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Corriere
dei Piccoli / Corrierino 1994 #01
'THE TREASURE OF PIRATE LAFITTE'
('Il Tesoro del Pirata Lafitte')
by Alberto Savini
Featuring: James,
IQ,
Tracy,
Gordo,
Ms
Fortune, Snuffer.
Synopsis: James,
Gordo, Tracy and IQ are drifting on a sailboat towards a deserted
tropical island of unspecified location. The context: James has
acquired an old parchment from a second-hand dealer which he's surmised
is a treasure map, but Gordo is highly sceptical, suggesting it's
probably just a fairy-tale. Tracy says that even if it is, they get to
spend a week in beautiful tropical waters. IQ, meanwhile, hopes to test
three new inventions. When they reach the island, IQ expresses a hope
that the ghosts the fishermen back on the mainland told them about
don't really exit. James assures him it's just a classic seafaring
fantasy. 'Speaking of fantasies,' scoffs Gordo, 'shall we begin the
search for the treasure?' James says the map suggests it's at the
centre of the island...
...
as is Ms Fortune, who is sunbathing at a villa in the middle of the
jungle. Snuffer reports that their detectors have picked up the
presence of four intruders on the island. Guessing that it's just
fishermen, Ms Fortune tells Snuffer to scare them off via the 'usual
system' - a prospect he relishes, saying that 'pirate ghosts never
fail'. Sure enough, James and the gang are confronted on the beach by
groaning, cutlass-wielding ghost-pirates. While Gordo, Tracy and IQ are
scared, it's now James's turn to be sceptical, and he lunges towards
the pirates despite Gordo's protestations. His hand goes straight
through one of them, and he soon reveals why - it's not a ghost, but a
hologram, created by a projector hidden in the foliage.
James and friends head on into the jungle, following the path of the
wire from the projector. Snuffer now sees them on the telescreen and
realises who they are. When he reports back to Ms Fortune, she's so
furious that her screamed response sends distant birds scattering!
'Them? Here? It is not possible!' When Snuffer asks what he should do,
she orders him to release the snakes! Soon enough, a series of
remote-controlled cages open in the jungle, and huge poisonous cobras
crawl out. Gordo dismisses them as more holograms, but James points out
that they cast shadows - so must be real. He borrows one of IQ's
gadgets, an ultrasonic fish call, and blows on it, explaining that
snakes hate ultrasound - and since it didn't work on fish, he thought
it worth a try.
Back at the villa, Snuffer reports that the snakes have fled, but Ms
Fortune is unconcerned, as she points out that James and friends are
approaching the minefield. Some objects that look like coconuts attract
James's attention, and he throws one, only for it to explode
dramatically. Tracy says they can't walk through a minefield, but
another of IQ's inventions - a laser metal-detector - enables them to
move through the area without disturbing any more of the devices. Ms
Fortune is furious as she watches on the telescreen, as James and his
friends are getting close to their location. Snuffer says they should
'shield the villa', and at the click of a button, thick metal panels
rise from the ground around the house, creating a high solid steel wall
around the property.
James tells IQ to operate his third gadget, the 'Scalda-Scalda', which
starts to raise the temperature not only of the steel enclosure, but
everything within it - including Ms Fortune and Snuffer, who complains
it must be at least 60 degrees in there. Unable to stand the heat, they
fly out of the compound in a helicopter, at which point the gang
recognise them. Tracy wonders what criminal enterprise they were
masterminding, and James replies that they will never know, as the
chopper speeds away. Meanwhile, Gordo notices as the sun's rays reflect
off a buried object in the ground, which James says looks like the
corner of a chest. Sure enough, they've found the buried treasure from
the map, and celebrate. In the chopper, Ms Fortune complains she was
doing nothing wrong for once and just enjoying a peaceful holiday,
until those 'damned pains in the neck' went and ruined it.
Review:
It's with not inconsiderable sadness that we acknowledge this is the
last known story to have been published within the Corrierino run; and
if you exclude the Marvel UK mini-series, the last ever in the
franchise. But for our money, it's a fitting end - perhaps more fitting
than Marvel's Homeward Bound
which, before these Corrierino strips were unearthed, we had
erroneously awarded the title of final instalment. Yes, that was an
'all-villain issue', and yes, it saw said villains go after James
himself in what seemed like a logical last-ditch offensive for the
series; but we now know that the Corrierino comics in
Italy brought a belated new lease of life to James Bond Jr, opening doors to all manner of
new adventures that many outside of Italy are only recently discovering. Corrierino
specifically seems to have embraced the aristocratic philistinism of Ms
Fortune and her mean-spirited manservant wholeheartedly, and so it's
great to see them get the final outing here, in a refreshingly
different story that eschews the Bond girls and sprawling SCUM schemes,
but nonetheless foregrounds Bond Jr's
penchant for exotic locales, larger-than-life villains and rafts of
daft gizmos. And who can say no to a holographic ghost pirate?
Highs: Ms
Fortune's final-frame revelation, that she wasn't actually engaged in a
villainous scheme but simply trying to enjoy a peaceful holiday, is a
delicious twist - completely unique within the canon, and a wonderful
way to round things off.
Lows: James Bond Jr won't return - or will he?
Gadgets & Gizmos: IQ's
hat-trick of island inventions comprises a laser-powered metal
detector, useful for sniffing out mines disguised as coconuts; a
'Scalda-Scalda' (it translates as 'Warmer-Warmer', but Scalda-Scalda
sounds much better) whose applications include heating up - and perhaps
melting? - thick steel walls; and an ultrasonic fish caller, which
doesn't attract fish, but does ward off giant cobras.
SCUM on the Surface: The
helicopter in which Ms Fortune and Snuffer escape has the word 'SCUM'
written in huge letters on the bottom, lest we were in any doubt - a
fond final farewell to the world's worstest.
O Mother, Where Art Thou: 'Oh, Mamma!' exclaims Gordo (in Italian) when the holographic ghost pirates appear.
Notes: Jean Lafitte, the eponymous real-life pirate
whose treasure James and friends are presumably searching for, is not
actually mentioned in the text of the comic beyond the title itself.
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