Line #21 ComicBook/TheWorldsOfAldebaran


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/logos_mondes_daldbaran.png]]
2	''The Worlds of Aldebaran'' (''Les Mondes d'Aldébaran'' in French) is a series of Franco-Belgian comics, created by the Brazilian artist Leo, consisting of three main cycles of albums, plus a spin-off one, published by Dargaud. Each of the mains is name after a separate planet colonised by humans and set on it.
3
4	Quite "hard" science-fiction, with attention given to the technology of the colonists and the native life of each planet, with a few breaks such as FTL and perhaps the powers of the mysterious "Mantrisse".
5
6	Each series follows a handful of characters as they face problems both personal and affecting the entire planet. Tends to have a tragic tone, with many of the problems arising from "the follies of humanity". The partial regression of technology among the colonists gives it a visual SpaceWestern feel.
7
8	[[folder:The series so far consists of:]]
9	* ''Aldébaran'' cycle:
10	** ''La Catastrophe'' (''The Catastrophe'' – 1994)
11	** ''La Blonde'' (''The Blonde'' – 1995)
12	** ''La Photo'' (''The Photo'' – 1996)
13	** ''Le Groupe'' (''The Group'' – 1997)
14	** ''La Créature'' (''The Creature'' – 1998)
15	* ''Bételgeuse'' cycle:
16	** ''La Planète'' (''The Betelgeuse Planet'' – 2000)
17	** ''Les Survivants'' (''The Survivors'' – 2001)
18	** ''L'Expédition'' (''The Expedition'' – 2002)
19	** ''Les Cavernes'' (''The Caves'' – 2003)
20	** ''L'Autre'' (''The Other'' – 2005)
21	* ''Antarès'' cycle:
22	** ''Episode 1'' (2007)
23	** ''Episode 2'' (2009)
24	** ''Episode 3'' (2010)
25	** ''Episode 4'' (2011)
26	** ''Episode 5'' (2013)
27	** ''Episode 6'' (2015)
28	* ''Survivants – Anomalies quantique'' (''Survivors – Quantum Anomalies'') spin-off cycle:
29	** ''Episode 1'' (2011)
30	** ''Episode 2'' (2012)
31	** ''Episode 3'' (2014)
32	** ''Episode 4'' (2016)
33	** ''Episode 5'' (2017)
34	* ''Retour sur Aldébaran'' (''Return to Aldebaran'') 5th (and currently last) cycle:
35	** ''Episode 1'' (2018)
36	** ''Episode 2'' (2019)
37	** ''Episode 3'' (2020)
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	----
41	!!Tropes:
42
43	%%* AbsentAliens: While each world has its own native life (and how!), there are no intelligent aliens; except, perhaps, the [[StarfishAliens Mantrisse]].
44	%%** Averted by the last volume of the Bételgeuse cycle: [[spoiler:a sentient [[HumanAliens alien]] from the Mantrisse home-world appears]].
45	%%** Averted also by the iums, a semi-sentients species.
46	%%** Also averted in the spin-off series ''Survivants'': the planet where the heroes crash had [[CatFolk some]] [[InsectoidAliens sentient]] [[HumanoidAliens aliens]].
47	%%** And finally averted with the last volume of the Antarès cycle: [[spoiler:the alien race from the last volume of Bételgeuse make a first contact with humanity]].
48	%%* AboveTheInfluence: Hector, leading to MistakenForGay.
49	* ActionGirl:
50	** Alexa Komarova, who in her 139 years alive has had plenty of time to practice dishing out the ass-whooping.
51	** Kim Keller, after being the TagalongKid in the first albums, becomes TheHero of the series.
52	** Manon, the main character of the ''Survivors'' spin-of, too:[[spoiler: DadTheVeteran was a religious extremist. No, not [[TheFundamentalist that kind]], more of [[WellIntentionedExtremist that kind]], he had a strong belief that [[BeliefMakesYouStupid Religion Makes You Stupid]] so he [[StuffBlowingUp blows churches, temples and other religious buildings]]. Oh, and [[RaisedbyOrcs he raised her]].]]
