|
Corriere
dei Piccoli / Corrierino 1993 #40
'AN ECOLOGICAL PROBLEM'
('Un Problema Ecologico')
by Federica Montanari
Featuring: James,
IQ,
Tracy,
Dr
Derange, Skullcap.
Synopsis: James, IQ and Tracy are attending a concert
of singer Sheena, whose lyrics are focused on ecology and saving the
planet. However, someone has their crosshairs on the singer; Skullcap
has appeared in the audience, and prepares to make an assassination
attempt. He fires, and narrowly misses, destroying one of the speakers
behind Sheena. Recognising Skullcap, James dashes through the crowd and
kicks the gun out of his hand. Skullcap escapes the scene, and James,
IQ and Tracy go to talk to Sheena in her dressing room. Sheena's
bodyguard isn't keen on letting them in, but when Sheena hears James's
name, she tells her guard to let them in as she knows him 'indirectly'.
IQ is starstruck in Sheena's presence, despite James's reminder that IQ
usually thinks celebrity enthusiasm is childish. James asks Sheena if
she knows why Skullcap tried to shoot her. She says she does, and that
it's not the first time. We learn she is performing a series of
concerts to raise public awareness of the ecological problems
afflicting the Amazon rainforest, having become aware herself of the
issue of deforestation when she was touring there. But in one
particular area, the vegetation was disappearing at a much faster rate,
so she went to have a look. The area was fenced off, but she did see a
'guy who spoke French' and a 'man with a metal skull', who noticed her
and shot at her, so she ran away.
Deciding the presence of Dr Derange and Skullcap in the rainforest
doesn't bode well, James proposes a trip to the Amazon. The gang and
Sheena soon arrive via Sheena's private plane, and James asks Sheena
why she says she knew him indirectly. She explains that when she
overheard Derange and Skullcap talking, Derange said he hoped James
wouldn't get in the way of their plans. The gang trek into the jungle
led by a local guide, João, who leaves them on a riverbank while he
goes to look for a ford to cross a stream. However, he's kidnapped by
Skullcap. When João doesn't return, the gang
start looking for him, but to no avail.
Happily, IQ has brought along a geocomputer linked to satellites, which
helps them find their route in João's absence; and he's also brought some
waterproof superglue, which comes in handy when they need to sail down
the river, enabling him to repair some broken canoes the gang finds -
although IQ briefly becomes stuck to one of the canoes, so effective is
his formula. As the two canoes approach a huge waterfall, IQ and Tracy
get safely to shore - but before James and Sheena can join them, a
seaplane appears, piloted by Skullcap, and begins firing at them from
above. They keep their heads down, but have come too close to the
waterfall. Luckily, a fortuitous rope is extending over the falls, and
James and Sheena leap to safety as the canoe crashes over the abyss.
The rope, it turns out, was placed there by a local tribe Tracy and IQ have stumbled across, whose
members include their
guide João's brother. Speaking Portuguese, the brother explains that João is a prisoner of 'the
French professor'. Tracy is surprised when James understands what he's
saying; James reveals he speaks Portuguese 'modestly', explaining that
his mother is a linguist. Shortly after, the gang, now joined by some
of the tribesmen, arrive at Dr Derange's base of operations, where
trees are being felled in their thousands. Inside the facility,
Derange berates Skullcap for letting Bond get as far as he has, and
explains that he has developed a sophisticated system capable of
extracting a very powerful fuel from trees. It will mean the end of the
world's forests, but will make him very rich.
However, James has overheard this, and rushes in with Tracy and the
tribesmen, telling Derange that the trees will stay where they are.
Skullcap attempts to charge at James with a headbutt, but James ducks
and Skullcap flies over him and his head crashes into a wall, knocking
him out. James asks IQ if he has any of his superglue left, and he
does; so James sets about applying it to Derange's fuel extraction
machine. It clogs it up completely, rendering it useless. While Derange
despairs over his wasted efforts, João
is freed from captivity. But IQ is unhappy; in order to avoid Mr
Milbanks finding out that they've been absent from Warfield, he's not
going to be able to tell everybody back home that he's met Sheena.
Everyone laughs.
Review: Another strong outing for Corrierino, which combines a South American rainforest setting not seen since the TV episode Barbella's Big Attraction with
a worthy environmental theme, also explored to an extent in that
episode - via Trevor's abortive efforts to lobby the Brazilian
government. But it's far more of a central focus here, as Dr Derange
gets in on the deforestation action, an industry in which he seems very
much at home. The Sheena concert provides a great in-road to the
action; Skullcap can be rather menacing as a villain when the writers
put their minds to it, and this is one of those occasions, opening with
his brazen assassination attempt on the singer in the middle of a live
gig. He starts as he means to go on, providing unusually competent
crookedness as the gang trek through the jungle by kidnapping their
guide, then almost succeeding in sending James and Sheena over a
waterfall. In comparison, Derange himself comes across as fairly
impotent when he finally rears his head in the final pages, although
it's nearly always good to see him and his defeats always satisfying.
There's also time for a little characterisation of IQ, who seems to be
afflicted with one of his very occasional crushes.
Highs: We love Sheena - a celebrity very much unafraid of getting her hands dirty. On the other hand...
Lows: ... Sheena has a private plane. Talk about a carbon footprint.
Lines to Remember: We're
just recording the snippets of of Sheena's song lyrics for posterity
here. Translated from the Italian, they are as follows...
Sheena: 'Once there was a forest ... endless trees before us ...
What used to be mud is now a motorway ...
Every falling tree makes a noise, but no one hears it ...'
Gadgets & Gizmos: IQ
seems to have created an early
precursor to Google Maps; his geocomputer is connected to a satellite
that detects an area's geographical characteristics and returns them to
the terminal, indicating the best route to take. He's also brought
along a pot of waterproof superglue in case he needs to repair any
broken canoes - which he does - and it later comes in handy in
disabling Dr Derange's own gizmo of the day, a machine that extracts a
powerful fuel from timber.
SCUM on the Surface: The organisation isn't mentioned.
O Mother, Where Art Thou: Gobsmackingly, given the absolute
dearth of references to his parents in the TV episodes or any of the
other comics we're aware of, James actually mentions his mother in this
story. When Tracy remarks that she didn't know he spoke Portuguese,
James reveals by way of explanation that his mother is a linguist. This
is a detail that was originally conceived as part of the show's
premise; in the early stages of development, James's parents were to
have an ongoing role, having been kidnapped by SCUM and providing an
ongoing motivation for his efforts against them. It was evidently later
decided that no reference whatsoever would be made to his parents, only
his uncle - but this gem seems to have slipped through the net.
Blunders & Bloopers: IQ says he designed his geocomputer
for James' Aston Martin. But James doesn't have an Aston Martin; he
only borrowed it from 007 in The
Beginning (and managed to write it off). His red sports
car, a gift from his uncle in the same episode, is a non-specific make.
Notes: To the English reader it isn't necessarily very apparent, but when João's brother speaks in
Portuguese, this is presented as actual Portuguese in his speech
bubble; and James then translates for the Italian audience.
During their altercation on the last page, James dodges Skullcap as he
lunges at him, declaring, 'Sorry, but you're not my type!' We would
have
thought this would've gone without saying.
|
