James Bond (Dynamite Entertainment)

Monthly series

In October 2014, Dynamite Entertainment announced plans to publish monthly James Bond (comics) as part of a ten-year licensing deal with Ian Fleming Publications in 2015. Warren Ellis was asked by the Fleming Estate to be the writer, and he requested Jason Masters be the artist. Their first six issue story, VARGR, was announced July 2015. Ellis read all the Fleming novels to prepare for the book, and he named Risico as a particular influence. Masters based his design for Bond on Fleming's descriptions, an illustration commissioned by Fleming, and the work of John McLusky, the first artist to draw Bond in a comic. When asked about the meaning of the title, Ellis explained "VARGR is an Old Norse word meaning variously wolf, evildoer or destroyer."

The first was published November 4, 2015 to coincide with the release of Spectre and offered nine variant covers. It was the 69th best selling issue of the month with estimated orders of 35,600. A hardcover collection of the first six issues was released June 21, 2016.

The same day the hardcover was released, Dynamite published the first chapter of Ellis and Masters' followup story, Eidolon. as issue #7. The comic features a modern twist on SPECTRE, an evil organization Bond has previously encountered in both novels and films. Ellis developed the plot after reading Umberto Eco's Numero Zero.

On 5 October 2016, Dynamite announced that writer Benjamin Percy is set to pen a story for a future installment in the monthly series, taking over from Warren Ellis. Two months later, the title was unveiled as Black Box, which oddly enough resets the issue numbering of the eponymous James Bond series from that of the 2015 run. The art is illustrated by Rapha Lobosco, and the comic made its debut on 1st of March 2017 as James Bond (2017) issue #1. With the development of the story and the elements used in the first issue, Percy told he was influenced by the film series in writing the structure of the story, The Spy Who Loved Me and Spectre being the most of the recognizable citations, while reflecting on the inner thoughts of Bond's pscyhology he claims to have derived from the novels.

Additional entries

On 19 July 2016, Dynamite announced a new miniseries by writer Andy Diggle and artist Luca Casalanguida titled Hammerhead would be released in October. The first issue will have three variant covers. On 26 September 2016, artist Robert Hack revealed his own retro-based variant cover for the first issue exclusive for CBLDF's Retailer Membership.

On 20 February 2017, Dynamite announced a one-shot installment in the series titled Service, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Antonio Fuso, set to come out sometime in May, later that year.

Future plans

A forthcoming series will be a period piece expanding on Bond's life prior to the events of Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

A direct adaptation of the Casino Royale novel is planned for hardcover release on November 22, 2016. It will be a graphic novel separate from the ongoing series, adapted by Van Jensen and illustrated by Matthew Southworth.

Spin-Offs

On 3 October 2016, Dynamite announced a spin-off miniseries titled Felix Leiter which stars the eponymous character, written by James Robinson and illustrated by Aaron Campbell and debuted in January 2017.

VARGR

British Intelligence agent James Bond is assigned by his boss, M, to take up the workload of a deceased fellow agent who was working on a case related to a European drug smuggling syndicate. Following a lead to Berlin, Bond is met by Dharma Reach, who is posing as a CIA contact. She tries to kill him, but fails and escapes. Bond meets with Slaven Kurjak, a rich Serbian scientist who was disabled during the Kosovo War. Kurjak now develops advanced technology for prosthetics. When asked about the unusual drugs spreading across London and Europe, Kurjak directs Bond to a suspicious laboratory. Unbeknownst to 007, Kurjak is the one who sent Dharma to kill him. At the laboratory, Bond engages in a firefight with a Lebanese crime clan. After the battle is over, Bond learns that he was tricked by Kurjak and the Lebanese were not connected to the drugs.

Kurjak sends Bryan Masters to kill Bond at the Berlin MI-6 station. Bond is not there, but Masters kills the staff who are. When Bond arrives at the station, Masters introduces himself as a CIA agent and wants to escort Bond to a secure location since the Berlin Station was ambushed. Although Bond secretly knows Masters is an enemy, they travel together to Kurjak's security resort, where Kurjak's staff are found dead from Kurjak's drug tests, known as "Condition Vargr." Masters attacks Bond, who kills him by injecting him with the drug. Kurjak reveals himself and traps Bond in a sealed chamber. Kurjack explains the drug has been his life's work since the concentration camps in Kosovo. It was supposed to be a cure for cancer, but it kills anyone who uses it. Kurjak now plans to use the drug to control the world. He activates a decontamination cycle process in the chamber and leaves Bond to die, but Bond escapes.

Bond returns to London and reports the incidents. He is sent to liaise with MI-5, who have been quarantining the places where the drug has spread. While looking for the MI-5 team, Bond is attacked by and kills Dharma Reach. With the help of Bill Tanner, Bond traces Reach's prosthetics to a decommissioned Norwegian battleship, the HNoMS Vargr. Bond infiltrates Vargr and discovers the laboratory where Kurjak's drugs are developed. He plants explosive devices but is found by Kurjak and attacked by prosthetic enhanced henchmen. Bond evacuates and detonates the bombs, sinking Vargr. Afterwards, Bond sees an injured Kurjak crawling on the shore and executes him.

