The Boys Co-Creator Garth Ennis to Write New James Bond Series
Ennis will be joined by artist Rapha Lobosco and cover artist Dave Johnson.
Amid a raft of high-profile announcements timed to New York Comic Con, Dynamite Entertainment this week announced that The Boys co-creator Garth Ennis will take on the writing chores for an all-new James Bond series, celebrating this year's 70th anniversary of Ian Fleming's super-spy character by setting up a new status quo for Bond early next year. The new series will launch in January, and will take on a version that's closer to the darker, more grounded Bond from Fleming's novels rather than the movie franchise.
Dynamite sought out UK native Ennis to develop the project in the hopes of giving James Bond #1 the kind of gravitas and credibility that a book with that designation deserves. For his part, Ennis said that digging into the novels helped him crack the code.
"When I took a look at the Bond of the Fleming novels, as opposed to the larger-than-life figure from the movies, I saw a great deal more potential — a much darker character in a more interesting world," Ennis said in a statement.
This new story, titled "Your Cold, Cold Heart," finds Bond dealing with a disturbing silent killer. A relic of the Cold War, the deadly compound Stalvoda — roughly meaning "steel water" in Russian — is thought to have achieved the impossible – the holy grail of arms manufacturers: is it possible to kill an enemy without inflicting any visible damage and leaving no trace whatsoever? Right as the weapon is perfected, though, it escapes the lab. MI6 naturally assigns their top operative to the hunt.
Given that concept -- "a relic of the Cold War" -- it certainly feels like the new Bond will move into the modern day, rather than being set during the time of the novels.
In addition to appearances from fan-favorites such as M, Q, Moneypenny, and Felix Leiter, Ennis plans to readers to new character Archie Tryon. Described as an eccentric, old veteran who enjoys strolls into the sea, the man brought the earlier formula out of the Soviet Union in the first place. Bond will go to him and get more than he bargained for, perhaps seeing a glimpse of his own future, and the first clues to unravelling a conspiracy that traces back deep into the heart of MI6.
Dynamite has joined artist Rapha Lobosco, who has previously taken on 007 with Benjamin Percy's Black Box and an issue of Aleš Kot's The Body, to draw the series. With other credits including Dynamite's two crossovers with Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash, Lobosco is the perfect match here with a great sense of character and storytelling.
The series will also feature stunning covers by the Eisner Award-winning Dave Johnson, known for his contributions to 100 Bullets, Detective Comics, Deadpool, Punisher, and more. In addition to 70 years of Bond, this announcement coincides with 10 years of Bond at Dynamite.
Ennis, who created Preacher and did celebrated comics like The Punisher and Hellblazer, is best known The Boys, currently being adapted as a blockbuster TV franchise for Amazon's Prime. Amazon, through its recent purchase of MGM, is also set to become the streaming home of James Bond.
JAMES BOND #1 is solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors' November 2023 Previews catalog, the premier source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market, and slated for release in January 2023. Comic book fans are encouraged to preorder copies of the issue with their local comic book retailers. It will also be available for individual customer purchase through digital platforms courtesy of Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Dynamite Digital, ComicsPlus, and more.