Valérian and Laureline
Valérian and Laureline, originally titled Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent and also commonly known as Valérian, is a French science fiction comics series, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. It was first published in Pilote magazine in 1967; the final installment was published in 2010. All of the Valérian stories have been collected in comic album format, comprising some twenty-one volumes plus a short story collection and an encyclopedia.
The series focuses on the adventures of the dark-haired Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent, and his redheaded female colleague, Laureline, as they travel the universe through space and time. Valérian is a classical hero, kind, strong and brave, who follows the orders of his superiors even if he feels, deep down, that it is the wrong thing to do. On the other hand, his partner Laureline combines her superior intelligence, determination and independence with sex appeal. Influenced by classic literary science fiction, the series mixes space opera with time travel plots. Christin's scripts are noted for their humour, complexity and strongly humanist and left-wing liberal political ideas while Mézières's art is characterized by its vivid depictions of the alien worlds and species Valérian and Laureline encounter on their adventures. The series is considered a landmark in European comics and pop culture, and influenced other media as well; traces of its concepts, storylines and designs can be found in science fiction films such as Star Wars and The Fifth Element.
Many of the stories have been translated into several languages, including English. The series has received recognition through a number of prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême. An animated television series, Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline, was released in 2007, and a feature film directed by Luc Besson, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, was released in 2017.
Concept and setting
The original setting for the series was the 28th century. Humanity has discovered the means of travelling instantaneously through time and space. The capital of Earth, Galaxity, is the centre of the vast Terran Galactic Empire. Earth itself has become a virtual utopia with most of the population living a life of leisure in a virtual reality dream-state ruled by the benign Technocrats of the First Circle. The Spatio-Temporal Service protects the planets of the Terran Empire and guards against temporal paradoxes caused by rogue time-travellers. Valérian and Laureline are two such spatio-temporal agents.However, since the end of the story The Wrath of Hypsis, in which Galaxity disappears from space-time as a result of a temporal paradox, the pair have become freelance trouble-shooters travelling through space and time offering their services to anyone willing to hire them while also searching for their lost home.
In the first two albums Valérian travels through time in a two-seater device, the XB27, which transports him to the various relay stations that Galaxity has hidden throughout time. In subsequent stories Valérian and Laureline use the saucer-shaped Astroship XB982, which made its debut appearance in 1969 in the short story The Great Collector. The astroship is able to travel anywhere using a spatio-temporal jump, a sort of hyperspace drive enabling near-instant transportation anywhere in space and time.
The initial albums were generally straightforward good versus evil adventure stories. However, thanks to Pierre Christin's interest in politics, sociology, and ethnology, as the series progressed the situations typically arose from misunderstandings or ideological differences between various groups that could be resolved through reason and perseverance. The core theme of the stories is an optimistic liberal humanism: the adventures are not about defeating enemies but about exploring, facing challenges, and celebrating diversity. Thus, according to the academic John Dean, Christin "as a rule works into his narratives political, environmental and feminist concerns – thereby showing social ills are universal, no matter on what planet you land".
Another concept that developed was Galaxity as a proxy for Western democracy; contrary to its benign self-image it is actually imperialist and prone to a corrupt real-politik. Other themes include:
- Natural simplicity as superior to technological complexity.
- Rejection of machismo, violence and war in favour of femininity and nature.
- Distrust of power and the suppression of individuality.
- The ability of women to manipulate males sexually without being manipulated themselves.
Principal characters
Valérian
Valérian was born on Earth, in Galaxity, capital of the Terran Galactic Empire in the 28th century. He joined the Spatio-Temporal Service in the year 2713. He has been trained to think that Galaxity is always right – even when he receives orders that go against his morals he will, reluctantly, follow them. He much prefers to be a man of action than sitting around pondering what course to take next.The early stories present Valérian as a typical square-jawed hero figure, who is strong and dependable. However, as the series progresses, he is increasingly portrayed as somewhat knuckle-headed. In World Without Stars, he gets recklessly drunk on the colonists' home-made booze, in On the False Earths, the historian, Jadna, views him as useful only as cannon fodder and nothing else while in Heroes of the Equinox, he comes across as woefully inadequate compared with the champions he is competing against. Although devoted to Laureline, he has been led astray by other women, such as in Heroes of the Equinox and Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos.
When Galaxity disappears in The Wrath of Hypsis he contemplates following his fellows into oblivion, much to Laureline's horror. Even afterwards, he feels the loss of Galaxity much more than Laureline, as it is his birthplace.
The name Valérian comes from Eastern Europe, although its origin is Latin, from valere. Valérian was created by Mézières and Christin as a reaction to the fearless boy-scout and American superhero characters that were prevalent in comics available in France at the time. Instead they sought to devise a "banal character" with "no extraordinary means of action". Eventually, with Christin feeling that they had gone too far with this angle and that the Valérian character had become too stupid, from The Ghosts of Inverloch onwards, Valérian was made more sympathetic and given a greater piece of the action.
In Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a 2017 movie by Luc Besson, Valérian is played by Dane DeHaan.
Laureline
Laureline is a peasant girl from 11th-century France. In the debut adventure, Bad Dreams, she rescues Valérian from the enchanted Forest of Arelaune. When she accidentally discovers Valérian is a time-traveller, he is forced to bring her back with him to Galaxity where she is trained as a Spatio-Temporal Agent and assigned as his partner.In the early stories, Laureline generally sits in the background while Valérian saves the day in whatever situation the pair have found themselves, but her position changes as the series develops. World Without Stars, the fourth serial published in Pilote, the two characters are separated for most of the adventure, with Laureline stepping out from under Valérian's shadow for the first time, and she proves to be more than an equal to Valérian in ensuring that their mission succeeds.
Welcome to Alflolol brings Laureline's rebellious nature to the fore; unlike Valérian, she has not been born and raised by Galaxity and is prepared not only to question Galaxity's authorities but to rebel openly against them when their orders run contrary to her sense of morality. It also demonstrates her impulsive streak; she sides with the native Alflololians against Galaxity and Valérian with no thought for the personal consequences she may have to face herself. Her position as the true star of the series is cemented in Ambassador of the Shadows, which is virtually a solo adventure for her as she searches the vast space station Point Central for the kidnapped Valérian and the Earth Ambassador. Later, when acting as independent agents, it is Laureline who questions the ethics of some of the jobs they are forced to take to make ends meet, notably in The Living Weapons.
Despite being independent and efficacious, Laureline is not afraid to exploit her considerable sex appeal if it is to her advantage. For example, she attracts the attention of the Emperor of Valsennar in World Without Stars and, dressed in leather gear and boots, she manipulates Crocbattler and Rackalust in Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos and regularly charms the Shingouz when negotiating with them for information. She has appeared nude in some adventures. Mézières drew a picture of her for the French edition of Playboy in 1987.
She also has a certain affinity for animals such as the Alflololian Goumon in Welcome to Alflolol, the Grumpy Converter from Bluxte, first seen in Ambassador of the Shadows, and the Tüm Tüm and the Tchoung-Tracer, both introduced in On the Frontiers.
The name "Laureline" was invented by Mézières and Christin who were seeking a name that would sound "medieval" and "soft". The name has proven popular and there are now several thousand women in France named Laureline, the first one born in 1968, just a year after the publication of Bad Dreams. There have also been variations such as "Loreline" and "Laurelyne". Laureline was initially created just for the first story, Bad Dreams, but recognising that they had a female character who was different from the bimbo types common to comics of the time, Mézières and Christin fell for her and, in response to positive reader feedback, retained her for the subsequent stories.
In Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a 2017 movie by Luc Besson, Laureline is played by Cara Delevingne.