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The antagonists.
The definition of the world of Martin Mystery has over time achieved a high degree of focus through the development of a punctual and coherent continuity within which an elf and a group of variegated villains move.
SERGEJ ORLOFF: or rather, the unexpected and incomprehensible end of a splendid friendship, born during the course of their studies and cemented daily through their shared love of art and archeology, their mutual enjoyment of culture and passion for beautiful women.
But Orloff's character has recently acquired a new and extraordinary dimension. In "Xanadu" (giant album n.2), after the umpteenth violent encounter in the course of which Orloff loses his mechanical arm, Sergej and Martin discover that they each have inexplicably erased from their minds some very important events: Orloff, despite the fact that plastic surgery fully restored the integrity of his face, unconsciously continues to wear his protective mask. As for Martin, he has not used his ray weapon and, after having hidden it in a waterproof container located in his aquarium, he nearly forgot about it. Between the two men, signs of friendships, never fully erased, begin to return slowly and the comparison with their old teacher, Kut Humi, opens the scenario of a new existence to them: "you have life ahead of you. As always, as in every instance of your past lives you have the possibility to choose… With one advantage, compared to most humans: destiny has given you the ability to reflect on yourselves and on your relationships. You are now ready to choose for the best. I only hope that you have understood.". MEN IN BLACK: known from the earliest times of civilization, they constitute an obscure sect whose goal is to destroy historical relics, testimony, documents and anything else that might disrupt the order on which societies, economies and power have been founded for centuries. The careful insertion of many of their members into the most important political, industrial, cultural and religious organizations favors the operations of the sect rendering it substantially invulnerable. The very nature of the mission, blindly aimed to eliminate everything which does not coincide with what normally is accepted by science and other official disciplines, places the Men in Black in an ideologically polarized position to Martin because what they represent is contrary to the evolution of humanity and history. MISTER JINX: this mysterious and original "technological devil" with his Mefistofelian pointy beard and his refined dialectic, is able to realize, thanks to his highly advanced computer knowledge, to his innate entrepreneurial gifts and his total lack of scruples, the most secret and prohibited aspirations of man: from the ability to choose and pilot one's own dreams to the possibility to create unlimited time or relive happy moments of one's existence. The fascination and seduction of the services offered by Mister Jinx to his incautious and wealthy clients are equaled by their dangers: it may happen, in fact, that the biological processes of some unfortunate victim undergoing treatment might be altered irreversibly, causing unpleasant consequences. DEE & KELLY: every two summers, as punctually as death and taxes, we find on GOUM's path two very nice and clumsy swindlers. The corpulent one with the mustache is John Dee, who maintains that he is descended from the same John Dee who was a necromancer, mathematician and astronomer in the XVI century. The other one, small and awkward, is Edward Kelly: his ancestor, a grave robber, medium and swindler, curiously would have been an associate of the 15th century Dee. Busy systematically elaborating their wicked and machiavellian plans, they have an authentic dislike for the "contemptible nerd" (to use Kelly's definition), motivated by the fact that Martin, even without desiring to, often and willfully interferes with their activities. The adventures of these two characters are rendered more precious by the soft figure of Angie, a sensual and ingenuous stripper who is candidly unconscious of her personal erotic potential and, to add to that, very capable of getting herself into trouble. In these episodes, willfully placed in a tragicomic key, Castelli finds a way to uncover an irrefrainable satiric vein: the epiteths and lines that Dee coins for his colleague are absolutely exhilarating and worthy of appearing in an anthology on humour.
A multimedia character.
The character of Martin Mystery has progressively extended itself well beyond the confines of the regular series, confirming a great ductility of this character. The extraordinary credibility conferred on him by his creator, Alfredo Castelli, clothes GOUM with virtues and defects that are profoundly human (and even very autobiographical), even in his inevitable and unbounded superhero moments, soliciting in the reader a process of identification that, in my opinion, can prove to be very formative. Nor should it be reproachable that Martin at this time represents an ideal testimonial for those initiatives that, from time to time, offer an occasion to bring together the comic medium with social efforts, respect for the environment, the broadening of cultural horizons. The frequent contacts that Martin has had with the world of school are particularly successful and productive when examined from this perspective.
Martin Mystery is waiting for you at his official site!!! www.bvzm.com. |
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