Line #59 Main/TeenSuperspy


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6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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12	[[quoteright:299:[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f1d62375_4dc6_4c5c_b3ec_1bcbe08ebfc4.png]]]]
13	[[caption-width-right:299: [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond Possible. Kim Possible.]][[note]]And she is [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou going to shoot you]].[[/note]]]]
14	%% Image credit: WarBandit
15
16	->''"He's not a child! He's a lethal weapon!"''
17	-->-- '''Army major''', ''Film/{{Stormbreaker}}''
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19	A hero with all of the [[TuxedoAndMartini style, panache and gadgetry]] of Franchise/JamesBond, the Teen Superspy exists to save the world (or maybe just the kids) from megalomaniacs bent on world domination. And he'll do it all without being old enough to have a martini. Or drive. And he'll still have to find time to do his homework.
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21	The Teen Superspy is the [[ImprobableAge implausibly young]] agent of a secret agency. Perhaps she's been [[{{Tykebomb}} trained from birth]] for this role. Perhaps she's carrying the legacy of a missing or dead parent. Perhaps the government figures no one will suspect children of being secret agents. Perhaps they were just in the wrong place at the right time. Whatever the case, expect them to have [[ShoePhone an arsenal of high-tech spy gadgets disguised as typical teen paraphernalia]].
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23	Compare WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld. Remove all the wish fulfillment and whimsy from this trope, and you'd end up with something closer to ChildSoldier.
24	----
25	!!Examples:
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29	* OEL Manga example: ''Manga/AmazingAgentLuna''
30	* Hirofumi Yoshida from ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' is TheAce [[DemonSlaying Devil Hunter]] working under the [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Public Safety]] [[CreatureHunterOrganization Devil Hunters Bureau]] who despite [[TheSpook claiming]] to be around Denji's age is skilled and experienced enough to hold his own against opponents like the WorldsBestWarrior [[PsychoForHire Quanxi]].
31	* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': Yukari Akiyama is a {{Downplayed\|trope}} version. Yukari isn't as flashy as most on this list, but successfully infiltrates multiple schools for intelligence gathering, smoothly impersonates a Pravda member to get info from poor Nina, and is the team's go-to scout in the field. In the ''Ribbon Warrior'' manga, Yukari's ''reputation'' is on par with James Bond.
32	* ''Anime/PrincessPrincipal'' stars a team of five girls who are spies in {{Steampunk}} London, who are incredibly badass (especially [[TheAce Ange]]), and teenagers (except Dorothy, who is 20, but undercover as a high school student). The series eventually reveals that the Commonwealth regularly trains young teenagers to be Spies.
33	* ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' (which also had a live-action TV series and several movies). A Police procedural of sorts involving an ex-delinquent coopted into the police force to curb gang activity in schools. As she is always undercover, and uses an unusual gadget (her combat yo-yo), it's at least spy-adjacent.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* ComicBook/ArchieComics examples:
38	** At the height of the spy craze in the 60s, Archie published stories about "The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.", featuring Archie and his pals as secret agents.
39	** More recently Betty and Veronica have appeared as "Agents B & V", clad in the requisite {{Spy Catsuit}}s, working for a secret organisation run by Mr. Lodge with Dilton Doiley acting as their resident GadgeteerGenius.
40	* The post-''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' Invisible Kid from ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''.
41	%% * ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'': Alex and Yo-Yo, most obviously.
42	* ''ComicBook/SpyBoy'' is the story of Alex Fleming, a young boy who was bullied in his school and had a normal life. But he doesn't know that he's a sleeper agent, codenamed as "[=SpyBoy=]", who works for secret organization S.H.I.R.T.S. (acronym for Secret Headquarters International Reconnaissance, Tactics, and Spies), in order to stop criminal organization S.K.I.N.S. (acronym for Supreme Killing Institute). There is also his Japanese counterpart, [=SpyGirl=]. Admittedly, [=SpyBoy=] got his ass kicked when he met [=SpyGuy=]...
43	* Danny Chase, CreatorsPet of the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', was a former agent of the CBI... as he never tired of telling his team-mates.
44	* ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' has Dangerous Dan, a ten year old boy spy who fights against The Prefect and his agents of SMIRK. His name is a pun on the old TV show ''Series/DangerMan''.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
48	* ''Film/AgentCodyBanks'' follows the adventures of the 15-year-old title character, played by Frankie Muniz, who has to finish his chores, avoid getting grounded, and save the world by going undercover for the CIA as a James Bond type superspy.
49	* Agent 83, aka Megan Walsh, in ''Film/BarelyLethal'' is a runaway from the [[SpySchool Prescott Academy]] who [[FakingTheDead faked her death]] during a mission in order to experience life as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent.
50	* The children in ''Film/CatchThatKid'' are technically Teen {{Bank Robber\|y}}s, but the film and especially the advertising leaned heavily on this trope in the high-tech nature of both their plan and their target.
51	* TheStinger at the end of ''Film/CharliesAngels2019'' features a group of teenage recruits into the Townsend Agency (played by Creator/HaileeSteinfeld, Creator/LiliReinhart, Aly Raisman, and Chloe Kim) going through their training.
52	* In ''Film/{{Debs}}'', there is apparently a secret portion of the [=SATs=] that determines whether somebody has the capacity to lie, cheat, fight, and kill. Those who pass screening are recruited into the D.E.B.S. SpySchool.
53	* Lance Elliot from ''Film/TheDouble0Kid''. 17-year-old Lance Elliot is a summer intern at the Agency. His fantasies of espionage and intrigue turn real when he's ordered to rush a package to L.A. A madman millionaire computer virus designer and his icy henchwoman want that package. It's key to their plot to destroy the environment. Lance stays one step ahead of them, trying to avoid a visit to their "video-game-of-doom" room.
54	* ''Film/{{Hanna}}'' is a {{deconstruction}}, mainly by playing it less in the Film/JamesBond TuxedoAndMartini style and more in the "Stale Beer" [[Film/TheBourneSeries Jason Bourne]] style. The titular Hanna is the daughter of a rogue CIA operative who's been living with him in a remote cabin in the woods in northern Finland, and he's been training her to defend herself in the event that his former employers take him out. [[spoiler:Hanna is also the sole survivor of a SuperSoldier program, which explains her badass feats.]]
55	* Michael Corbin from ''Film/IfLooksCouldKill''. When Michael Corben, along with the rest of his high-school French class, set out for a trip to France, he runs headlong into international intrigue: Agent Michael Corbin has just been disposed of by the evil forces of Augustus Steranko. When it's learned that Michael Corbin is alive and well, and still on his way to France, he's beseiged by both the good guys and the bad guys. British Intelligence outfits him with a series of James-Bond-like gizmos, and Steranko sends more would-be assassins after him.
56	* In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, the ComicBook/BlackWidow program is this trope given the Stale Beer treatment. Young orphan girls are taken into the program and subjected to a mix of TrainingFromHell and {{brainwash\|ed}}ing to turn them into superspies for the Soviet and later Russian government. Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova both escaped from the program, and the plot of the ''Film/{{Black Widow\|2021}}'' movie revolves around taking it down.
57	* ''Film/SpyKids'' (strictly speaking, they are tween superspies, though Carmen is in her teens by the third movie). The franchise follows the adventures of Carmen and Juni Cortez, two children who become involved in their parents' espionage. The rest of their family are spies as well, including their estranged uncle, Machete, and maternal grandparents.
58	* ''Film/{{Stormbreaker}}'', a film adaptation of the Literature/AlexRider books. The film's plot follows a teenage boy who is recruited by [=MI6=] after his uncle, a secret agent, is killed in action. He is sent on a mission in Cornwall to gather intelligence behind ''Stormbreaker'', an advanced computer system being provided to schools across Britain, and its creator, billionaire Darrius Sayle.
59	* They tried to make the ''Film/{{Thunderbirds}}'' film like this. When The Hood finds and invades International Rescue's secret base and traps most of the Tracy family, only young Alan Tracy and his friends can save the day.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Literature]]
63	* ''Literature/AlexRider''. He was secretly trained from birth -- and, by "secretly", we mean not even Alex himself was aware that the activities in question (karate, extreme sports and traveling abroad) were training -- to carry the legacy of his uncle. Because he is in the wrong place in the wrong time, he is recruited early because no one will suspect a child. The series ultimately becomes a deconstruction of the character type. Far from finding his adventures exciting, Alex is forced to work for [=MI6=] and, against his will, basically becomes a ChildSoldier, all while becoming alienated from his friends and repeatedly traumatized by the mortal peril he is thrown into.
64	** And in the third book, we learn that the CIA tried to do the same thing and failed miserably, with their teen super-spy getting killed almost immediately on his first mission. Alex succeeds because he is just very, very good at what he does, and very, very, ''very'' lucky.
