There’s been a decades-long quest in the US to create ‘the American James Bond’. This is somewhat ironic, since the first ever adaptation of a James Bond book was the 1954 US TV series Climax! Mystery Theater‘s Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson as ‘Jimmy Bond’. (Let’s twopher this one and call it this week’s Wednesday Play… on Tuesday)
But ever since Bond hit it big at the movie box office, there have been attempts to create an equally lucrative and iconic US James Bond, such as Napoleon Solo in The Man From UNCLE, whom they even asked Ian Fleming to help develop, although all he ended up giving them was the name. However, so far, the US has had very little success, although many people argue that the Bourne series is the American equivalent of the Bond movies.
It’s also ironic, because why would you want to create an American James Bond? He’s quintessentially British. And I don’t mean suave, sophisticated, good with women, etc – we’re really not any of those.
No, James Bond’s attitudes to his job are quintessentially British – there’s no real patriotism, no great love of country, no belief in the fundamental awesomeness of the British political system. To Bond, Britain isn’t best and there is no ‘British exceptionalism’. Instead, he is a blunt tool who risks all for Queen and country, because it’s a job and the alternative to the status quo would probably just be even worse than it already is. That’s peak British, that is.
So Agent X is probably the first TV series or movie that really offers a truly American version of James Bond. Created by William Blake Herron, who co-wrote The Bourne Identity, it stars Sharon Stone as the first female vice-president of the United States. On her inaugration night, her strong grasp of Latin and Masonic symbols enables her to discover the true reason the vice president has bugger all constitutional duties – there’s a secret article in the original US constitution that gives her the power in times of national emergency to command a nameless secret agent to do whatever it takes to protect the country from enemies, foreign and domestic. Agent X is that man, a self-sacrificing, small town, everyman patriot, foresaking any kind of personal life to defend the United States and her Constitution, all for no reward.
That’s peak American, that is.
Shame that although it’s a step in the right direction, it’s still rubbish. Even worse than the worst Roger Moore James Bond movie you can think of. Maybe not the worst Pierce Brosnan movie, though.
It’s virtually all quiet on the Amazon Front over at DC at the moment. The usual Wondy monthlies aren’t due for a couple of weeks. On the weeklies side, Injustice: Gods Among Us is between years; the release dates for the next Wonder Woman ’77 and Sensation Comics are ‘TBD’ (ie possibly cancelled); and DC Bombshells was too busy with Mera (now aka ‘Aquawoman’) rescuing some plunky, ahistorical Brits to bother with Diana. There’s not even a Justice League: Darkseid War special to tide us over.
It’s all a bit suspicious and disheartening.
Anyway, that means we’re down to a single, rather bonkers cameo appearance over in Detective Comics #46. We can talk about that after the jump.
Peep Show is coming to an end in the UK this year, with its final, ninth series starting on Channel 4 on Wednesday. Here’s a trailer, in fact.
Nine series, hey? That’s the kind of popularity that normally makes US format-acquisition specialists salivate. No surprise then that the US is currently developing its own version. Slightly more surprising is that this is their third attempt, the first attempts having died horribly.
Want to know how horribly? Well, here’s one of them, made so long ago it was saved to a VHS in 4:3 and starred The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
