5 Lady Spies Who Could Kick Nikita’s Ass

  • Share
  • Read Later

The CW’s new take on Nikita launches tonight, with Maggie Q taking on the role of the rogue operative turning against the spy organization that made her the person she is today. But even if you ignore the three earlier versions of this particular story (In reverse order, the 1997 La Femme Nikita television series, the 1993 Point of No Return American version of the original movie and the 1990 original Luc Besson La Femme Nikita), Nikita still has a long lineage of female spies who put the “fatal” into femme fatal. Here’s five of the best.

Modesty Blaise
From amnesiac child to head of a criminal network, the beautiful (and, of course, deadly) Modesty Blaise has quite the checkered past – but Peter O’Donnell’s newspaper strip heroine found fame as a secret agent who’d give James Bond a run for his money. She’s appeared in (terrible) movies, comic books and novels, and her fans include Quentin Tarantino and Nicole Kidman, who once expressed interest in starring in a modern Modesty movie. If Nikita manages to launch a new fad for spy TV, someone should snatch this up for adaptation as soon as possible.

More On Techland:

The Quantum of Racist

Black Widow
Yeah, yeah; Scarlett Johannson may have not sucked in Iron Man 2, but fans of the character’s comic incarnation knows that Natasha Romanoff can do a lot more than go undercover as Tony Stark’s secretary and kick some dudes – A cold war defector, raised from a child to be an unstoppable spyin’ machine (complete with biological and technical upgrades along the way) who gave it all up to become a superhero and superspy, depending on whose company she’s keeping at the time, the comic Black Widow isn’t someone whose path you’d want to cross without good reason.

More On Techland:

Avengers Unite! Euphoric Notes From The Marvel Studios Panel, Surprises Abound

Emma Peel
People who aren’t even a little bit in love with The Avengers‘ – television version, of course – Mrs. Peel either have no taste or haven’t been paying attention. Breaking from the Damsel In Distress role, Emma was much more of a take-charge kind of a woman likely to save John Steed in precarious situations. That turning on its head of convention, mixed with her pop art outfits, made her an icon of 1960s television, and set a new bar for spy women the world over.

More On Techland:

Emanata: Eight Comics That Demand to Be Reprinted

Æon Flux
Peter Chung’s futuristic acrobatic assassin was a highpoint of MTV’s early ’90s Liquid Television series, a mix of stunning visuals, stark (and occasionally brutal) storytelling and an attractively futuristic dystopia that was vague enough for the viewer to project their own beliefs onto it. The movie may have let us into Flux’s world too much, but at her best, Flux was a silent ingenue who could kill you for looking at her the wrong way.

More On Techland:

Dollhouse: Joss Whedon’s Return to TV

Sydney Bristow
Ah, Alias. For all your batpoop crazy plots and unrealistic incestual spy relationships, Jennifer Garner never really let us down as Sydney, the little spy that could, as long as “could” meant dressing up in disguises, running a lot and feeling torn about her loyalties. It might’ve been Felicity genespliced with Mission: Impossible, but Mme Bristow always got the job done, even if her feelings happened to get in the way every single time.

More On Techland:

Is ABC Really Hoping To Reboot Alias?

  1. Previous
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6