Blofeld in 007 Legends
This year, as part of the 50th anniversary of the film James Bond, there’s a new video game where Daniel Craig’s James Bond participates in storylines from five 007 films before the actor ever took up the part. The writer of the video game is Bruce Feirstein, who helped script three 007 films in the 1990s, starting with GoldenEye and running through The World Is Not Enough.
But something else caught our eye — the video game’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld looks awfully familiar but only if you’re familiar with a certain comic book spy.
The makers of the Activision video game instead of using the likeness of an actor who actually played Blofeld (Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray and Max Von Sydow), did a little mixing and matching. The 007 Legend’s Blofeld combines the facial scars of Pleasence’s version with the more physical Savalas version).
Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker menaces Nick Fury, courtesy of writer-artist Jim Steranko
Interestingly, and perhaps by coincidence, the 007 Legends Blofeld resembles Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, the leader of the group Hydra that bedeviled Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.
In fact, the Strucker character was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the World War II comic, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Writer-artist Jim Steranko devised the idea that Strucker survived World War II and now was the chief of Hydra in the 1960s SHIELD story.
Steranko began drawing the SHIELD version of Nick Fury with Strange Tales No. 151, while Stan Lee was still writing the title. Kirby provided rough layouts, essentially an outline for Steranko to follow.
Steranko eventually took over all of the art responsibilities and later began writing the SHIELD stories also. At the end of Strange Tales No. 156, Steranko produced a two-page spread revealing that Strucker, Fury’s World War II arch-enemy, was Hydra’s leader Strucker had a facial scar very much like the Pleasence version of Blofeld.
Meanwhile, here’s a preview of 007 Legends that was upload to YouTube:
Here are the opening credits for 007 Legends:
Filed under: James Bond Films, The Other Spies | Tagged: 007 Legends, Activision, Charles Gray, Daniel Craig, Donald Pleasence, Jack Kirby, James Bond Films, James Bond video games, Jim Steranko, Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., Stan Lee, Telly Savalas, The Other Spies |
The Spy Command 
I’ve been instructed by Activision to keep my big mouth shut about the game up until now but can reveal today several points ( which will rectify some of your assertions ) . The storyline of 007 Legends is that of , because of a concussion ( happening in one of his most recent mission ! ) , Bond dreams and re-acts some of his past missions ( a very clever twist from Bruce Fernstein ) .
As for Blofeld looking like Baron Von Strucker , the studio decided to use a generic Blofeld mostly because all the actors who interprted Blofeld were now … Dead . You’ll see in the opening credits sequence that a LOT of Bond characters will appear in the game – and voiced by their very own flesh & blood counterparts ( Bond,M,Tanner,Gustav Greaves, Jaws, Drax, etc ) . Blofeld isn’t the only one who changed physically in the game . Others main characters also did – such as Tracy or Marc-Ange Draco . Even more interesting is the way Agent Jinx has been ‘ redefined ‘ .
Not without irony , Activision ‘s version is that , since Bond is having a nightmare , some of his memories has been altered quite a bit ( and nightmares 007 had , undoubtly – even reviving ‘ Live ‘ Tracy’s tragic death ) .
Finaly I must pinpoint that this game is so far the most superbly designed I’ve ever seen . The level of details in the various Bond universes is simply incredible – and you can spend hours merely WALKING in the sets , just discovering the complexity of each ‘world ‘ .
I am sorry but that sounds incredibly lame. Making stories end up being “just a dream” is a cliche that started with mediocre TV writing. I really hope there is something else to this.
…and then after you finish the game, Bobby comes out of the shower
No. Bob wakes up and he dreamt that he owned an inn in New England.