{"id":7388,"date":"2011-10-05T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=7388"},"modified":"2017-09-03T15:10:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T15:10:37","slug":"valerian-and-laureline-book-2-the-empire-of-a-thousand-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/10\/05\/valerian-and-laureline-book-2-the-empire-of-a-thousand-planets\/","title":{"rendered":"Valerian and Laureline book 2: The Empire of a Thousand Planets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy J.-C. M\u00c3\u00a9zi\u00c3\u00a9res<\/strong> & P. Christin,<\/strong> with colours by E. Tranl\u00c3\u00a9<\/strong> and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0<\/p>\n

Val\u00c3\u00a9rian<\/strong> is arguably the most influential comics science fiction series ever drawn – and yes, I am including both Buck Rogers<\/strong> and Flash Gordon<\/strong> in that expansive and undoubtedly contentious statement.<\/p>\n

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars<\/strong> movie has seen some of Jean-Claude M\u00c3\u00a9zi\u00c3\u00a9res & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the look of the Millennium Falcon<\/em> to Leia<\/em>‘s Slave Girl outfit -as this second volume powerfully proves in a stunning comparisons feature following after the magnificent adventure contained herein\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of M\u00c3\u00a9zi\u00c3\u00a9res & Christin than any other cartoon spacer ever imagined possible.<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella<\/em>. Val\u00c3\u00a9rian: Spatio-Temporal<\/strong> Agent<\/strong> launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote<\/em> (#420) and was an instant hit. In combination with Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient<\/em> and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane<\/strong>, Val\u00c3\u00a9rian<\/strong>‘s <\/strong>hot public reception led to the creation of dedicated adult graphic sci fi magazine M\u00c3\u00a9tal Hurlant<\/em> in 1977.<\/p>\n

Val\u00c3\u00a9rian<\/strong> and Laureline<\/strong> (as the series eventually became) is light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy (a bit like Dr. Who,<\/strong> but not really at all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6), drenched in wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring, in the beginning, an affable, capable, unimaginative and by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology and counteracting paradoxes caused by casual time-travellers.<\/p>\n

When Val\u00c3\u00a9rian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais R\u00c3\u00aaves<\/em> (‘Bad Dreams’<\/em>) he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative wonderland of Galaxity<\/em>, capital of the Terran Empire. The indomitable lass trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on his missions.<\/p>\n

Every subsequent Val\u00c3\u00a9rian adventure until the 13th was first serialised weekly in Pilote<\/em> until the conclusion of ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ <\/em>after which the mind-boggling sagas were only published as all-new complete graphic novels, until the whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.<\/p>\n

The Empire of a Thousand Planets<\/strong> originally ran in Pilote<\/em><\/strong> #520-541from October 23rd<\/sup> 1969 to March 19th<\/sup> 1970 and saw the veteran and rookie despatched to the fabled planet Syrte the Magnificent, capital of vast system-wide civilisation and a world in inexplicable and rapid technological and social decline.<\/p>\n

The mission is one of threat-assessment: staying in their base time-period (October 2720) the pair are tasked with examining the first galactic civilisation ever discovered that has never experienced any human contact or contamination, but as usual, events don’t go according to plan\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Despite easily blending into a culture with a thousand sentient species, Valerian and Laureline soon find themselves plunged into intrigue and dire danger when the acquisitive girl buys an old watch in the market.<\/p>\n

Nobody on Syrte knows what it is since all the creatures of this civilisation have an innate, infallible time-sense, but the gaudy bauble soon attracts the attention of one of the Enlightened – a sinister cult of masked mystics who have the ear of the Emperor and a stranglehold on all technologies\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

The Enlightened are responsible for the stagnation within this once-vital interplanetary colossus and they quickly move to eradicate the Spatio-temporal agents. Narrowly escaping doom, the pair reluctantly experience the staggering natural wonders and perils of the wilds beyond the capital city before dutifully returning to retrieve their docked spaceship.<\/p>\n

Soon however our dauntless duo are distracted and embroiled in a deadly rebellion fomented by the Commercial Traders Guild. Infiltrating the awesome palace of the puppet-Emperor and exploring the mysterious outer planets Valerian and Laureline discover a long-fomenting plot to destroy Earth – a world supposedly unknown to anyone in this Millennial Empire\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

All-out war looms and the Enlightened’s incredible connection to post-Atomic disaster Earth is astonishingly revealed just as inter-stellar conflict erupts between rebels and Imperial forces, with our heroes forced to fully abandon their neutrality and take up arms to save two civilisations a universe apart yet inextricably linked\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Comfortingly, yet unjustly familiar, this spectacular space-opera is fun-filled, action-packed, visually breathtaking and mind-bogglingly ingenious.\u00c2\u00a0 Drenched in wide-eyed fantasy wonderment, science fiction adventures have never been better than this.<\/p>\n