“Superheroes are not in French culture. How many times has this sentence been pronounced, with its variations on genre cinema and science fiction. However, this could not be more from the truth. French superheroes aren’t limited to
Superdupont, as evidenced by the release of the film How I Became a Superhero Friday on Netflix.
Specialist in superheroes and comics, Xavier Fournier will not say the opposite, he has found no less than 300 for the needs of his books Superheroes, a French story and French superheroes, an anthology
at Huginn Muninn. It’s in the magazine Comic Box of which he was editor that director Douglas Attal discovered the novel How I became a superhero by Gérald Bronner and decided to adapt it. For 20 minutes, Xavier Fournier looks back on 5 iconic French superheroes and superheroines
The masked Amazon, a true super-heroine in the 19th century
“There is something appalling,” begins Xavier Fournier as if he didn’t believe it himself. It is neither a comic book nor a novel, but in 1867, Paris saw a masked woman roaming the city on horseback. Witnesses even describe her armed with sabers. Le Figaro and other newspapers of the time chased after him for a year and a half, to find out who was behind
the masked Amazon. A media phenomenon à la Jack the Ripper. At the same time, finally 20 years earlier, Alexandre Dumas began the publication of the soap opera Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, “the grandfather of all superheroes”, according to the specialist. Indeed, the novel was exported to the United States and with it the notion of secret identity, inseparable from superheroes and superheroines.
L’Oiselle, a novel super-heroine in 1909
Created in 1909 by Renée Gouraud d’Ablancourt under the male pseudonym of René d’Anjou, L’Oiselle follows the adventures of Véga de Ortega, “a woman in a black jumpsuit, metal wings, gadget belt, night vision and telepathic mentor. , which flies over the Parisian capital ”, details Xavier Fournier. Batman, is that you? “When you read such a pitch, you ask where is the film”, reacts the journalist, before adding: “It is by looking in the writings of the censors of the time that you discover many works today. forgotten. The men were unleashed on L’Oiselle, not because she was a flying woman and vigilante, but because she was not at home, in the kitchen. Realize, this could give women bad ideas. “
Something that would be really brilliant and modern: rediscover the heroine L’Oiselle, created by René d’Anjou in 1909 (!): Black suit, full of gadgets, wings that allow him to fly over Paris, a night vision device, and even super-teammates! pic.twitter.com/iyIyiXUqu8
– paul Hebert (@polo_Hebert) January 11, 2021
Nyctalope and the first shared universe in 1911
Nyctalope, created by Jean de la Hire in 1911, is often considered the first French superhero, but according to the author it is Superheroes, a French story, especially from the first universe shared with several secondary characters, in about thirty novels. “Nyctalope is a hero who, following an assassination attempt, had his heart replaced by a mechanical organ, his affected eyes allow him to see at night,” says Xavier Fournier. He is both a superhero and an explorer, with adventures on Mars, against shark men, etc. Put in pictures, it could give pure Marvel. But it has long been forgotten, and for good reason, Jean de La Hire is condemned for collaboration at the end of the Second World War.
Fantax, the French Batman of 1946
With its iconic black and red costume, Fantax, created in 1946, is reminiscent of “a sort of comic book Batman,” sums up Xavier Fournier. You feel the influence of American heroes. He’s a bit like Arsène Lupine, but sort it out with his fists. Its authors, the Lyonnais Marcel Navarro and Pierre Mouchot, were very inspired by the cinema of Lino Ventura, so you have a bit of a superhero among Uncle gunslingers. He smokes his cigarette askew, can tear off a head with a shovel… If the context is also colonialist, the series can be very progressive, anti-racist and sees him for example fight against the Ku Klux Klan. “
Note that screenwriter Marcel Navarro is also behind Lug editions, which brought the first Marvel superheroes back to France and even created their own heroes in the review. Mustang, like Mikros or Photonik in the 1980s.
How I became a French superhero movie
Yes How I became a superhero by Douglas Attal gives the impression of being the first French superhero film, it is also because he takes the genre and its subject matter very seriously. “Fantômas is an (anti) serial hero, and in its historical version, could give a good Doctor Doom on the big screen,” comments Xavier Fournier. But the version with De Funès convinced the general public that it was a joke, a parody. “Christophe Gans has also tried to mount his Fantômas” as a French response to Iron Man “, in vain.
” Same for The Wall Pass by Marcel Aymé, adds the specialist. You got the 1951 movie with Bourvil, but if you gave it to an American studio, they’d do something awesome Heroes and the French would still wonder why the Americans are getting there and not us. “Superheroes aren’t our culture, really? “You just have to look at the credits of the Marvel films, you have plenty of French graphic artists and designers,” Xavier Fournier says one last time. They go to the United States, for lack of work in France. “But that changes, the French Aleksi Briclot, concept artist at Marvel Studios, worked on How I became a superhero.