He's not a child! He's a lethal weapon!
Army major, Stormbreaker.
A hero with all of the style, panache and gadgetry of James Bond, 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 drink. Or drive. And he'll still have to find time to do his homework.
The
Teen Superspy is the
implausibly young agent of secret agency. Perhaps she's been
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
an arsenal of high-tech spy gadgets disguised as typical teen paraphernalia.
Compare
Wake Up Go To School Save The World.
Examples
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Comics example: Spyboy and his Japanese counterpart, Spygirl. Admittedly, Spyboy got his ass kicked when he met Spyguy...
- Danny Chase, The Wesley of the Teen Titans, was a former agent of the CBI as he never tired of telling his team-mates (and the readers).
- At the height of the spy craze in the 60s, Archie Comics published stories about "The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.", featuring Archie and his pals as secret agents.
- More recently Betty and Veronica have appeared as Agents B & V (clad in the requisite Spy Catsuits) working for a secret organisation run by Mr Lodge with Dilton Doiley acting as their resident Gadgeteer Genius.
- The post-Zero Hour Invisible Kid from The Legion Of Superheroes.
Film
- Cody Banks
- Spy Kids (strictly speaking, they are tween superspies)
- Michael Corbin from If Looks Could Kill
- Lance Elliot from The Double 0 Kid
- The children in Catch That Kid
- D.E.B.S.
- The eponymous Teen Agent.
Literature
- Alex Rider (He was secretly trained from birth — and, by "secretly", we mean not even Alex himself was aware that the activities in question 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 CHERUB series of novels. CHERUB tries a lot harder to be realistic than most other versions of Teen Superspy.
- The Spy High series of novels
- The Gallagher Girls book series trains teenage girls to be spies.
- Miles Vorkosigan starts out this way, though he ages to mid-30's as the series progresses.
- 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 acadamy and he only contacted his government _after_ they filed treason charges over the whole Private Army Thing.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Raz becomes this at the end of Psychonauts, a psychic secret agent.
Western Animation
