Hammerhead was the third Dynamite James Bond comic arc. It was written by British author Andy Diggle and illustrated by Italian comic book artist, Luca Casalanguida. Published by Dynamite Entertainment, the story was released in six issues between 12th October 2016 and 29th March 2017.
Plot[]
After returning from Venezuela to learn that Hunt Engineering, Britain's leading arms manufacturer, was targeted by a mysterious figure going by the codename of 'Kraken', a radical anti-capitalist, whose underlings he was sent to kill, James Bond is assigned on behalf of the British Intelligence to attend the Dubai Arms Fair and make contact with Hunt Engineering where they will be showcasing their newly developed weapons, for which M is under the impression that Kraken will be making another attempt on the firm. Bond meets Victoria Hunt, the daughter of Lord Hunt, the company's owner, who gives him a tour of all the products they have manufactured, including a technically advanced firearm rounds called APHEX and a massively large sized, heavily modified and overdeveloped railgun given the name of 'Hammerhead'.
Bond is invited to a gala held by Lord Bernard Hunt, whom he briefly meets before a sudden hostile attack ensues by masked gunmen in heavy combat armors. Lord Hunt is killed in the process with a headshot by a bullet which 007 identifies as an APHEX round, an off-the-market product manufactured by Hunt Engineering, suspecting the existence of a manipulative insider within the company. Bond manages to kill the assailants and protects Victoria in the process. After identifying the group of attackers, Bond tracks their source down to Al Hajjarah in Yemen and heads over there, escorted by Victoria in her personal jet, in which both have a romantic encounter. Meanwhile, at the Outer Hebrides, a Royal Navy helicopter transporting decommissioned Hunt warheads was shut down and its containment disappeared. Upon learning the news, Bond classifies the attack as a scheme planned and executed by Kraken.
Arriving at the Yemeni airport, Bond acquires a facilitated MI-6 vehicle by the Q-Branch, a gadget-laden Ford Mustang sports car, and drives to the location he tracked the source of the late gunmen down, kills the remaining members of the team, only to find out that their current involvement in the case was to deliver the smuggled goods to Karim Malfakhar. He contacts Bill Tanner to inform him of the grasp he has on the case, who tells him in return that Kraken isn't targeting the warheads but stealing them. Suddenly, Bond's car eliminates the connection with Tanner and enables the auto-pilot mode on its own, making several attempts to kill him. Bond, however, manages to manipulate the car into taking a leap over the edge of a cliff which falls into its own destruction. Among the remains of the vehicle, Bond finds the computer software microchip inserted into the source and identifies it as a product of Hunt Engineering, knowing that Kraken has been keeping an eye on him. Soon thereafter, in the middle of the Yemeni desert, Bond is captured and tranquilized by a group of mobsters led by a man who introduces himself as Malfakhar, the aforementioned smuggler.
Untrusting of his employer, Malfakhar tells Bond he had orders to smuggle a nuclear bomb, unrelated to that of the incident at the Hebrides, and eliminate the British agent. But, his orders from Kraken to wait for further instructions made him suspicious, hence 007 proposes an allegiance with him by revealing to him that the actual nuclear containment is missing, with the casing sent Malfakhar's way for distraction. Using the microchip to extract information from, Bond and Malfakhar track down the nuclear containment into a warhead in custody of The Bodicea, a militarized ship registered to Hunt Engineering, who are preparing to use Hammerhead to fire it at an undisclosed location on Kraken's orders. Bond, Malfakhar and his men engage in a firefight with the ship's crew and take over control of it, preventing Hammerhead from launching the warhead. And in the meantime, Bond comes to deduce the true identity of Kraken.
At the Outer Hebrides, in a nuclear reprocessing facility known as Black Crannog, M and Moneypenny meet the Defence Minister and Victoria Hunt for an official meeting discussion over the matters of public inquiry regarding Kraken's attacks. But, eventually, as Moneypenny is alerted of an attack on the facility, Victoria reveals herself as Kraken and captures them all as her hostages, killing the Defence Minister in the process. She explains her schemes being about restoring the British Empire to its former glory and wipe out the entirety of London and dismantling the current government with the hope of rebuilding it all anew by her own administration.
Bond is extracted by Malfakhar at an undisclosed coordination in the middle of the Outer Hebrides and lands on HMS Vengeance, a Royal Navy ballistic missile submarine, and circulates Black Crannog with a stable plan along with the crew as well as the additional assistance from other Royal Navy battleships to unleash an attack on the base and eliminate Victoria Hunt. As they are to deploy an underwater team for the planned assault, HMS Vengeance is taken over remotely by Victoria's Kraken system and fires a nuclear missile away, giving the team (including 007) thirty minutes to stop the missile before it hits London. However, as they approach the Black Crannog, the entirety of the team was eliminated with the Hammerhead railgun, just in time Bond takes a leap into the sea for his life and survives. Believed dead, Bond sneaks into the base and takes over the Hammerhead, killing whoever comes in his way. Knowing Victoria installed backdoor systems to keep track of her own active artillery with microchips, Bond uses the microchip he acquired from his Mustang earlier to get a lock on the fired warhead and destroys it. He also uses the Hammerhead to kill Victoria for good in her own quarters. Bond finds and rescues M and Moneypenny and all the three escape in a MI-6 helicopter just as the facility is destructed in the blast.
At the debriefing of the mission, M informs Bond that Hunt Engineering is now nationalized and acquired by the British government. Before Bond prepares to leave his office, M stops to congratulate him for his good work, showing the mutual respect both men have towards one another.
Characters[]
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