- "Tell them they should have treated me right."
- ― Hawkwood to James Bond
Beckett Hawkwood was a special security asset of the United Kingdom's domestic security agency, MI5, and secretly a member of the SPECTRE stay-behind network, Eidolon. The character served as an antagonist in Dynamite Entertainment's second James Bond comic arc, Eidolon, which ran between June 22 and December 28, 2016.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
A decorated war hero, Beckett Hawkwood served in the special forces unit of the British Army, the Special Air Service (SAS). On his final tour of duty he suffered severe burns and underwent eight reconstructive surgeries; leaving the left-side of his face heavily disfigured. Upon leaving he was recruited by MI5 as a special security asset. Dissatisfied by what he saw as meagre compensation for his service, Hawkwood became increasingly motivated by greed; secretly joining "Eidolon", a stay-behind network founded by the criminal organisation, SPECTRE.
Eidolon[]
In the mid-2010s, Eidolon was compromised by a series of financial slip-ups - prompting Hawkwood to murder the accountant responsible. An MI6 number cruncher named Cadence Birdwhistle happened across the suspicious money transfers and became a target of the network. After a pair of botched assassination attempts in the United States, Hawkwood intercepted the accountant and her MI6 protector, James Bond, at Heathrow Airport in London. The attack was a failure and their distinctive choice of weapons further incriminated MI5. Birdwhistle's intelligence resulted in 007 successfully raiding the organisation's UK arms stockpile at Box Tunnel. Hawkwood narrowly evaded the spy and was dispatched to attack a joint intelligence services meeting by his Eidolon superior and MI5 chief, Sir Stephen Mackmain.
After the coup spectacularly failed, Hawkwood - now the sole remaining member of Eidolon's UK cell - travelled to Westminster with a lorry carrying a thermobaric weapon. His recognition by Birdwhistle put the area in lockdown and forced Hawkwood to instead target the SIS Building at Vauxhall Cross. James Bond intercepted him en route and, after colliding with the truck, forced him to abandon the vehicle. The pair brawled; culminating with 007 stabbing him between the ribs. Realizing that he had no chance of escape from the authorities, and wanting to die with honour, he was persuaded by Bond to slit his own throat.