The next book hero to take cinema audiences by storm and the latest attempt by Hollywood to find the next Harry Potter Artemis Fowl is far more complex than Potter, and far more cool to boot. He is no awkward dork, coming to terms with his powers and a complex familial background, and his creation came thanks to author Eoin Colfer's attraction to the idea of a 12 year old Bond villain. He's a child genius, and he always has the potential to become a fully fledged villain, but he's charming enough to convince that he's still our hero.
2. John Constantine - Hellblazer
Hollywood might have royally screwed his adaptation not least by turning him from barbed British cynic to disenchanted American grump but the Hellblazer lead (again created by Alan Moore) still desereves every accolade heaped on him. He is a humanist, but not bound by typical moral boundaries, and driven by his adrenaline addiction, and he makes Wolverine look like a boy scout at times.
1. James Bond
The man's man to end them all, with a licence to kill and enough despicably awful post-sexual puns to sink a submarine Aston Martin, Bond is as black hat as they come, willing to do anything in the name of Her Majesty, even if it means ignoring all of the rules of the Queen's own Secret Service. He makes killing look cool, barely loses breath when chasing bad guys over a city's worth of rooftops, and he still manages to bed any woman he wants despite being a walking sexist anachronism. But then, he's still not a patch on Pagga Palmer. To celebrate British badness as it should be, why not download The Spy Who Bluffed Me from Byker Books, which is available for free for the next five days from this link.
