| “ | The British Empire has always encountered difficulty in distinguishing between it's heroes and it's monsters | „ |
| ~ Campion Bond in Memoirs of an English Intelligencer. |
Campion Bond is a major antagonist and occasional anti-hero in the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic series. He is an agent of MI5, a British secret service agency, and the one who helped assemble the titular League. However, in reality, he was actually a minion of James Moriarty up until the latter's defeat.
History
Past
Bond, like his superior Moriarty, was recruited into MI5 by the British Government while the two were still in university. In 1891, Bond, along with Sebastian Moran, was present during Moriarty's infamous duel to the death with Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls, and helped save his master's life after he fell off the cliff.
Volume One
Bond meets with Mina Murray at Dover and sends her and Captain Nemo on their mission to assemble the Fist Murray Group. Several weeks later, once the group had finally been assembled, Bond meets with Mina, Allan Quartermaine and Nemo in the British Museum in Bloomsbury and explains the conditions of Hawley Griffin and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde to them. Bond soon explains the gull reason why the League was assembled; the Cavorite, an anti-gravity metal that was supposedly intended to power a Lunar expedition, had been stolen by a Chinese crime lord known as "The Doctor", who harbors a deep hatred for the British and would likely use the Cavorite's power against them. Once the Cavorite is retrieved, Bond meets with the League inside the Nautilus and congratulates them for their success before leaving with the metal to report their successful mission to his superior "M".
Bond then makes his way back to the MI5 headquarters and delivers the metal to "M", who is actually Moriarty. After recalling their experience at Reichenbach, Moriarty and Bond then leave to prepare Moriarty's war chariot for a massive attack on The Doctor and Limehouse as a whole. Unbeknownst to them, their entire conversation had been secretly watched by Griffin, who then leaves to report his findings to the League. Although he is seen boarding the War Chariot, Bond does not take place in the attack on Limehouse and Moriarty's battle with the League. After Moriarty's death, Bond readily accepts Mycroft Holmes' appointment as the new "M", as he allows him to keep his old job, believing that a treacherous man like Bond would be more useful alive than dead.
Volume Two
Bond greets the League as they arrive at the crash site of a Martian spaceship. Bond and the League then manage to survive the Martian's heat beam, which kills and destroys virtually everything else around it. Bond soon takes a chariot back to London while the League is forced to stay at The Bleak House inn. The next day, Bond and Mycroft give the League Britain's battle plans (which are later stolen and given to the Martians by the treacherous Griffin).
After Allan Quartermaine and Mina retrieve "H-142" from Alphonse Moreau, Bond greets them at the train station, where he acts strangely regarding the Hybrid. On the way back into London, Bond explains the situation to Allan and Mina, also stating that Moreau's experiments are "merely an eccentric hobby we tolerate". After Hyde sacrifices himself to hold off the Martians long enough for H-142 to be delivered, Bond reveals that H-142 is a hybrid disease composed of Anthrax and Streptococcus. A distressed Mina tells Bond that there could still be people in South London, and Bond coldly states that, officially, the Martians died of the common cold and any human died of Martians. Because of this, Nemo, disgusted with Bond's chemical warfare, quits the League without hesitation, although Bond doesn't care, as London had won the War against the Martians.
Post Invasion
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier a segment from Campion's memoirs is included; although the postcard section indicats that he was still in charge of League activities as of their Toyland expedition in 1907. In 1908, Bond published his Memoirs of an English Intelligencer. By the time his memoirs were published, Bond had been demoted and assigned to a desk job in MI5's files department. Bond's career seemingly takes a further fall in 1910, as he is shown being reduced to serving tea during a meeting between M and the League. At a point unknown (assumed to be prior to the publishing of his memoirs), Bond fathered Andrew Bond, who, in turn, would father Jimmy Bond. It is implied Bond was either dead or retired by 1958.
Trivia
- Campion Bond, unlike all other major characters in the franchise, is not an adaptation of a character from period literature, as Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill couldn't find a character who would fit his role. Instead, fitting the comics' theme, Bond was to be an ancestor of a future character, said character being his grandson Jimmy, who is based on James Bond.
- Bond was originally intended to play a major role in the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film adaptation, although a late rewrite changed this so more time was given to James Moriarty, reducing his role to a cameo at the end of the film, and another rewrite removed him entirely. Bond's role is filled by original character Sanderson Reed.
- However, Bond does appear at the end of the film's novelization, mentioning the astronomer Ogilvy's discovery of flashes on Mars and theory that it is an approaching invasion fleet (referencing War of the Worlds, as well as the ending of Volume One and the plot of the second).