Ellis scripts as James Bond comes to comics

Big announcement in comic books.

Uber- talented writer Warren Ellis will be writing an ongoing James Bond comic book series for Dynamite Comics. James Bond 007 will hit the stands in November. The first six-issue story arc, to be titled "VARGR," will feature Bond returning from a "wetworks" mission in Helsinki. He is then called upon by Her Majesty's government to pick up the work of a fallen 00 operative. This brings him to the back streets and alleyways of Berlin...where a trap awaits him.

And we know little more about the story than that.

That's all right by me. I can wait. I already know I'm going to end up buying a copy. You see, Ellis is a natural choice for writing this series. While he has written superhero characters admirably, one can tell that he doesn't like them all that much. This, it seems, is not altogether uncommon for British comics creators. After all, those blokes were weaned on war comics and science fiction epics such as 2000 A.D. This fact, especially the former of those genres, has given Ellis great aptitude for writing "hard men." Seek out Desolation Jones and Jack Cross to see for yourself.

Men don't come much harder than Bond. This is especially true of the current incarnation with Daniel Craig. Gone is the persiflage and the hollowed-out volcano lairs. Back is the gritty pulp character first envisioned by Ian Fleming. 

Face it. In real life, Bond wouldn't be a very nice guy and that's another reason I believe Ellis to be a natural fit for this project. Also exciting is the fact that the character of James Bond has seldom found his way into the comics medium. Sure, there have been movie adaptations and I believe Marvrl and Dark Horse each attempted their own ongoings at one point or another, but the character never seemed to really get pushed. Now the time is right. The zeitgeist seems most receptive to "hard men" for hard times.

So this comic already has a buyer in me for the writer alone if nothing else. I have no idea who is doing the art. Go look it up yourself as that very seldom matters to me in comics.

I know that makes me an odd duck.

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