I was interested in determining how to revive Mr. Ecks as soon as I became enthused about Christopher Cary. This was nearly three years ago. I attempted a storyline involving him as part of a vignette set I began entitled How Do You Like Them Apples? The main plot followed a former hired gun who joined U.N.C.L.E. because of the vitally important information he held and the need to keep him hidden from THRUSH. Mr. Waverly offered him a job, since U.N.C.L.E. unfortunately has need of his kind at times, and he accepted. The vignettes followed his attempts to integrate into U.N.C.L.E. and how he got along with Napoleon and Illya.
Hoping to foster a strong camaraderie between them, Mr. Waverly conspired with Mr. Ecks to give them a mystery to solve. Mr. Ecks had survived the stabbing by Illya and was under the employ of another New York-based crime-fighting agency, ACME Crimenet. He agreed to help Mr. Waverly and set about stalking Illya, hacking into U.N.C.L.E.'s computer and sending Illya taunting notes. Illya could not think who he was at first, but later seemed to vaguely remember him.
The storyline never advanced very far. I believe my main puzzle was, why would ACME Crimenet hire him? I had only spotty memories of the episode at best and I had thought Ecks was a contractor. I thought I could use him the same as I did the hired gun working for U.N.C.L.E. When I watched The Odd Man Affair again, I saw that Ecks seemed to be fully a part of the organization. Then later I became fascinated with Mr. Wye too and I knew it would be too sad if he wasn't with Ecks, so the plotline just sort of died out. I was still very interested in it, however, and earlier this year I finally managed to bring Ecks and Wye back to life in the story that kicked off my new and improved timeline, The Return From the Dead Affair.
As for that hired gun in U.N.C.L.E.? Well, I still love that idea too, and the character (Pinto from The Fugitive, named Lucius Bowen by me) is a main player in my huge crossover story The Night of the Deadly Codename, along with the main U.N.C.L.E. cast. I mention him in Faded Into Gray, a supernatural oneshot, and in The Peaceful Meadows Affair, written this past summer, I have Lucius appear briefly at the end. Perhaps someday I will try writing some more vignettes about how he integrated into U.N.C.L.E., just leaving out those original ideas about Mr. Ecks that have been reworked into something better now.
That said, I also still love the idea that Mr. Waverly knew before Napoleon and Illya that Ecks and Wye are alive. I recently overhauled that concept too, in Where We Burned the Bridge.