There was a female version of Bond. First a comic strip and then a series of books, as much better than Ian Fleming's Bond books as Belgian chocolate is better than the sludge you find in coffee filters that haven't been changed in eighteen years, starring the ultimate kick-ass heroine. Modesty Blaise.

And then the first book was filmed by people who didn't understand it, the film was unutterably dreadful, and it pretty much killed the potential franchise dead.