65	* The ''Literature/AlphaForce'' series of novels by Creator/ChrisRyan has a MultinationalTeam of kids who work for a covert agency after being shipwrecked together in the first novel, "Survival".
66	* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' is one, albeit self-employed. No government agencies for him — Artemis has the style and the gadgets. Juliet is another, and even joins a SWAT team in ''The Eternity Code''.
67	* The ''Literature/CHERUBSeries''. CHERUB tries a lot harder to be realistic than most other versions of this trope.
68	* During the ''Franchise/JamesBond''-inspired '60s superspy craze, Grosset & Dunlap published a hardcover kids' series of the adventures of ''[[http://www.series.net/cool/about.html Christopher Cool, TEEN Agent]]''. The Top-secret Educational Espionage Network kept the free world safe from the evil machinations of TOAD.
69	* In ''Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries'', the protagonist Sophronia Temminnick is recruited by an espionage school masquerading as a charm school.
70	* ''Literature/TheGallagherGirls'' book series trains teenage girls to be spies.
71	* ''Literature/{{Kim}}'' is a moderate example. He starts off in a plausible non-super way as a StreetUrchin who is used by a passing spy to carry messages for him. The only thing super about him is his ability to flawlessly enter every culture in India.
72	* The ''Micro Adventures'' series from the 80's involves the reader in the plot as a teenage computer whiz who's an agent for A.C.T., the [[FunWithAcronyms Adventure Connection Team]], CodeName Orion. Several times per book the story stops and begins a section with lines of code the reader's supposed to enter into their own computer to run a program mimicking what's going on in the plot, including decoding secret messages from headquarters. [[ShoePhone There's a bit of the usual superspy gimmickery]], most prominently in the portable computer the size of a walkman that the reader uses to perform all these feats of computation, which probably seemed like mind-blowing fantasy at the time.
73	* ''Literature/{{Pygmy}}'' by Creator/ChuckPalahniuk has a group of these as {{Villain Protagonist}}s. They were sent to America by a totalitarian [[CommieNazis commie-Nazi]] regime with a mission to destroy the US government.
74	* Phoenix in ''Literature/RedHanded'' is training to be an alien hunter.
75	* ''Literature/RubyRedfort'' is a expert code breaker and was hired to work at Spectrum, a top secret agency keeping tabs on the world. A long time ago, Spectrum tried to train other teen spies, like Bradley Baker and [[spoiler:Buzz]].
76	* Played with in the ''Literature/SpyGearAdventures'' novels. The kids aren't officially members of any secret agency, and mostly just use spy gadgets they found in a warehouse in the woods. Some of their missions (which are all set in their hometown) have the possibility of world-changing implications should they fail, but they're rarely in real danger, and always make it out okay.
77	* The ''Literature/SpyHigh'' series of novels.
78	* From ''Literature/SteampunkDetective'', Jack Mason is one since his apprenticeship to Ignatius Doyle onwards.
79	* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': Aly in the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'' is a borderline example. While she is [[spoiler: the spymaster for a very successful [[LaResistance rebellion]] and later government,]] she has this as her main job (she's 17), lacks any special gadgets (medieval society) and [[ShownTheirWork relies on traditional, entirely un-flashy techniques]], like [[FeedTheMole feeding the mole]] and carefully asking questions. So, while she is indeed a teenager and a very capable spy, [[SubvertedTrope she isn't working the way we'd expect her to at all]].[[note]]Not to mention that 16 is the age of adulthood in that society.[[/note]]
80	* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', Miles Vorkosigan starts out this way, [[spoiler:though he gets to just shy of 30 before his career as a spy comes to an end]]. He is definitely a wrong-place/wrong-time variant; his first 'mission' started out as a vacation after washing out of the local Barrayaran military academy and he only contacted his government ''after'' they filed treason charges over the whole Private Army Thing.
81	* ''Literature/JamesBond'' has a spin-off series called ''Literature/YoungBond'', which is about him becoming a teen spy. He only acts the part proper in the fifth novel, ''Literature/ByRoyalCommand''.
82	* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: The Intelligence Cadet Corps, AKA the 'Spy Kids' or even more derisively, the 'Secret Squirrels'. They are [[Characters/WhateleyUniverseSchoolClubsAndCliques an official school club]] for wannabe spies and investigators, who spend most of the time spying on the Bad Seeds (the official club for the children of {{Supervillain}}s), the Masterminds (the somewhat less official club for aspiring criminal masterminds), and anyone else they deem suspicious - including some of the teachers and staff, with even their club sponsor not immune to their bugs and cameras. This compulsive intrusion on people's privacy gets them into deep trouble more than once, but at the same time they are instrumental in solving a few of the mysteries going on at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]].
