Valerian and Laureline

Although Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella is the best-known French science-fiction series, the long-running Valérian, agent spatio-temporel by Pierre Christin (story) and Jean-Claude Mézières (art) is vastly superior. Childhood copains Mézières & Christin began the saga in 1967 in the French comic magazine Pilote. The first adventure, Les mauvais rêves, introduces Valérian, who patrols time and space to maintain the security of Galaxity, united Earth’s 28th century government. Time-travelling into medieval France, Valérian rescues a spunky young redhead named Laureline, who returns with him to the future to become his partner.

Initially “Valérian” featured a number of clichés (a character modeled on Jerry Lewis appears in Terre en flammes!!!) The first villain, Xiombul, is a straightforward evil genius. After Les oiseaux du maître, however, conflict in the series typically springs from misunderstandings or ideological differences that can be resolved through reason and perserverance. The original theme of the stories is an optimistic liberal humanism: the adventures aren’t about defeating enemies but about exploring, facing challenges, and celebrating diversity.

A major issue which develops in the middle of the series uses Galaxity as a proxy for Western democracy; contrary to its benign self-opinion it is imperialistic and prone to a corrupt real-politik. Other themes include:

• Natural simplicity is superior to technological superiority
• The evolution of advanced beings leads to psychic powers without need of mechinality
• Women can manipulate males sexually without being manipulated themselves

Valérian is a loyal agent of Galaxity and often an apologist for its bureaucratic policies. He is well-intentioned but muscle-headed, and thoughtless about where he hangs his pants!

Laureline succeeds by "breaking the rules". Often exploited for sex appeal, she displays a winning combination of impulsive humanism and cynical shrewdness when faced with challenges, which she overcomes with far less difficulty than Valérian.

Only four episodes of the series have been translated into English and the first, Ambassador of Shadows, is actually the 8th story arc. However for some reason Les mauvais rêves is numbered “0” in the continuity and the second two story arcs, La cité des eaux movantes and Terre en flammes are numbered together as episode 1, making Heroes of the Equinox episode 8!

Other adventures include:

• 2 L'empire des mille planetes [The Empire of 1000 Planets]
• 3 Le monde sans etoiles [World Without Stars] (1971)
• 4 Bienvenue a Alfolol [Welcome to Alfolol] (1972)
• 5 Les oiseaux du maître [The Master’s Birds] (1973)
• 7 Sur les terres truquées [On the Stationary Earths] (1977)
• 9 Metro chatelet direction cassiopea [Metro Stop Chatelet, Cassiopea-Bound] (1980)
• 10 Brooklyn station terminus cosmos [Brooklyn Station, Last Stop the Cosmos] (1981)
• 11 Les spectres d'inverloch [The Ghosts of Inverloch] (1984)
• 12 Les foudres d'hypsis [The Thunder of Hypsis] (1985)
• 13 Sur les frontieres [On the Borders] (1988)
• 14 Les armes vivantes [The Living Weapons] (1990
• 15 Les cercles du pouvoir [The Circles of Power] (1994)
• 16 Les otages de l'ultralum [Hostages of Ultralum] (1996)
• 17 L'orphelin des astres [Orphan of the Stars] (1998)
• 18 Par des temps incertains [In Uncertain Times] (2001)
• 19 Au bord du grand rien [At the Edge of Nothingness] (2004)