The deadly, mute Bond villain known as Oddjob has been reinvented for the upcoming series from Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Entertainment called James Bond 007. As it turns out, he’s no longer mute but is most certainly still deadly as writer Greg Pak has re-envisioned the character as a rival spy from Korea on par with James Bond himself.

“In the Goldfinger novel, he's a Korean assassin with a sweet bowler hat who's the most physically dangerous opponent Bond has ever faced. That's what I wanted to keep,” Pak told IGN on how he went about reconceptualizing the fan-favorite bad guy. “What I wanted to add is passion and heart and humor and sex appeal and cockiness and maybe even a touch of pathos. He's our Bond's greatest rival, both physically and, on a subtle level, emotionally. He challenges everything Bond thinks about the right way to move through the world, and vice versa.”

This new Oddjob certainly exudes sex appeal with his stylish threads and handsome features, which can be owed to character designer Ibrahim Moustafa and series artist Marc Laming. Bond is a sex symbol in his own right, and it was of utmost importance to Pak that Oddjob be “pretty hot” and “that he have charm to burn, so we get invested and feel his story in our heart and guts.”

But there’s more to this new Oddjob than looks. The Korean-American Pak has made a name for himself not only for his massively popular Planet Hulk run at Marvel Comics (which served as inspiration for last year’s box office hit Thor: Ragnarok) but for championing diversity and telling stories about people like him. Examples include Marvel genius-turned-Hulk Amadeus Cho and BOOM! Studios series Mech Cadet Yu, both co-created with artist Takeshi Miyazawa. The chance to reinvent an iconic Korean character for a whole new audience is what drew him to the project.

“For a few decades now, I've been obsessed with Oddjob. Maxine Hong Kingston wrote about him in her book Tripmaster Monkey years ago, and I've never forgotten it. She had her Asian American hero say, ‘A face as big as Oddjob's should star on the Cinerama screen for the audience to fall in love with, for girls to kiss, for the nation to cherish, for me to learn how to hold my face. Take seven pictures of a face, take twelve, twenty of any face, hold it up there, you will fall in love with it.’

“That quote meant a lot to me as a filmmaker who cast a lot of Asian American actors and a writer who's made a point of creating characters of all backgrounds. I believe it in my bones -- if you put someone's face up there on the big screen or the comic book page as a hero, the audience can fall in love in seconds,” Pak explained. “So it's a wonderful thing to get the chance to apply that idea to this new Oddjob in an actual James Bond comic book. Our new man is just as dangerous and lethal as the original, but we're getting the chance to dig into his story, to see things from his perspective, and to explore him in all ways as the co-star of the series. He's a fantastic foil for Bond -- cocky and passionate and unpredictable. He might end up as Bond's greatest ally -- or most deadly opponent. They get under each other's skin and drive each other crazy and it's a blast writing them.”

While the story that begins in James Bond 007 #1 (out November 7) is about James Bond and Oddjob tracking down a case in the possession of a very dangerous man, underneath it all Pak will be using Oddjob to challenge the very core of Bond’s ideals.

“Deep down, it's about the rivalry and different world views of Bond and John Lee, our new Oddjob. Which means it's about professionalism versus passion,” Pak said. “I can't say too much more without spoiling the story, but under the surface, we're grappling with huge questions about how we pick our missions and what the right thing is to do in an almost impossibly complicated world.”

Joshua is Senior Editor of IGN Comics. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.