we have a lot of comic book ideas we always wanted to do.

That being said, I don't want to prejudge Paul Scheer. Perhaps he did date the prom queen, but I know I didn't. [Laughs]

To this day, I'm an avid comic book reader. Every Wednesday I shop at Golden Apple in Los Angeles. I've been doing so since I moved to L.A. in 1995. A part of me has almost avoided comic writing because I didn't want to ruin my fandom. I didn't want to get angry at some company or editor and be like, "God damn it! I'll never read X-Men again!" Or whatever.

So when the opportunities arise and your schedule permits it, you'd be up for more comic work?

I love the idea of it, but this feels like a unique situation because of "Secret Wars." I'm still not convinced that anyone wants comedy books, especially when it comes to the "important" movie characters.

Years ago, I had an idea for Marvel's Distinguished Competition that involved Superman. It was basically that at the "Daily Planet," there's a new sports reporter and his name is in the similar vein of Clark Kent, like Charles Charleston or something like that. At the same time in Metropolis, there's a blond Superman-like character that's appearing and saving the day. Superman wants to get to the bottom of who this new hero is, so basically it becomes a story of Superman in the Lois Lane role. He's basically trying to convince everyone that this new very handsome super hero is Charles Charleston. So he begins putting himself in danger, a la Lois, to prove Charleston is this new super hero. Supes gets kind of obsesses with Charles Charleston.

It's sort of my "Superman's gay crush" idea. Needless to say, DC was not knocking my door down to do it. [Laughs] That's an example of how often the comedy ideas don't line up with continuity or what the people in charge want to do.