Les portes de l'enfer

Lefranc #5

by Jacques Martin, Gilles Chaillet

Lefranc et Jeanjean s’envolent à l’aube d’un petit aéroclub pour saluer le lever du soleil en montagne. Mais tous les instruments de bord et le moteur tombent soudainement et inexplicablement en panne, et le petit avion s’écrase au sommet d’un alpage. Lefranc et son compagnon son recueillis par une jeune adolescente, Lisa, qui vit dans la montagne avec sa grand-mère, Laura Lane, et leur troupeau de moutons. Laura lane, qui semble dotée de pouvoirs de prémonition, perçoit un grand danger. Lefranc voit alors des gerbes de missiles éclater dans le ciel en une scène apocalyptique. Quand ils sortent de leur abri, Lefranc, Jeanjean et leurs étranges compagnes découvrent qu’ils se retrouvent isolés comme des naufragés sur une île entourée d’une inquiétante vapeur verte qui dissout tout objet, à la manière d’un puissant acide. Mais un autre danger les menace, aussi Laura Lane les emmène-t-elle à l’abri dans un mystérieux souterrain qui s’enfonce au cœur de la montagne, gardé par sept portes médiévales : les Portes de l’Enfer. Dans ce décor fantastique, la vieille femme leur révèle une terrible histoire de malédiction, frappée du sceau du diable, et qui constitue sans doute la clé des tragiques événements en cours.

Genres: Bande Dessinée, Comics

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my! I certainly have not really all that much remembered just how religiously, historically creepy and contemporarily violent Jacques Martin's Les portes de l'enfer really is (translated as The Gates of Hell in English, although I first read this in German translation at my cousin's house during a visit in the early 80s). And while as a young teenager, I guess I kind of managed to skim over some of the strange and satanic violence, and was able to appreciate the concept of a military exercise gone terribly wrong, as an older adult, the entire storyline of Les portes de l’enfer just totally rubs me the wrong proverbial way mostly because the author has used religion, has made the presented catastrophe not so much a human caused error (or deliberate scenario), but has rendered the entire tragedy the fault of Satan, the fault of the Devil (not only freaky and creepy in and of itself, but in my opinion also supremely problematic, as it seemingly absolves military brass of wrongdoing, by attempting to demonstrate that this horror, this carpet bombing of a rural French or perhaps Basque mountain area during a so-called military exercise was caused by, was instigated by Satan and his minions having infiltrated the army, the military/industrial complex).

And thus, Les portes de l'enfer is not at all to be recommended, unless as a reader you are into horror like graphic novels where the main action is caused by nefarious forces of uncontrollable evil, where satanism, witchcraft and the like are the main storyline and are also considered the main threats and main reasons for mayhem, Armageddon and the problematic actions and reactions of humans, of humanity (and yes, I am also a bit annoyed at how the main protagonist, how Guy LeFranc appears as a blonde and svelte manly reporter and his sidekick Jeanjean as much younger, diminutive and with considerably darker hair and skin, as the exact same type of dichotomy also appears with Alex and his young sidekick Enak in Jacques Martin's Roman Empire based Alex series, but this here fact and truth have really only mildly annoyed me, and not nearly as much as the general plot itself with its concepts of violence, of military violence and atrocities supposedly being caused by Satan or at least a minion of the same have chafed and actually majorly creeped me out). And with my reaction to this tome, with my negative feelings towards Les Portes de l'enfer, I am not at all sure whether I will be planning on reading any more instalments of Jacques Martin's Lefranc series, as I am now rather expecting more gratuitous violence imbued with horror, the unexplained, the creepily and frighteningly uncanny (and please do note that I also do not consider this book, I do NOT consider Les portes de l’enfer at all suitable for young children).

[A. Macbeth reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow! Some sort of surreal horror in this bédé!