InsaneJournal

First, a few words of introduction. Valérian was created in 1967 by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres, and has been one of the most popular comics in Europe ever since. In the story, Earth is destroyed by a nuclear catastrophe in 1986, and it takes hundreds of years for civilization to rebuild itself. However, by the 28th Century, Earth has become the center of an interplanetary empire, Galaxity. Valerian and his younger partner Laureline are agents of the Galaxity Space-Time Service. Valerian is the veteran of the two, an expert pilot and handy with a ray gun. He picked up Laureline in medieval France on an early mission. She's the brains of the outfit, and grows from an occasional sidekick in the first stories to become arguably the primary character later on. Their personal relationship is ambiguous at this point in the series. They have a space ship, called the astronef (rendered here as "space dish"), which allows them to travel in time as well as space. And no, it's not an imitation of the Millennium Falcon; Lucas ripped them off.

By the time of Metro Châtelet - Direction Cassiopée (1980, 46 pp. - part 1 of 2), which in English might go something like "Next Stop Châtelet: Bound for Cassiopeia," 1986 was no longer that far into the future, and the creators were forced to start thinking about how to reconcile the series' timeline with the actual course of history. That led to some of the best stories of the series, beginning with this one.

I particularly like this story for its dreamlike atmosphere, with Valerian increasingly spaced out, walking around a city he doesn't know, dealing with a plot he doesn't understand, haunted by visions from other worlds, and facing creatures straight out of fantasy.

Scans are not mine (though I've cleaned them up a bit). Translation assisted by Babelfish and a Scandinavian copy.








Albert informs Valerian that something has been observed in the Metro. They head down there to check it out.





Valerian is brought to a hospital, while the mysterious Americans leave in frustration.



Albert and Valerian go out to dinner, and they discuss the case so far. We learn that this was not the first creature to manifest: a while ago some kind of giant ogre emerged from an old mine, and the Galaxity military unit sent to take care of it (because mythical beasts appearing in the twentieth century is a major temporal anomaly!) was itself caught on camera. Valerian has been dispatched to deal with the matter in a more low-profile way.








Albert has discovered that Valerian is under surveillance by Bellson & Gambler, a multinational corporation that has been observed on the scene of both incidents. He shakes them, and they head out to the French countryside, where there have been reports of a sea monster in the marshes.

Meanwhile, Laureline is following the trail from the other end, and slowly putting together the pieces on what it is he is facing. But frustrated by the situation, his constant headaches and by being so far apart from Laureline, Valerian heads out into the city by himself, where he soon gets picked up by a mysterious woman who seems to know him...