Spyral

Originally a U.N sanctioned international agency, Spyral is more recently headed by the German superspy Otto Netz, currently known under the pseudonym of Doctor Dedalus.

Spyral specializes in mind erosion, brainwashing, and misdirection, with a heavy "spider's web" theme prevalent throughout:

"This is how it is when you are caught helplessly in the spinner's web. Beating your wings against the sticky threads."

Creation

Spyral was created by writer Grant Morrison for the first volume of Batman Incorporated.

Origin

Although their first official mention was in issue #4, in the previous issue the original Knight (Percy Sheldrake) is wounded on mission during the Falklands War (tasked to trap Dedalus in an isolated lighthouse) is clutching a calling card with a eye in the centre of a spider's web. The same design comes up again in the following issue when Agent 33 hands the Spyral business card to Kathy Kane.

Notable Members

Otto Netz / Dr Dedalus / Agent Zero

Head of Spyral. He reveals to Batman that "governments paid me to kill their troublesome superhumans...their heroes. It was my specialty."

His obsession with the symbolism of the spider web and the spiral reinforces the "elaborate deceptions" that he and his department were paid to create.

El Gaucho / Agent 33

Agent of Spyral. Now the Argentinian hero El Gaucho, he jept his past secret until he double-crosses Batman in the Labyrinth of Dedalus during the events of Leviathan Strikes! This proves to be a ruse however because the poison he was supposed to administer to the Dark Knight was in fact the antidote to the mind eroding gas that he had been affected by. Dedalus responses to this double treachery by stabbing him the neck. The wound would of been mortal, where it not for the fact it missed his carotid artery by half an inch.

Kathy Kane

After being recently widowed, a young Agent 33 proposes that she joins Spyral at the recommendation of Agent Zero. During her stint as the first Batwoman, she falls in love with Batman. This secret relationship was exposed later on by Dedalus' hallucinogens, where in response to Kathy's attempt at blackmail, he reveals that in fact he is her biological father.

"...when he learns his bride is the daughter of an unrepentant Nazi Master Criminal."

Lazlo Valentin

Former member of Spyral, who designed neo-pharmaceutical products. One such example is the mind eroding gas compound which the crazed Dr Dedalus uses in his final confrontation with Batman in the Labyrinth .

Whilst working for Spyral, Lazlo was also subjected to the compound whilst in the Labyrinth for which " the only exit was via violent paranoid schizophrenia, drug abuse and D.I.Y surgery...Lazlo became Professor Pyg."

"Henchmen"

Also, inside the Labyrinth of Dedalus, both Batmen, Robin and Red Robin are attacked by various henchmen, of which two of them turn out to be brainwashed members of Batman Inc., the Nightrunner and the current Dark Ranger, Johnny Riley.