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
86	* ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', an '80s SpiritualSuccessor to the below-mentioned ''The Mod Squad'', is an inversion. Here, the twentysomething undercover cops pose as teenagers and infiltrate high schools and universities. Its [[Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet film adaptation]] is much the same, albeit PlayedForLaughs.
87	* Sydney Bristow on ''Series/{{Alias}}'' is a Teen Superspy all grown up, and a relatively downplayed take on this trope, having been recruited into SD-6 as a 19-year-old college freshman just one year removed from teenage life. She's 26 by the start of the show and no longer an example, but the first season still has elements of this, as she has to juggle grad school with espionage. Notably, the show was [[DivorcedInstallment originally born]] from an idea that Creator/JJAbrams had for a PlotTwist on ''Series/{{Felicity}}'', a drama about the titular college student that played like a slightly grown-up version of a TeenDrama, in which Felicity turned out to be a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} agent.
88	* Yu Na and Min (and their friends) in ''Series/BornToSpy''. After realising their missing parents are spies, they carry on the mission, using their parents' gadgets and the training they have been given unknowingly.
89	* ''Series/ConnorUndercover'': Connor Heath is an ordinary 15-year-old. He extremely over imagines things and is always looking for adventure however he never finds any, that is until the Cordoban president's daughter is sent to live with him and his family. After numerous attempts on Gisela's life, Ed, a body-guard for the Cordoban secret service joins them.
90	* ''Series/{{Hanna}}'', like [[Film/{{Hanna}} the film it was based on]], is about a teenage girl who escaped from a CIA assassin program and is now on the run.
91	* Creator/DisneyChannel series ''Series/KCUndercover'', featuring former ''Series/ShakeItUp'' costar Creator/{{Zendaya}} in the title role. For K.C. Cooper, it's a family thing, as she was recruited upon finding out that her parents were secret agents.
92	* ''Series/MIHigh''. The series focuses on a team of undercover teenage spies working for the fictional secret intelligence agency M.I.9 who have to balance their school life with their jobs as secret agents.
93	* ''Series/TheModSquad'' is a police version of this trope, in which three teenage {{delinquents}} are recruited to infiltrate the [[NewAgeRetroHippie '60s counterculture]].
94	* Benjamin "Beans" Baxter, Jr from ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfBeansBaxter''. Teenaged Beans mailman father disappears one day and Beans discovers his dad was really a courier for a secret government agency. Soon Beans is drawn into espionage, becoming a secret agent for the government.
95	* ''Series/OddSquad'' stars 4 main characters being part of a crew called the Odd Squad, a CIA-type agency run by... well, kids. Technically, these would technically be 'pre-teen superspies', as all of the characters are around ten years old.
96	* [[PsychicChild Eleven]] on ''Series/StrangerThings'' was being trained by the government to become one of these, using her PsychicPowers to remotely spy on America's enemies. However, she broke out of Hawkins Laboratory before she could enter service.
97	* The yellow ranger of spy-themed ''Series/TokumeiSentaiGobusters'' is 16 years old. Her two teammates don't qualify, though, as they're both aged in their 20s.
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
101	* The 9-year-old lead character in ''Series/{{Joe 90}}''.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
105	* Super Spy Twilight from ''TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder''. Granted, the "teen" part is debatable, but the ''actual'' Twilight has been writing fics since childhood so it's not entirely implausible.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Video Games]]
109	* Black Widow is one in ''VideoGame/AvengersAcademy'' thanks to an AgeLift.
110	* [[spoiler: Sakazaki Yuuya]] in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' turns out to be one investigating [[spoiler: Dr. Iwamine Shuu and the Hawk Party]]. If the player completes his route, the heroine runs away with him and it's implied that they become partners.
111	* Raz becomes this at the end of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''; a ''psychic'' secret agent.
112	* Rouge the Bat from the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series is a master thief who works for the G.U.N. military force. She's also 18 years old.
113	* In VisualNovel/RiddleJoker the protagonist Satoru and his sister Nanami are a more [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] version, working for the SFD, an organisation fighting superpowered crime, generally of the street level variety rather than anything like super villains. They have superpowers of their own which is somewhat rare and normal law enforcement aren't allowed to use such powers so the organisation can't afford to be picky about their age.
114	* The protagonist of Polish point and click adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Teenagent}}''.
