- "I may be the 'world's richest man', doctor - as the vulgar press says - but it seems that neither wealth nor rank are enough to protect one- from this unspeakable vampire cult!"
- ― Xerxes Xerophanos
Xerxes Xerophanos (Greek: Ξέρξης Ξενοφάνος), also known as The Big X, was a fictional British-Greek industrialist. The character served as the primary antagonist of the James Bond comic strip, The League of Vampires, which ran in The Daily Express newspapers between October 25, 1972 and February 28, 1973.
Biography[]
Born in Greece, Xerxes Xerophanos was a naturalised British citizen and wealthy owner of a variety of businesses in oil, shipping, armaments and electronics. At some point he married an American heiress thirty years his junior, Margo Clayton; daughter of technology mogul, Elmo Clayton. In a bid to protect his precarious business empire, Xerophanos - known to his enemies as "The Double Cross" - established a vampire cult to assassinate his business rivals. Realizing that a pivotal piece of his empire, Data-X, Inc., was threatened by a joint venture between Clayton and British firm Computrex, Xerophanos planned to nuke their new computer factory using a remote-controlled tank. Clayton would be killed in the blast and his fortune would pass to his daughter - and then to Xerophanos himself, after he murdered her under the guise of the vampire cult. His scheme unravelled after James Bond escaped on-board XX's yacht in the North Sea - dumping the vessel's fuel into the sea and threatening to set it alight; detonating a second nuclear bomb Xerophanos held on-board as insurance. The mogul was subsequently shot to death by his own mutinous crew.
Trivia[]
- Whilst primarily referred to as "Xerxes Xerophanos" throughout the story, the introduction panel to strip "2143" refers to the character as "Xenophon Xenophontos".
References[]
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