Blofeld's Successors

There are at least two worthy successors of Ian Fleming's Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the founder and director of SPECTRE:

Max in Andy Diggle's The Losers;
Zala in Stieg Larsson's Millennium novels.

Dig these guys. Code Name Max, "Blofeld meets Rumsfeld," exists for impossibly many decades and apparently in different places simultaneously. Zala is a GRU agent, then a defector, then a crime boss and also an abusive father.

Both Fleming and Larsson have been graphically adapted so this is all comics-related. I discuss the Larsson graphic adaptation here and here and Fleming here, here, here and here.

A Few Tangential Remarks On The Lakes International Comic Art Festival

John Freeman's experience as editor and writer enabled him to ask the right questions of Andy Diggle who then spoke informatively about the relationship between editing and writing:

a writer who wants to be noticed by the industry needs to perfect his ability to write 5 page short stories, submitting them wherever possible, like to 2000 AD, or putting them a blog;

the 2000 AD tray of unsolicited manuscripts contained rubbish, a few submissions from writers who needed editorial advice about writing techniques, structure, pacing etc and Mike Carey!;

Andy likes action panels to be silent except for SFX but some 2000 AD writers included unnecessary balloons saying, e. g., "I am about to fall off a building!";

technique can be taught whereas imagination can only be encouraged;

Andy started writing with a non-Dredd short story set in Megacity One (neat);

many writers want to write their favorite characters from childhood whereas others want to create new characters;

Max, the villain in The Losers, is "Rumsfeld meets Blofeld," a neat description, certainly a Blofeld-like figure with "New American Century" politics - and a name beginning with "M." 

Lex And Max

Lex Luthor in Andy Diggle's Batman: Rules Of Engagement pulls the same stunt as Max in the same author's The Losers: quietly acquires power, then stages a coup.

One difference is that Max, introduced in Diggle's run on The Losers, can be, and is, killed in the same run whereas Lex, of course, must survive and has an elaborate exit strategy and escape route for when his coup is defeated.

Rules Of Engagement ranks alongside Diggle's Green Arrow: Year One, Miller's Batman: Year One and John Byrne's The Man Of Steel as a good early story of familiar characters showing the origins of well known aspects of their later careers.

These stories remain valid because of their quality whatever subsequent changes have been made to mainstream comics continuity.