Bob Morane Resurrection v1: “Rare Earth”

Here’s what I’ve been able to figure out when it comes to the history of “Bob Morane”:

It started as a novel series written by Henri Vernes in the 1950s. Over 200 books have been written in the series now.

It led to a comic book spin-off that was serialized in various magazines including “Pilote Journal” and “Tintin Magazine.” It was fairly popular and ran for 75 albums. Maybe more. Most notably, William Vance drew 18 of the books in the middle of the run. Vance also did some incredible fully painted covers.

“Bob Morane Resurrection” was a reboot and modernization of the series in 2015. I’m guessing it wasn’t terribly successful because the “resurrection” only lasted two books. Lazarus, he is not.

I knew none of this going in. I saw the first “Resurrection” book when it was on sale. I thought it looked interesting. I opened it up to read a couple of pages and got sucked all the way through the whole thing.

There are parts that seem to be not terribly well-paced and some of it is a bit hokey, in a way, but it all fits into the pulp feeling of the property.

I enjoyed the book enough that I read the second book right away. Perhaps we’ll get to that book at some point, too. But, first, let’s do some credits and a review for this one!

The Court-Marshalled Credits

A Soldier With a Conscience Is Trouble

This script from Brunschwig and Aurélien is all plot. There’s not too a lot of characterization in it. Every scene is about the plot and moving the pieces into new places for the next twist or action set-up. Every few pages brings a twist that sends someone off into a new direction.

Bear with me while I sum up the first part of the book so I can lay out a basis from which I can discuss the book as a whole.

The book starts as we meet Bob Morane testifying in front of a military court for the “bad” thing he did. Then we jump back and see exactly what he did — saved the lives of a family while on patrol in Nigeria in direct contradiction to his non-interference orders.

If “Star Trek” taught us anything, it’s that “non-interference” is never respected and it’s always the heroes who break that rule.

The family that Morane saved includes the next president of the country, who pulls some strings to get Morane off the hook in France. Then he brings Morane back to Nigeria to be his personal advisor in dealing with France on some trade and education issues. The rest of the book centers on an educational platform that Morane is helping to set up in Nigeria with the help of France and some new technology.

Some old grudges and political enemies are not as dead and buried as previously thought, however, and the planned peaceful and well-educated country that Morane envisioned helping to create won’t be so easily created.

I just hand-waved through the entire second half of the book, which is as much on purpose for spoiler reasons as it is for lack-of-understanding issues. The events of the second half of the book won’t truly make sense until you read the second volume. This first book gives you enough and holds back plenty to push you into the second to satisfy your curiosity. It does its job well, that way.

Still, there’s often a feeling that the plot is happening for the plot’s sake. I can see the Nigerian president rewarding Morane with an advisory position to help deal with his home country where he’s an outcast. I’m not sure I buy him being an education czar. There’s also a romantic interest that pops up because it’s convenient and, well, there will be more to deal with there in the second book as a plot point….

That said, the book is a good page-turner. During the middle section when you know something big is about to happy, they drag it out and ramp up the drama as far as they can take it. It does lead to a satisfying low moment for the book to help spur other things into action.

The art and storytelling by Dimitri Armand (with colors from Hugo Facio) is done well. The storytelling is super clear, with four tiers of panels. Armand doesn’t use anything too flashy to call attention to his art. There are no breakout panels or jagged panels or sudden deconstructionist tricks. This is very by-the-books in the best possible way. He tells the story with skill in ways both large and small.

His art style fits into the William Vance mode, but without being quite so heavily photo referenced. Buildings and vehicles look real, but don’t look like CAD drawings. They’re simplified just a bit to make them feel more organic.

The characters feel a little more comfortable in their skin. They’re drawn to look right without being so ridiculously stiff or detailed. There’s a bit more cartooning at work here, which I think works better. It comes a little closer at times to a John Byrne or Paul Pelletier look, if I had to make a comparison.

Facio’s colors are mostly literal. Don’t look for any fancy coloring tricks or color keyed scenes here. He keeps things realistic with a touch of a frush texture to make it feel natural. He keeps good track of the lighting in every scene, paying careful attention to atmospheric things and localized light sources like a tv screen that might brighten up a person standing nearby, or sun through a window that might cause some rim lighting. It’s effective and it stays out of the way while keeping everything easily readable.

Things don’t blend together from being colored at the same brightness or saturation. There’s definitely some separation of layers going on with the colors in this book. Credit to Racio for that.

The History of “Bob Morane”

Like I said at the top, I didn’t realize there was a whole history behind this series when I read it. Now that I know that and have read a little about it, things start to make more sense.

There are characters introduced and specifically named that didn’t seem all that relevant or important, at first. They’re legacy characters from the previous incarnations of the series. They have to be there for this to be a “Bob Morane” book.

It’s also a very modern book. There are drones involved in the second half. There are some other technologies in play that feel like the kind of futuristic technology you’d expect in a book from the last 20 years. It’s part VR and part The Matrix.

There’s also a bit of cleaning up to be done, most of which we won’t see until the second book, so I’ll hold off until then. Needless to say, a book series started in the 1950s is bound to have some attitudes and language that wouldn’t go over very well today.

All of this also helps to explain the “Ressurection” part of the title. This is a ground-up reinvention of the series for the modern audience. Maybe the original fans just wanted more of the old series, instead?

Where’s the Characterization?

I mentioned earlier that this book is all plot. It’s true that there’s a dearth of strong characterizations here. We’re told enough of Morane’s background to make him a sympathetic character and we see in the opening of the book that he’s a moral man and can’t sit by and watch others senselessly slaughtered under his watch.

Beyond that, though, he’s a blank slate. He’s kind of dull, to be honest. He’s a no-nonsense soldier, but that also leads to a very bland character. He doesn’t have a sharp tongue or quick anger. He’s just always… there, where the plot needs him to be. Everyone in this book is a puzzle piece to be put together. It’s hard to feel anything towards most of them.

In the end, I’m interested in this book more to see where the plot is going and how everything fits together than I am in how my new friend, Bob, is making his way through this treacherous series of events. Not that it matters – he’s always in reaction mode. He doesn’t get many chances in this book to be the active and controlling interest in the story.

Recommended?

If you’re looking for a political thriller and don’t need a whole lot of characterization to enjoy it, this might be worth it for you. As an American, it’s interesting to see another country’s foreign policy be the center of a story. American political thrillers usually deal with the usual suspects, like Russia, China, or Korea. Maybe Mexico. This is France and Nigeria, which is a whole different dynamic from any of the aforementioned American entanglements.

I would recommend “Largo Winch” before this one if you’re interested in this type of thing.

Buy It Now

Izneo lists this series as “Bob Morane 2020”, which is slightly confusing as the book saw print originally in French in 2015 and in digital English translation in 2017.

• Izneo
• Amazon