The Executioner (book series)

Background

Mack Bolan is a Vietnam War veteran serving as a sniper. It is in these jungles where the young Bolan honed his military capabilities and his deadly accuracy. His 97 confirmed kills gave birth to the nickname he would carry for the rest of his life: The Executioner. Amidst the chaos of war, Bolan also earned the moniker "Sergeant Mercy", for his compassion and willingness to help innocent Vietnamese citizens put in harm's way or wounded by the conflict around them.

During his tour of duty, Bolan was called home on emergency leave to bury his family, who were killed by their father, Sam Bolan, in a triple-murder/suicide. Upon his return home, Bolan learned loan sharks from a local branch of the Mafia "family" had forced his sister Cynthia into a life of prostitution to pay back the family debt. Upon learning the news, his father could not bear it and committed the horrendous act. Only Bolan's 14-year-old brother Johnny survived his wounds.

Bolan realized that the real enemy was not in the jungles of Vietnam, but at home. The Mafia's schemes affected everday innocent civilians such as his own family. Using the tactics he learned during his military combat, Bolan refused to return to Vietnam and instead took his war to the Mafia. City by city, he strikes ruthlessly to bring down the mafia and to clean the country of this horrific criminal organization. His actions would divide opinions. Some government and law enforcement officials were pleased with his efforts, while some sought to bring his war to an end.

In the end, the government offered Bolan amnesty under the condition he work for them. Bolan accepted and emerged under the name Colonel John Phoenix beginning his war against terrorism and the KGB. Bolan works in conjunction with Hal Brognola, the Director of the Sensitive Operations Group and the liaison between Bolan and the Oval Office. Phoenix was chosen to be Bolan's new alias in reference to the mythological bird that would resurrect itself from the ashes of a former life, just as Bolan had done after the events of Executioner #38, Satan's Sabbath.

Spinoff series

In the Mack Bolan universe there are two covert tactical neutralization teams assigned to Stony Man but which work separately from it: Able Team and Phoenix Force. Each had its own series of books until 1991, when Gold Eagle combined both series into one, Stony Man. In addition, the SuperBolan series emerged in 1985. These books are double the size of a regular Executioner title and are released every other month.

In France, a new spin-off series, Kira B., featuring Mack Bolan's "daughter" Kira, was introduced by the publisher Vauvenargues, in 2012. Written under the pen name Steven Belly, the series follows the adventures of Kira, a young woman who appeared in L'Exécuteur nº300: Le réseau Phénix, where she manipulated Mack Bolan to come out of retirement to fight against cyber-criminals. Since then, she has helped her "father" in his fight against crime and now is the heroine of her own, eponymous series.

The Executioner Mystery Magazine

In 1975, Leonard J. Ackerman Productions produced Don Pendleton's The Executioner Mystery Magazine, a digest-sized, pulp magazine anthology series along the same lines as the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The magazine had little connection to the Mack Bolan books save for the occasional story related to the Mafia. The magazine ran for only four issues, ending in August 1975, with the final issue titled simply The Executioner Mystery Magazine.

Movie screenplay

Joseph E. Levine contracted Richard Maibaum in 1972 to write a screenplay, based on the fifth and sixth volumes, Continental Contract and Assault on Soho. A later attempt to adapt The Executioner to the screen by Burt Reynolds was to star Sylvester Stallone and Cynthia Rothrock, but the production was scrapped.

It was announced August 2014, that Shane Salerno, Hollywood producer, screenwriter has acquired the Executioner Mack Bolan Series of action/adventure novels for a film franchise.

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights of the Book series with Bradley Cooper starring as Bolan, Shane Salerno writing and Todd Phillips directing.

Comics

The Executioner: War Against the Mafia was a comic book adaptation of the first novel by Don Pendleton and Linda Pendleton, published 1993 by Innovation Comics. Intended to run four issues, the final instalment was not published due to Innovation closing. Artwork was by Sandu Florea.

The Executioner: Death Squad was adapted by Linda Pendleton with art by Sandu Florea. It was a 128-page black and white comic, published in 1996 by Vivid Comics.

The Executioner was adapted into a five-part comic book series by IDW, written by Doug Wojtowicz and illustrated by S. I. Gallant. It was reissued as the graphic novel, Don Pendleton's The Executioner: The Devil's Tool, in November 2008. The reissued version contained an introduction by Linda Pendleton, "Don Pendleton's Creation of Mack Bolan, The Executioner".

Works inspired by the Executioner series

The Executioner is often cited as the inspiration for the Marvel Comics character The Punisher, who also fights the Mafia, as well as James Glickenhaus' films The Exterminator (1980) and Exterminator 2 (1984).

Authors

See: List of authors in the Executioner series.

Series listing

List of Kira B. books

1. Kira 1: Ondes de Choc dans l'Oregon (2012, Shockwaves in Oregon)
2. Kira 2: L'Aigle de Brandebourg (2013, Brandeburger Eagle)
3. Kira 3: Neige de sang sur Oslo (2013)
4. Kira 4: Crisis (2013)
5. Kira 5: La Quadrature sibérienne (2013)