Hypnotised Secret Agent

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #6 (May 1966) has a wonderful concept for a spy story, but falls flat a little in its execution.

The script is by Dick Wood, with Mike Sekowski doing the art. This is Sekowski's second issue on the book--he'd be the regular artist for the rest of the run and would give Man from U.N.C.L.E. a fun and lively look. So the problem isn't the art, but in Wood's script, which fails to properly tie the events of the story together in a way that makes sense in context of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. universe.

As I said, the overall premise is a strong one. THRUSH, the evil organization out to achieve world domination, is employing three guys who pretend to be blind, but are actually world-class hypnotists. As part of a plot to gain control of a Central American country, they have infiltrated agents into the lower levels of the government. The "Three Blind Mice" agents are planting post-hypnotic suggestions into maids, gardners and civil servants, getting them to plant deadly booby traps that take out the upper-level government figures. The THRUSH agents would then be promoted into positions of real power.

That is indeed a great premise, as is another plot twist we'll get to in a moment. But the plot itself is, I'm afraid, a bit of a mess.

Napoleon and Illya are sent to the country without any real plan other than "Talk to the President and tell him about THRUSH" even though they don't have an appointment. To be fair, the story begins with U.N.C.L.E.'s one friend in the government being assassinated, but the mission still has a rushed and chaotic feel to it. Napoleon and Illya (and their boss Mr. Waverly) are supposed to be smart guys. A plan that starts out with "Let's parachute into the country and see what sort of random stuff happens" doesn't speak well of their intelligence.

Anyway, they get captured by rebel forces. They escape, but then get captured by government soldiers as they try to break into the presidential palace to see the president.

Only the intervention of the president's daughter keeps them from being immediately executed. But,even with her as an ally, they can't get the stubborn president to listen to them. In the meantime--in what is the best part of the story--bizarre booby traps planted by hypnotised staff keep taking out the president's staff.

Then comes another wonderful plot twist. Illya is captured by the Three Blind Mice and hypnotized. The cool part is that Illya, because he and Napoleon had deduced the use of hypnotism, knows he's had a post-hypnotic suggestion planted in him. He just doesn't know what that suggestion is. He's now a ticking time bomb.

That's where the story drops the ball again. Despite the good guys knowing that Illya is hypnotized, he's still left alone in the president's office long enough to plant a booby trap. And this happens just a few panels after Illya, Napoleon and Mr. Waverly all agrees that he needs to be watched like a hawk. Fortunately, Illya is able to remember what he did afterwards and Napoleon  has time to save the president's life.

Soon after that, the U.N.C.L.E agents come up with a reasonably clever plan to capture the Three Blind Mice. The THRUSH plot is exposed and the government even makes peace with the rebels.

This is still a fun story to read. It's fast-pased with a number of good action scenes. The premise is indeed strong and the various booby traps left in the presidential mansion are awesomely cool. But "The Blind Mice Affair" also demonstrates that even when a story is set within an inherently goofy universe such as that of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., basic story logic still applies and the plot will suffer if that logic slips away.

That's it for today. Next week, a Flash villain visits Gotham City.