The Last Round

XIII #19

by Jean Van Hamme, William Vance (Illustrations)

It s the end of the road for everyone. The only question remaining is: Who will live? XIII and his friends have failed to recover Maximilian s gold and are tired of hiding, running and struggling. When two books come out in the USA relating all the events of the amnesiac s life and the details of the Conspiracy of the XX, they see it as a possible chance to come out in the open and trust in their country s justice. But they still have enemies, at home and abroad, and everyone is set on a collision course...

Genres: Bande Dessinée, Comics, Fiction, Crime, Adventure, Thriller, Graphic Novels

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Jean Van Hamme, is a Belgian novelist and comic book writer. He has written scripts for a number of Belgian/French comic series, including Histoire sans héros, Thorgal, XIII, Blake and Mortimer, Lady S and Largo Winch.

More on the brilliant, Jean Van Hamme:
http://lambiek.net/artists/v/van-hamm...

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

After 24 years, Van Hamme and Vance bring an end to their convoluted story of amnesiac XIII. By the end of this Van Hamme had went back to the well of finding out XIII isn't who he think he is way too many times. XIII has had around 15 different names at this point. Still this volume does put some final closure on his story even if it's a bit boring. Having someone tell you a story is never going to be as exciting as seeing the story happen in comic book form.

[Glamdring · Rating 4 out of 5]

If La version irlandaise remove all eventual remaining doubts about XIII identity, Le dernier round, ties the plots of XIII enemies.

I started reading this series in 1995, at that time XIII was already a 10 volumes long series. I continued to read it until volume 12 Le jugement who was a good end for the series because even if XIII remained amnesic, the proofs about his identity were quite convincing and the mystery about the XX conspiracy was solved. Also, even though Van Hamme is an awesome scenarist, I didn't want to go for 10 years or so of unsolved mysteries.

Then, this year I started a series challenge and when I was searching for a series to fulfill the letter X this series came to my mind, and while searching about it I discovered two things.

The first one is that even though XIII is still an ongoing series with 22 volumes so far, Van Hamme and Vance only worked on the series until volume 19. The second thing is that the rating was all over the place.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that the original creators of an ongoing series stopped working on it isn't a good sign, so I decided to only read the next following six albums (from 13 to 19) and to borrow them from the library instead of buying them.

So I started by re-reading the firsts 12 titles, and almost 20 years after my first reading, I have to admit that even though the idea isn't new, it is inspired by Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity, this series is still one of the very best. Each volume is fast paced, and despite the comic book's format, action packed with lots of clever twists.

Volume 13 is really well done and can be seen as a collector album. After that, Van Hamme introduces a doubt about XIII identity. I understand the readers that weren't happy with those volumes, but for me it was still cleverly done, and even though I wasn't convinced by the element of doubt itself I was pretty curious about what happened to XIII when he disappeared after college and volume 18 La version irlandaise gives us the answer.

This is how volume 19 ends. I think it says it all.

[Vincent Riopel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une très bonne BD qui vient offrir une conclusion satisfaisante à ce cycle. Ce n’est pas une fin surprenante, mais elle est cohérente et bien amenée, presque comme un épilogue qui fait du bien après tout ce parcours. J’ai particulièrement aimé comment certaines informations prennent tout leur sens, surtout après avoir lu les tomes de l’Enquête. Ça récompense vraiment une lecture en continu.

Il y a quand même quelques personnages que j’aurais aimé voir davantage développés, mais dans l’ensemble, la conclusion fonctionne très bien. Ça donne envie de continuer avec le prochain cycle.

[Nomad nimrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

By the time i finished this book, XIII has like 14 or 15 names. Some of the book were enjoyable rest fell on that catagory of so- so. I think the author pulled too many rabbits .

[Juhani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viimeinen osa alkuperäistä XIII -sarjaa. Sarjasta suomennettiin aikoinaan vain yhdeksän ensimmäistä osaa, mitä joskus harmittelin. Kieltämättä näiden suomentamattomien albumien taso vaihtelee aika lailla ja välillä kyllä lipsutaan kioskikirjallisuuden puolelle juonenkäänteissä, joten hyväksyn suomalaisen kustantajan ratkaisun. Cinebookin nidottu painosjälki on halvan oloinen, mikä lisää mielleyhtymää kioskikirjallisuuteen. Näköjään sarja on jatkunut uusilla seikkailuilla ja tekijöillä, mutta pitänee vetää vähän happea ja harkita pari kertaa ennen kuin niitä lähden kahlaamaan.

[Christine Fessard · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai enfin compris pourquoi le dessinateur Giraud a fait le tome 18. Les deux derniers tomes sont sortis simultanément...
Les articles de presse conservés dans les albums apportent un puissant éclairage.

[Cass · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Bradhernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last one. Bit of a re-cap of the entire series. Nice message from JVH.

[Saoirse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super conclusion à l’histoire de XIII, on a le fin mot de l’histoire, les méchants sont punis.
Je me demande sur quoi va porter le deuxième cycle.

[Sibylle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snif c’est la fin mais j’ai adoré chaque page de la redécouverte de cette saga !!!

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a long, strange trip it's been.

[Gorka Larrañeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y ya. La cuadratura del círculo; cierra la altura donde hasta las decisiones más locas tienen sentido en el contexto de la historia. Hasta siempre XIII y Jones.

[Rainer Lakmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der letzte Teil des ersten, aus insgesamt 19 Bänden bestehenden Zykluses: Jason MacLane alias XIII alias Jason Fly alias [zahlreiche weitere Decknamen] kehrt nach vielen spannungsreichen Abenteuern in die USA zurück, wo seinem schurkischen Onkel Giordano der Prozess gemacht - zuerst lang vor Gericht und dann kurz durch eine Profikillerin.

Jason MacLane kann also endlich mit seinem bisherigen Leben als Geheimagent und Freiheitskämpfer abschließen und beschließt, als Alan Smith aufs Land zu ziehen und ein neues Leben zu beginnen.

Die in den 1980ern begründete, stark durch die Jason Bourne-Romane inspirierte Reihe sollte eigentlich mit Band 19 ihren finalen Abschluss finden. Doch bekanntlich ist es danach mit dem 2. Zyklus doch weitergegangen. Trotzdem ein guter Zwischenabschluss, der viele offene Fäden verbindet und zu einem Ende führt. 5 von 5 Sternen *****

[Roland Kermarec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce "dernier round" est malheureusement un round de trop et une conclusion relativement faible à la série, surtout après le bon tome 18. Les auteurs ont hélas parfois exploité le filon et allongé la sauce dans quelques numéros, et cela ne se justifiait pas (je pense surtout aux digressions diverses sur les multiples tueuses à gages de la saga). Quelques planches extraites de cet épisode et distillées dans le tome 18 auraient constitué un bien meilleur "générique de fin" selon moi.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

what a mess...