Rank the John Gardner villains

Books Other Continuation Authors
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This week’s category is rank the John Gardner villains. Characters from the novelizations are eligible to be included.

So how do you rank the Gardner villains? I rank them as:

  1. Franz Sanchez – LICENCE TO KILL – My favorite film villain is also my favorite Gardner novel villain. Charismatic, tough, and dangerous. Sanchez has it all. A great Bond villain.

  2. Anton Murik aka Warlock – LICENSE RENEWED – Gardner’s first villain is really solid. A nuclear expert who plans on creating multiple nuclear meltdowns out of spite due to an idea of his being rejected by colleagues–unless world governments give in to his demands. A madman with brains and a connection to a known terrorist. That can’t be good–but it is a good story and villain.

  3. Lee Fu-Chu aka Brokenclaw – BROKENCLAW – This is Gardner’s closest effort to mimic the classic Ian Fleming villains and he does a great job. Lee has a lot of presence, is very intimidating, and has a biological quirk of basically having two right hands. He dominates the story and is a good foil for Bond.

  4. Nena Blofeld Bismaquer – FOR SPECIAL SERVICES – The first Gardner double-cross is a good one and is surprising yet still believable. Nena is also deliciously evil once her “mask” comes off, never more so than after making love to Bond, she stands naked in a conference room and blows away her husband with a gunshot to the head. She is believably Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s daughter and the rightful heir to SPECTRE. It was a great idea having her shepherding the welcome return to the series of Bond’s arch-nemesis organization.

  5. Tamil Rahani – ROLE OF HONOR – Nena’s successor is my next favorite. I think I like Rahani more than most, but he works for me. A military man who capably takes over the top chair at SPECTRE, and he devises a grandiose scheme in the best mode of Blofeld to take down America’s defense systems.

  6. Tamil Rahani – NOBODY LIVES FOREVER – Rahani is a shell of himself in this one as he is literally on his deathbed, and yet his plot may be the best of any 007 villain–receiving the head of James Bond on a silver platter. This is the basis for Gardner’s best original story and one of the best–if not THE best–continuation novel in the series. And Rahani’s demise is highly satisfactory.

  7. Wolfgang Weisen – aka The Poison Dwarf – DEATH IS FOREVER – Weisen isn’t intimidating, but he is evil. He has a unique look and commands perhaps the largest group of henchmen in Gardner’s run. Weisen leads a diabolical plot to assassinate several European heads of state, which ultimately comes to a shocking conclusion.

  8. Alec Trevelyan 006 aka Janus – GOLDENEYE – Bond’s double-oh friend seemingly rises from the grave to become a Russian mafia don and threatens to majorly disrupt Britain’s economic system. Trevelyan knows all of Bond’s tricks, and it’s fun to see him and 007 attack and counter-attack each other.

  9. Aaron Tudeer / Kolya Mosolov – ICEBREAKER – Again, I see Icebreaker as having two sets of villain teams working to achieve their separate objectives. Tudeer is a powerful presence who wants to start a Fourth Reich, but it’s Mosolov that is the more physically dangerous threat as he wants to bring Bond back to the Soviet Union–dead or alive. When combined, they are a solid villainous pair.

  10. Vladimir Scorpius – SCORPIUS – A big-time arms dealer who ventures into the business of starting a religious cult to commit suicide bombings of political figures throughout the world. Scorpius is one the most twisted and evil villains in the series, but I find he loses a little bit of his edge/sanity once Bond encounters him at Scorpius’ lair in South Carolina, which limits him getting any higher on this list

  11. Kolya Chernov aka Blackfriar – NO DEALS, MR. BOND – Chernov is a bad dude, best exemplified with his matter-of-fact informing Bond of his participation in an exercise in recreating The Most Dangerous Game as well as his calm demeanor as he makes preparations to cut out a victim’s tongue. But overall, he seems a bit underwhelming, so he lands here.

  12. Maxwell Tarn – SEAFIRE – A true madman who wants to create the Fourth Reich, Tarn is the best of the last few Gardner originals. Tarn is truly unlikeable, but is largely a one-note villain.

  13. David Dragonpol – NEVER SEND FLOWERS – Now this is an interesting villain. A legendary actor and a master of disguise who has gone insane and is now a master assassin who kills in a variety of ways. The concept is excellent, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. I’m not sure what could have been done to fix it, though. Maybe have Bond chase him around the world to stop and/or fail to stop some assassinations.

  14. Bassam Baradj (Robert Besavitsky) aka The Viper – WIN, LOSE OR DIE – Baradj has the most audacious and ambitious villain plan in the Gardner run in that he takes control of a British warship during an important summit meeting and holds the world’s three most important leaders for ransom. Baradj has limited page time in this story which holds back his villainous potency.

  15. Luigi Tempesta & Angelo Tempesta / Brutus Clay aka Brute – COLD FALL – Again, I see this novel as two separate missions that are set four years apart, so I have two sets of villains. The first part, called Cold Front, features the two Tempestas. Luigi is more the boss, calculating, hot-tempered, and quickly jealous while Angelo seemingly hangs about in the background, but that is about the extent of them. More interesting is the other villain, Clay, who shows up in both stories but is more in charge in the second part called Cold Conspiracy. He is a more rounded character and is scarier, but he is not enough to get the group any higher on my list.

  16. Yevgeny Yuskovich – THE MAN FROM BARBAROSSA – My least favorite Gardner novel also has my least favorite villain. There isn’t anything really wrong with him, but he doesn’t really do a whole lot either. As a result, he’s just kind of meh, and that leaves him in last place.

So what are your Gardner villain rankings?

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