Jasper Sitwell

Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Strange Tales #144 (May 1966).

Jasper Sitwell appears as an agent of the fictional espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning in the feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #144 (cover-dated May 1966) and continuing into the subsequent Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic-book series in 1968. He became the S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to defense industry contractor Tony Stark beginning in the "Iron Man" feature in Tales of Suspense #93 (Sept. 1967), and continuing into that subsequent series as well. He was seldom featured from the early 1970s until the 1988 miniseries Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., and then again in the 1996–1997 series Iron Man vol. 2. Sitwell afterward appeared in a three-issue arc of the superhero-team series The Avengers in 2000, and in Punisher War Journal #1 (Jan. 2007).

Jasper Sitwell graduated at the top of his class at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, with particularly high marks in airborne jump school and underwater maneuvers. When first introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D. Executive Director Nick Fury, the new agent's eager-beaver attitude meets initially with mock (and occasionally real) frustration from Fury and second-in-command Dum Dum Dugan, but Sitwell soon proves himself and earns his fellow agents' respect — albeit tinged with occasional humor aimed at his youthfulness and idealistic naïveté. Mentored by Fury himself and occasionally appointed interim director when Fury is on solo missions in the field, Sitwell later is assigned to Stark Industries as liaison between S.H.I.E.L.D. and that defense-industry contractor, which designs and manufactures much of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ordnance and equipment.[2] There he confronts costumed assassins and terrorists such as Grey Gargoyle, Spymaster (who shoots him and puts Sitwell in a coma for a time),[3] and A.I.M., and even romances Whitney Frost,[4] a one-time Stark paramour. Sitwell is eventually reassigned back to S.H.I.E.L.D., but continues to play a role in the affairs of Tony Stark from time to time. When Obadiah Stane takes over what was by then named Stark International, Fury sends Sitwell on an ultimately failed attempt to retrieve the Iron Man armors.[5]

Sitwell, like most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership at the time, is seemingly killed by a self-aware, renegade "Deltan" variety of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s artificial human "Life Model Decoys", and replaced by one such LMD, which was then installed as Executive Director.[6] The real Sitwell later turns up alive after having been brainwashed by a faction of the terrorist organization HYDRA, placed in suspended animation, released as part of a plot against Fury, and eventually deprogrammed.[7] He has since become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top interrogator, often paired with fellow agent Jimmy Woo.[8] He has also worked closely with G. W. Bridge, mainly in an attempt to neutralize the threat of the Punisher.[9]

Sitwell was one of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who refused to join Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. organization in the wake of the Skrull Secret Invasion. He would join with Dum Dum Dugan to form a mercenary paramilitary group that would engage H.A.M.M.E.R., HYDRA and its associate "Leviathan" program, alongside Nick Fury's Secret Warriors.[10] One of these many skirmishes sees Jasper lose his friends Eric Koenig and Gabriel Jones.[11]

He also works with Nick Fury in regards to the underground activities of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.[12]

During one of the Winter Soldier's missions, a brainwashed Black Widow is brought into custody at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. She had been influenced by old Russian brainwashing technology so it seemed she had broken free of one brainwashing attempt and had returned to her old self. This was actually a ruse by rogue Russian elements in order to strike at Nick Fury. Black Widow tried to kill Nick Fury but Sitwell got on the trajectory of the shot and was killed instead of Fury. His sacrifice gave Fury the opportunity to save himself.[1]

He returned as a zombie through unknown ways and was held in Area 13 by a S.H.I.E.L.D. division called S.T.A.K.E. Sitwell joined the Life Model Decoy of Dum Dum Dugan and Agent Martin Reyna to fight Teen Abomination. After the defeat of Teen Abomination, Jasper was brought back to his cell. On the way back to his cell, he crossed Dugan and recognized him.[13]

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event, Jasper Sitwell's zombie form appears as a member of S.T.A.K.E.'s Howling Commandos.[14]

Jasper Sitwell's zombie form was seen with the Howling Commandos at the time when they help Old Man Logan into rescuing Jubilee from Dracula.[15]

Jasper Sitwell has S.H.I.E.L.D. training in espionage, firearms, and hand-to-hand combat.

The Ultimate Marvel version of Jasper Sitwell is a government operative. In Ultimate Fallout, he informs Nick Fury that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget will be decreasing by 30 percent.[16]

• List of S.H.I.E.L.D. members

• The Grand Comics Database
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Iron Man Armory: Jasper Sitwell