"Jour J" (D Day) is a collection of french comics.
Every album does tell a different history (with an exception).
3/4.
Red September /
Black October
September 1917. After french capitulation, Clémenceau is preparing revenge on German occupier.
German invaded Paris in 1914 as they planned. Clémenceau flee to Algeria where he organise French Resistence.
In 1917, Nicolas II is going to surrender Russia to Germany. Clémenceau decide to help Bolsheviks to kill him : former Brigades du Tigre member is send on this mission after he helped the famous Anarchist terrorist Bonnot to evade.
October 1917 : French Anarchist at the heart of Russian Revolution
Sendng an anarchist in Revolutionary Russia to kill the tsar. What could have turned wrong?
Helping Stalin to kill the tsar, Bonnot decides then to help the Anarchist to overthrow the government, in order to make them continue the war against the Kaiser and save French Republic.
Finally got my hands on these, while looking for the Cleopatra one and this was terrible. From the cliche ridden celebrity appearances to broad generalizations, to cartoon villains. The art is decent except whoever drew it had never seen anyone throw a punch before in his entire life, because every physical altercation looks like it was drawn by someone who is vaguely aware of the existence fists, but is unaware of their application.
The POD is actually quite interesting, it's what they do with it that's nonsense. 1914, the German Army wins the Battle of the Marne.
Kaiser Willhelm II spends the Christmas in Paris. Perfidious Albion skulks off. But cranky old man Clémenceau isn't ready to throw in the sponge and leads Algerian based French Resistance ("African Army") against the Germans with only Russia by his side. This goes on for three years, because clearly Russia can take on the whole of German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian one on a single front. But the Tsar is getting weak in the knees, so cranky old man takes a piss one morning (yes, that is six frames in the comic) and makes a bold decision: kill the Tsar, and the guys who will take over for him will keep Russia fighting France. His subordinates question his ethics, but not his sanity or logic. Only one Frenchman pull off the killing of the Tsar, but first only one man can get that one Frenchman. Confused? You should be. The one man who can get that one Frenchman is Commissioner Blondin, a whispy gent in a three piece suit who takes out three sailors in a bar brawl to establish his tough guy thin waisted credentials. That Hollywood action scene from an '80s direct to video movie done, we learn the one Frenchman who can kill the Tsar: Bonnot, an anarchist believed to have been killed by the cops in a 1912 shootout. But, no, turns out cranky old man kept him in a prison, illegally. The prison: Chateu d'If, which is now in the hands of the Not Vichy WWI France. Our Blondin teams up with Legionnaries and dons black gear from a '70s thriller and infiltrates the prison. One of the men helping him: Joseph Tito. Why? Because this is what AH must do: celebrity appearances.
Next, Renee Fock (see what I mean?) is going to fly our anarchist and copper into Switzerland to get him in contact with the anarchists there to our heroes into Russia. Along the way, they are ambushed by a Fokker plane piloted by... go on... guess... That's right the Red Baron. Hell, at this point, they would have scored originality points if they'd made it Goering. Anyway, they get into Geneva, an ineptly drawn shoot out results and our two Frenchmen must seek shelter with a former pal of Bonnot: Victor Serge, who name drops his pal Lenin (who shows up in the sequel).
That brings us to the sequel. The first thing we see: Stalin, planning a heist where he mows down 40 people Scarface style and uses a big cartoon bomb the size of a cannonball with a fuse sticking out. Stalin is being helped by the copper and anarchist to get the locals to help the two Frenchmen kill the Tsar. Stalin's violence much disgusts our whispy Blondin, but Trotsky plays peacemaker and takes away the Frenchmen and Lenin tells Stalin to not whack the two just yet. Stalin's all like, "But, I'm a Georgian! And we do not forget slights!" By the way, that's actual dialogue from the comic. At this point I was rather hoping Stalin would take out a Klingon dagger and promise a cask of bloodwine to the man who brings him the heart of Blondin, but that would be too silly, I guess.
But you know what is not silly apparently? A female German secret agent who wears a Prussian parade uniform looks like the Cate Blanchett in the Indiana Jones movie we'd all like to pretend did not exist. She is on the hunt for the Frenchmen and orders about Russian secret police and secret German police as well. They call her Fraulein Professor and every Russian and German official with a monocle has no problems at all taking orders from a woman in 1917. How progressive of them.
While in Russia, Blondin has second thoughts about hanging out with an anarchist sociopath, but their romance is strong enough to overcome such political difference and as Bonnot shows off his skills with using canned caviar tins to make explosions, Blondin begins to think about things and they bond over a lighthearted tale of how Blondin's dad was a Commie and sent off by the French government into New Caledonia. They share a bottle of vodka and I was rooting for these two crazy kids to end up together, but that doesn't happen. Though earlier in the story, Blondin turns down an offer of sex from a foxy gal they call Red Venus.
Stalin betrays the two Frenchmen to the Tsarist secret police, because you know... Stalin. The Russian troops move in our bromantic heroes, who are hiding out at the Smolny Institute (*groan*). In the mean time, one of the contacts in the Russian government who is aware of the anarchists and Bolsheviks working together to whack the Tsar wants to meet with the Frenchmen. He is a member of Duma. Now, quick, name a member of Duma in 1917. No, no, don't Google. Just the first name off the top of your head. The one you would know for a fact even a not particularly bright or motivated comic book writer would be able to know and spell? That's right: Kerensky.
Seems while the anarchist and the copper were doing their bit to jumpstart the Bolshevik Revolution to prolong the war against Germany (yes, yes, that indeed makes no sense, but we've come along so far, haven't we, lets just move along home), Kerensky cut his own separate deal with the French cranky old man and he wants to bring to Russia democracy, multi-party fair elections and escargot. Blondin races off to stop the Bolsheviks from going through with their plan, because Kerensky's plan is much better. But Stalin knocks him out and... leaves him locked up to be discovered by the Russian secret police, so that Blondin can escape, only to have his bicycle shot by the German Female Cate Blanchett, who is carrying a sniper's rifle wherever she goes. I know, I know, but come on, we're in the home stretch. Lets see this story through to its end.
Tragically, while Kerensky was planning his peaceful overthrow of the Tsar, Stalin used Bonnot's crazy anarchist bomb skills to kill the Tsar. Bonnot, horrified that his bomb was used to kill innocent people and not just the Tsar (we can do this, friends, we can do this, just hold off your disbelief for a couple more sentences). There is an overthrow of the Tsarist government. Cate Blanchett is shot by Bonnot's pals and he tortures her to learn the location of Blondin and rescues him, because love. He also learns the name of the man who has been betraying the cranky old man's plans to the Russians: Henri Rochefort. Considering he died in 1912, that would make the POD in 1912, but whatever, if a French comic book wants to make a terrible anti-Semite into the main villain I won't complain, like at all.
Blondin and his heterosexual life partner Bonnot then help Russian democracy and anarchy by blowing up Stalin, Trotsky and Lenin. This results in anarchists taking power by democratic means in Russia and somehow this helps the anti-German war effort in the East because Makhno (you knew he was showing up, admit it) has reorganized the Tsarist armies in Ukraine and outfitted them with armored cars and is leading an offensive to roll back the Germans. This completely disintegrates Germany that was on the cusp of winning the war just months ago and there is a Social Democratic uprising in Bavaria and a Bolshevik uprising in Berlin and soon the Free French of Algeria will invade France from the South and race to Paris. The End.
This was... something else.