Plutarch's Staff
| Le Bâton de Plutarque (The Staff of Plutarch) | |
|---|---|
| File:Blake and Mortimer.png | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Editions Blake et Mortimer Cinebook Ltd (in English) |
| Genre | Science-Fiction Adventure |
| Publication date | 1946–2014 |
| Main character(s) | Blake Mortimer Olrik |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| Written by | Edgar P. Jacobs Yves Sente |
| Artist(s) | Edgar P. Jacobs André Juillard Etienne Schréder |
| Colorist(s) | Madeleine de Mille |
Le Bâton de Plutarque is the 23rd adventure in the Blake and Mortimer series. It was written by Yves Sente and drawn by André Juillard and Étienne Schréder, with color by Madeleine de Mille. The volume was released on the 5th of December 2014.[1] It was pre-published as a series of daily comic strips beginning in April 2014 in Le Soir, and repeated in the summer of 2014 in Le Télégramme.
Plot
The title refers to the scytale, a military coding system and one of the oldest messages in history. We know that the story takes place during World War II in 1944 when Olrik will be present and our heroes will visit Gibraltar and London. The plot will reveal why Blake and Mortimer live in Park Lane.
Synopois
May 1944. After foiled by his bravery, a German air attack against the Parliament of Westminster, Captain Francis Blake, assigned to the aircraft carrier Intrepid, made the acquaintance of Major Benson, a member of MI6 and its order, Lieutenant Harvey Clarke. Benson decided to entrust him a secret mission. Indeed, MI6 accidentally discovered in the greatest secrecy, Empire Yellow Basam-Damdu sets up an impressive military arsenal and preparing to attack the West. The British government is now convinced that as soon as the war against Germany and Japan won, it will face the yellow threat. This is why the government created two secret bases, that of Scaw Fell in England and another in the Strait of Hormuz. Blake Benson wishes to appoint as military attaché to the scientist in charge of the operation. Blake accepts, a sense of duty, and was pleased with his arrival in Scaw Fell that science is none other than Professor Phillip Mortimer, whom he met twenty years ago in India.
Blake, Mortimer, Benson and Clarke then leave the decryption center of MI6 at Bletchley . There, they met two decoders: Zhang Hasso, a defector from the Yellow Empire and the mysterious Colonel Olrik, oriental languages specialist and accomplished chess player. This is actually a spy for the Empire Yellow. He manages to find out that the government commissioned Mortimer to develop a revolutionary weapon against the Yellow Empire: a hunter submarine called the Swordfish. Hasso discovers qu'Olrik is a double agent and succeeds, he seems to believe in turn Olrik it is also a yellow spy. He did not time to warn Blake and Mortimer of his discovery.
Indeed, the two men were tasked with a new mission. They must go to Gibraltar in order to drop tags (designed by Mortimer) that will make the Germans believe to a significant concentration of Allied submarines in the Mediterranean is the Narval operation. Thus, the future Normandy landings will be facilitated. Benson also load Blake to deliver a package to the base commander of Gibraltar, Longreach colonel. In fact, the package is for his assistant, Lieutenant Brandon Clarke, twin brother Harvey.
The operation tag is a success, but Blake and Mortimer discover a spy attempts to reveal the deception to the Italians. After a brief investigation, they understand that Brandon Clarke is the spy. He and his brother Harvey communicated through the package they sent, via a coding system dating back to ancient Greek times, a Plutarch stick. Confronted with the truth, Brandon commits suicide with a cyanide capsule present in his jaw. Unmasked, his brother Harvey kills Benson major who wanted to confront before being shot himself without qualms by Olrik, who participated in Lhasa with Hasso.
Blake and Mortimer finally understand the truth. The Clarke brothers were acting on behalf of Olrik. This is simply to ensure continuation of the war between the Allies and the Axis so the Yellow Empire could increase as much as possible its secret military advance. But despite the machinations of Olrik, Operation Narwhal is a success. June 6, 1944, when Allied troops landed in Normandy, the widow of Major Benson tells Blake that the Clarke brothers held the major responsible for the death of their father in the Great War. It proposes to Blake to rent the apartment ... it holds the 99 bis Park Lane.
September 1946. With indications of Hasso, became an undercover agent in Lhasa, Blake and Mortimer know that yellow is now imminent attack. Believing themselves safe in their basic Scaw-Fell, they ignore a transmitter indicates the location of the base to Yellow. A transmitter placed two years before ... by Harvey Clarke.
Sources
References
- ^ Miguel Frognier (December 5, 2014). "The Staff of Plutarch & Jacobs 329 Drawings, now available!" The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer.