We realize that Bond, James Bond wasn't the first spy in the history of fiction - heck, James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Spy came out in 1821 - however, Commander Bond still remains at as the reigning alpha super-spy of the modern world. Yes, we're aware of the works of John le Carré and Robert Ludlum, but NONE of their creations have had the same pop culture impact as Ian Fleming's James Bond. And that impact is nowhere felt greater than in the world of movies. You won't see many people reading a Fleming Bond novel in an airport waiting lounge, but EVERYONE and their mother has seen a James Bond movie, and 99% of the world uses Bond as their go-to mental image of everything that a superspy should be.

With Quantum of Solace, the much-anticipated follow-up to Casino Royale, hitting theatres on November 14, it's gotten us thinking about how so, SO many spy movies have derived the majority of their style and premise from James Bond's iconic image. We've broken the bevy of Bond imitators into 7 categories (a good number for 007) to show much pervasive Bond's influence has been in the movie world, forever proving that nobody does it better.

MovieRetriever's Seven Degrees of James Bond Imitators:

1. Spoof Bond

Whenever the coolest kid in school walks down the hall, there's always a sarcastic class-clown quietly tearing into him behind his back. That's the relationship between James Bond and his spoof brethren. Bond has become so iconic as a cool, calculated he-man that he's almost too tempting of a target - you almost HAVE to mock him on some level and that's where the Bond spoofs come into play. Examples range wildly from the TV series Get Smart (we actually prefer the original Get Smart movie, The Nude Bomb, to the 2008 Steve Carell version) to Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English to Leslie Nielsen's Spy Hard to the recent French spy romp OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. But perhaps the best (and certainly weirdest) Bond spoof was 1967's Casino Royale, an ambitious mess of a Bond satire, starring everyone from David Niven to Peter Sellers to Woody Allen.

2. Swinging Bond

We know what you're thinking - why the hell didn't they mention Austin Powers in the Spoof Bond category? While, we'll admit, Mike Myers' spy series is CLEARLY influenced heavily by James Bond, we see the Austin Powers movies as the perfect example of ANOTHER kind of Bond imitator - the Swinging Bond movie. Particularly in the film series, Bond's reputation as a ladies man has always attracted a lot of attention and, since the Sean Connery Bond hit the height of his popularity in the 1960s, it's not surprising that many people associated Bond's unstoppable ability to score on the job with the free-love attitude of the 1960s. These Swinging Bond movies have spoof elements, but they're mostly focused on sex-god super-spies bedding their way to their arch-nemesis, one fetching female henchwoman at a time. Aside from Austin, other examples of Swinging Bond flicks include James Coburn's "Flint" series (starting with 1966's Our Man Flint) and Dean Martin's "Matt Helm" movies (beginning with 1966's The Silencers).

3. Part-Time Bond

James Bond movies are total male-escapist fantasies, the kind of adventures men dream about during their daily commutes or while waiting at the DMV. To capitalize on the escapist appeal of the Bond legend, many movies have focused on what it would actually be like to have the best of both worlds - a happy, secure suburban life balanced with jet-setting Bond-esque spy action. Probably the best known (and biggest) example of this genre is James Cameron's True Lies, which, let's be honest, was probably the last good movie Governor Schwarzenegger had in him. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Mr. & Mrs. Smith also had aspects of the home-life vs. spy-life balance (though they were, technically, hit-men), and J.J. Abrams' Alias was practically built around the part-time Bond concept. Well, that and watching Jennifer Garner squeeze into another form-fitting disguise week after week. These are escapist MALE fantasies, remember?

4. Bond Jr.

While grown men wish they could drive from their cul-de-sacs and dip their toes into the espionage game every now and again, kids around the world wish that they too had their own secret spy lives - filled with parental disobedience, ultra-cool gadgetry, and the occasional grown-up bad-guy beatdowns. This is where the Bond Juniors come in, watering down some of the more R-rated aspects of the Bond legacy (the female fatales are more girl-next-door than Pussy Galore) and playing up the sense of fun and freedom that comes from adults completely underestimating the juvenile super-spies right under their noses. Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids trilogy is perhaps the most popular Bond Jr. series in recent memory, though one can't forget (try as they might) Frankie Muniz' Agent Cody Banks series or the underseen British Bond Jr. entry, 2006's Alex Rider: Stormbreaker.

5. Female Bond

This is actually kind of sad. There are so many different kinds of James Bond imitators that you'd think a gender-bending spin on the Bond icon would be pretty common, right? Well, at least in terms of movies, you'd be wrong. There are precious few Female Bond flicks and that's a damn shame. Oh, you'll find lots of movies, particularly Bond movies, with female secret-agent supporting characters, but trying to find a female spy in the LEAD role is a much harder task. Again, one could argue that Angelia Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith was pretty reminiscent of what a female Bond might look like or perhaps Halle Berry as Jinx in Die Another Day, but neither of those were leading roles. Alias is a good example of a TV show with a female Bond in the lead, Greg Rucka's comic book Queen & Country has a great girl-Bond in its lead spy Tara Chace, and Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding published her own humorous and decidedly female take on Bond in the 2004 novel Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, but that's all we've got so far. Pretty lame. We're hoping that we missed a few (let us know if we did), but the lack of lady she-Bonds is a problem that Hollywood should remedy and remedy soon.

6. Meta Bond

Ah, Meta Bond, the college-educated hipster's favorite kind of spy movies. These are the films that indirectly knowledge Bond, but more than imitating, they're seeking to comment on Bond's legacy in the espionage genre. There are several ways to go with Meta Bond movies. Some are focused on commenting on the bureaucratic aspects of spy work, seeking to deglamorize the secret agent world (Tony Scott's Spy Game and Ridley Scott's new Body of Lies are good examples). Others want to take Bond-esque spies and show how deeply amoral and horrible they really are - John Boorman's The Tailor of Panama is a prime example, especially with its very deliberate choice of casting the at-the-time-current James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, as the tragically flawed Andy Osnard. And still others want to show the emotional impact of being Bond, showing how dehumanizing and icky spy-vs.-spy warfare can really be. The most notable examples of that kind of Meta Bond are Matt Damon's Jason Bourne movies, a fact re-enforced several times over by the multiple press conference appearances by Damon where he kept saying stuff like, "Bond is an imperialist and a misogynist who kills people and laughs about it, and drinks Martinis and cracks jokes." Now, don't get us wrong, we love the Bourne movies, but c'mon - weepy Jason has NOTHING on James.

7. Bond for All Seasons

One of our favorite things about James Bond is that, no matter what, he is always an icon of all things English. Bond is forever tied to his UK homeland and it would be hard to think of another movie character so fundamentally tied to the country of his or her origin. Bond is the ultimate English spy and, as such, other nations, cultures, and just about any group on the planet wants to have their very own James Bond, a Bond for all seasons, as it were. Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible is definitely Paramount's attempt to create their own American Bond, a Saudi billionaire is getting ready to bankroll a series of spy movies with an Egyptian Bond-type in the lead, and, heck, even something like Eddie Griffin's Undercover Brother is an attempt to give the Black Power movement their very own 007. Everybody wants their very own Bond, but, much to the delight of the English, he still remains the untouchable jewel in the crown of the British film empire.

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Did we forget your favorite kind of Bond imitator? Did we miss space-Bond, cowboy-Bond, or transgendered-Bond? We're looking to expand this list as much as possible, so please, PLEASE send us your suggestions. OR you can sign up for a My VideoHound account today and let us know how you feel in the comments section below.