Eidolon

Following the events of the exposure of dark money transferred from the backdoor channels of electronic bank accounts using legitimate company firms as fronts putting into British soil, James Bond is sent to Los Angeles to retrieve a forensic accountant planted by the MI-6 in the Turkish Consulate, Cadence Birdwhistle, to study backchannel financial movement and discovered the leak for which she is targeted by Turkish MIT Service gunmen and other rogue CIA operatives. Equipped with weaponry provided to him by his trustworthy CIA ally, Felix Leiter, Bond takes out the assailants and smuggles Cadence out of the US back to London.

Upon their arrival at Heathrow Airport, Bond and Cadence are attacked by unidentified mercenaries led by a man called Beckett Hawkwood, which they are not aware of, but nevertheless manage to survive due to their containment in a heavily armoured car, which drives them safely back to the MI-6 headquarters at Vauxhall. At debriefing with M, Bond states that the weapons used on them by the mercenaries are C8 Carbines fitted with UGLs which are SAS and SBS standard issue items, both being financed by the MI-5. They also discover that the operation of the financial transfers of dark money are labeled under the name of "Eidolon", which intrigues M into suspecting there might be an obvious connection from a past enemy organization.

Meanwhile, with the aid of Bill Tanner, Cadence discovers the entire chain of the Eidolon transactions that are moved through deep cover MI-5 channels to a final stop that is the Box Tunnel where the country's domestic intelligence service draws an administration from. M sends 007 on an off-records mission to infiltrate the tunnel and investigate the happenings inside, where Bond himself discovers an ongoing attack being planned by a group of secret society. After sparking into a gunfight and slightly missing Hawkwood who flees the scene, Bond abducts one of the injured underlings and tortures the information out of him regarding the entity of Eidolon. It turns out that M's suspicion of the shortcomings was right, as Eidolon is revealed to be a system of SPECTRE stay-behinds initiated during World War II, along with the exposition of Hawkwood's identity as one of the four global lead assets of the operation.

MI-5 agent, Eve Sharma approaches Bond off-duty later on to discuss a rogue operation's existence in a secret cell within her organization, to which Bond informs her with the truth and the involvement of the SPECTRE stay-behinds. The next day, M, with the company of Cadence and Moneypenny, goes to meet the head of MI-5, Sir Stephen Mackmain and the Intelligence Services Commissioner to discuss the irrelevance of The Hard Rule, a policy that prevents MI-6 agents from carrying firearms on British soil (which was also a problem in the VARGR storyline). During the heated conversation between M and Mackmain, whose hypocrisy in the formation of rule ranged on surface, the latter unveils his true schemes and takes M as well as the rest of the crew as a hostage, with Hawkwood himself eliminating the London Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism unit protecting them. Mackmain's purpose is to resurrect SPECTRE and take over both domestic and foreign intelligence roles worldwide. Just in time, Bond and Eve attack Hawkwood's team and invade into the safehouse where a heavy shootout occurs, killing Mackmain in the process. Hawkwood, however, escapes and Bond gives a pursuit in an intense car chase, but fails to capture Hawkwood.

Reaching his own extraction point, Hawkwood collects and prepares to deploy a volumetric vacuum bomb at the Houses of Parliament to announce the return of SPECTRE. Before ensuing the catastrophe, he also intends to assassinate Cadence to silence her and prevent her from testifying against Mackmain in a political trial. But, he's soon discovered by Bond, who pursues him on the streets of London with Hawkwood behind the wheel of a truck carrying the fuel-air bomb, attempting to drive in to the MI-6 Headquarters and detonate the bomb there. 007 sabotages the truck, and continues the assault on foot when the two men engage in a violent fistfight, with Hawkwood almost gaining the upper hand. Bond, at the nick of time, manages to injure Hawkwood with a knife and manipulates him into taking his own life with self-pity as Bond watches him from afar, smoking his cigarette in relief after the prevention of the terror.

Black Box

While on a mission to infiltrate the Tokyo underworld, Operation Black Box has James Bond making a deadly gamble at the heart of a Yakuza-controlled territory, only to be overshadowed by a mysterious assassin who seems to be helping him, whose mission is to exterminate other unjustly assassins.

Critical reception

According to review aggregator Comic Book Round Up, the first issue received an average score of 7.4/10. Newsarama reviewer David Pepose thought Ellis' version of Bond was the "purest crystallization of the character ... since the original novels" and praised the removal of Bond's bigotry. John McCubbin, reviewing for SnapPow, criticized the comic's pace and Bond's lack of flair while calling Master's art "the most impressive part about this opening issue." Dom Reardon's cover for the first issue was re-used as the cover for the 21st issue of Bleeding Cool magazine, which was focused on war comics.