Intel experience

From the CIA to Gotham: Meet The Real Life Spy Who's Now Writing "Batman"

Tom King was a recent college grad intent on a writing career, when airliners struck the World Trade Center and completely changed his life. At least temporarily.

Incensed by the attack, he applied to the CIA, which lead to a seven-year career as an undercover operations officer disrupting terrorist networks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I was one of those post 9-11 people who just wanted to do something and joined up," says King. "I started in 2002, because it took a year to get security clearance. I thought they’d make me an analyst, because I went to Columbia University as a philosophy major, but they made me an operations officer. I was one of the younger officers there."

Today, he’s applying that background to a writing career about superheroes.