I was surprised by the ending of Adele Blanc-Sec. In the other comics we
have read the endings have been resolved neatly and there was usually a sense
of justice in what happened to the characters. In Adele Blanc-Sec the ending felt almost satirical. The Chief
Commissioner retains his position and “earned all the glory from the arrest of
the members of the cult whose crimes he himself had instigated,” while poor
Inspector Caponi became a traffic cop. This ending went against my expectations
that Caponi would become commissioner and the previous Chief Commissioner,
Dugommier, would end up in jail. Instead, the ending as it is now shows how
sometimes people in higher places of power can manipulate the law to their own
gain while those who work hard but have less power get the shorter end of the
stick. It wasn’t a commentary I had expected because for most of Adele Blanc-Sec the people who
represented the law were bumbling and unable to comprehend fully the mysterious
events that transpire rather than filling a real authority role. This small
look into the corruption of the legal system says a lot about how unfair life
can be in just two panels and all you can do is laugh.
I'm glad you laughed, because at the time I mostly felt betrayed and frustrated that things had not changed. You're right in that the commentary is a bit of a "well it's true but there's nothing I can do" kind of a laugh. None of the characters are particularly admirable: Caponi seemed only interested in raising his status, and Dugommier... who knows what he was doing in the cult. This definitely gives light to the corruption of the legal system- but it may go further than that. Every character in the comic, including Adele, all do some criminal activity. I wonder if Tardi was trying to comment not only on the legal system but also society in general?
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