Spy vs Spy

Spy vs Spy is a comic strip created by Cuban cartoonist Antonio Prohías, featuring two identical spies—one dressed in black, one in white—engaged in an endless cycle of elaborate assassination attempts against each other.

Running in Mad magazine since 1961, the wordless strip uses slapstick violence and Rube Goldberg–style contraptions.

The phrase now describes any situation of mutual scheming or symmetrical conflict where adversaries mirror each other's tactics: The corporate espionage case turned into a real Spy vs Spy situation.