Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec...

or "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec" and Luc Besson's latest film, Adèle: Rise of the Mummy is the start of a trilogy of Adèle's adventures.

Who says only British humor is blokey?

The tales of a young, investigative reporter setting across the globe in search of myths and new discoveries with which to revolutionize the world; which one of us who were once "Adventures of Tintin" readers would resist this.

Rise of the Mummy stars Louise Bourgoin who, as you would have guess, plays the title character.

This film sets it's pace in the early 20th century, where a pterodactyl flies over Paris one fateful night and starts a chain reaction of events that lead to our heroine, a hot tempered and cynical headstrong Gallic cross between Lois Lane and Gertrude Bell, with a taste for high adventure, with the knack of finding herself in the strangest scrapes possible.

The film kicks into high gear we first see our heroine goes on a tomb raid in Egypt like a turn of the century Lara Croft and seeking out a centuries-old Mummy to take back to France, where she meets her rival, the evil Professor Dieuneveult (Mathieu Amalric) and invents a daring escape on the level of any feat Indiana Jones has ever attempted. Evil Arabs, avaricious fellow Europeans, a headstrong heroine ahead of her time...it looks like we’re set for a good colonial adventure along the lines of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I can imagine that the books and comics written and illustrated by Jacques Tardi would be imaginative reading, just as Tintin books and comics were. This is as close as I can get to a female Tintin. The difference? Adèle is about 70 years after Tintin, lacks a side-kick dog and fewer action scenes and car chases.

From my reading further, there are several more titles in Tardi's collection:-

1. Le démon de la tour Eiffel (The Demon of the Eiffel Tower) (1976)
2. Le savant fou (The Mad Scientist) (1977)
3. Momies en folie (Mummies on Parade) (1978)
4. Le secret de la salamandre (The Secret of the Salamander) (1981)
5. Le noyé à deux têtes (The Drowned Man with Two Heads) (1985)
6. Tous des monstres! (Monsters All!) (1994)
7. Le mystère des profondeurs (The Mystery of the Abyss) (1998)
8. Le labyrinthe infernal (2007)

I can only hope to see more of Luc Besson's work on a sequel. A refreshing change for once as I've seen enough of a lone, buffed-up ex-marine courier-for-hire wrecking nice German cards and imitating Jet-Li's moves on the silver screen.