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Web Animation]]
118	* The tagline of ''WebAnimation/PrincessNatasha'': Student - Secret Agent - Princess.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Webcomics]]
122	* Teen [[GenderBender T-Girl]] Cookie Jarr is one of ''Webcomic/JetDream'''s main characters . Her SpinOff series ''[[http://tgcaps.com/caps/modcomics/suedenim/jetdream/itscookie01/itescookie1_01.jpg.php It's Cookie!]]'' focuses on her exploits as leader of the J.E.T. T.E.E.N. organization of teenaged NATO operatives. She also encounters several teen superspies from other agencies, including Brian Bell, "the CIA's top Teenagent," and enemy spies [[EasySexChange "He-She Svetlana"]] of [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre the KGB]] and Captain Boris Volkov, "the [[RedsWithRockets Red Army's]] top Saboteen."
123	* ''[[http://spy6teen.com Spy6teen]]'' features sixteen year old, Cally Calhoon, who works for a hi-tech government agency called MK Black between classes.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Web Videos]]
127	* ''WebVideo/AimHigh'', a web series in which the main character Nick Green is one of 64 underage operatives of the program DEPP.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Western Animation]]
131	* ''WesternAnimation/BrunoTheKid''. Partially subverted in that his employing agency thought he was an adult, due to his using an avatar when communicating with them.
132	* ''WesternAnimation/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKids'': Teen Superspy rock musicians, no less!
133	* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The series centers on the adventures of a group of five 10-year-olds who operate from a high-tech tree house, fighting against adult and teen villains with advanced 2×4 technology. Using their codenames (Numbuhs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), they are Sector V, part of a global organization called the Kids Next Door.
134	* ''WesternAnimation/DelilahAndJulius'' is about a duo of teen super spies with great chemistry and a fair amount of UnresolvedSexualTension.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Grossology}}'': Ty and Abby are a teen brother and sister crime-fighting team who report to the Bureau of Grossology, a secret government agency whose job is to investigate gross criminals, their gross crimes, and/or various gross phenomena.
136	* ''WesternAnimation/InvisibleNetworkOfKids'': Pinkerton School is a boarding school with two teachers. One of the teachers, Mr. Soper, is nice, and the other, Ms. Macbeth, is evil and is constantly trying to enslave the children of the school. However, four of the students act as a secret organisation known as "The Invisible Network of Kids", or "I.N.K." for short. I.N.K's mission is to thwart all of Ms. Macbeth's evil plans.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/JamesBondJr'': While attending prep school at Warfield Academy, Bond's nephew James Bond Jr., with the help of his friends IQ (the grandson of Q), and Gordo Leiter (the son of Felix Leiter), fight against the evil terrorist organisation S.C.U.M. (Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem), a SPECTRE-like organization.
138	* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' -- the lead character is technically a freelancer and not even a spy (she doesn't even bother with keeping a secret identity), but she otherwise fits the trope.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/MaryKateAndAshleyInAction''. No, really. We get to see two of the biggest teen stars in the world comment on their "film" adventures and then, with the power of animation, we join them -- at the premiere -- to watch their on-screen Super Teen Agent identities fight the good fight and save the world from evil. These girls go right from the pre-show interview in real life straight to exotic locations like the Great Wall of China as animated Special Agents.
140	* ''WesternAnimation/MaxSteel2013'': A 16-year-old boy named "Maxwell [=McGrath=]" is thrown into a new life when he and his mom moved to a small town called Copper Canyon. There he meets new friends, enemies, and a lot more. But later he started to generate a powerful energy called "T.U.R.B.O. Energy". Max must now join N-Tek, a secret organization his father worked on and meets a friendly ultralink named N'barro Aksteel X377/Steel.
141	* An odd piece of WildMassGuessing from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. They were employing Perry when he was just a newborn, and many new OWCA members haven't been "trained" yet...so technically, they're this.
142	** In a more literal sense, Perry that time he was in Candace's body. As the theme song says, "She's a semi-neurotic teenage girl of action".
143	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': High school student [[spoiler: Tammy Guterman]] is revealed to be a deep cover agent for the [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]]. Of course, since its unclear if she's [[AmbiguouslyHuman actually human]], it's possible she wasn't even a [[OlderThanTheyLook teenager]].
144	* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' -- There's even a rank at WOOHP ('''W'''orld '''O'''rganization '''o'''f '''H'''uman '''P'''rotection) called "superspy."
145	** The spin-off, ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingSpiez'', though only one of the four spies was technically a teenager.
146	[[/folder]]
147

Context Main / TeenSuperspy