53	* AlienSky: Aldébaran-4 has two moons, Antarès-5 has five of them.
54	** Also the quantum time anomalies on GJ 1347-4 can make visible "time cut" on the sky: night and day, sunny and rainy sky, etc.
55	* AllThereInTheManual: Much of the information about the planets or events from the first space colonization are done out of the narration.
56	* AnimalEyes: At first glance, the only thing noticeably off about Lynn are her eyes, which have vertical slits for pupils. Kim passes this off as a rare deformity, while Lorna takes to calling Lynn "the lizard baby".
57	* BaldOfEvil: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. While not all bald characters are portrayed as villains, such as Jedediah Thornton and the women in his church, baldness seems to serve as a sign of a certain wrongness or anomaly pertaining to the character in question, be it the non-human Tsalterians, Mai Lan whose baldness is caused by a biological defect (later "fixed" by the Mantrisse) or [[TroubledTeen Lorna]], who starts growing out her hair once she gains some confidence and maturity.
58	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: According to Sven, this trope can be applying to Jedediah Thornton but also to a large portion of humanity.
59	* BizarreAlienBiology: One of the main appeals of the series is the various and strange alien fauna.
60	* BlackBestFriend: June, an old college friend of Kim's with whom she temporarily lives in Paris after the events of ''Betelgeuse'', doesn't appear to do much besides ask Kim about her love life and hype up her sex appeal.
61	* BlessedWithSuck: The longevity and superhuman healing factor bestowed by the Mantrisse certainly ''sounds'' enviable to anyone who hasn't experienced it; the reality of it is shown to be a tad more existentially horrifying. Alexa has a full-on breakdown in ''Betelgeuse'' due to not having physically aged in over a hundred years, while Kim admits that the whole thing just tends to make her feel like little more than a test subject.
62	%%* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Mantrisse.
63	* BodyHorror: ''Whatever'' happens to the people and creatures stung by the miniature drones in ''Antares'' makes them progressively disappear by making every layer of their skin vanish before even their skeleton shrinks down to nothing. [[spoiler: Watching it happen to [[WouldHurtAChild little baby Lynn is particularly disturbing]].]]
64	* ButICantBePregnant: Kim gets a medical checkup in preparation for the Antares-5 expedition and is happily informed by the doctor that she is pregnant. Kim denies this, citing that she hasn't had sex in years. [[OhCrap And then she remembers Sven]].
65	* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Kim clearly states she has had [[RefusalOfTheCall more than enough dangerous adventures to last her a lifetime]], and really just wants to go home to Aldebaran and live out the rest of her days undisturbed. Her retirement plans are thwarted again and again, namely when the CEO of Forward Enterprises decides she'd make a perfect spokeswoman for his colony project, and when her fling with an alien catches up with her in the form of a retroactive accidental pregnancy.
66	* CassandraTruth: Driss in his first appearance, warning the inhabitants of the DoomedHometown that something bad is coming for them.
67	* CatFolk: Antac and his wife Selkert in the ''Survivors'' spin-off, who resemble a mountain lion and a leopard, respectively.
68	* CelibateHeroine: Alexa is rarely if ever involved in any kind of romance plot, which marks a sharp contrast with her friend [[TheDulcineaEffect Kim]].
69	* CensorshipBureau: On Aldébaran, state censors are assigned to newspapers.
70	* ChurchPolice: Senior police positions are held by clergy.
71	%%* ComingOfAgeStory: The first few albums are this for Marc.
72	* CoolAirship: The double zeppelin in ''La Créature'' probably qualifies. The album before also has a very cool-looking military zeppelin.
73	%%* CoolOldGuy: Monsieur Pad.
74	* CorruptChurch:
75	** Aldebaran itself (the first colonized planet) became a theocracy shortly after colonization. The series describes itself as "humanistic".
76	** More obvious with the third series, Antares, with the heroes regularly clashing with the [[ChurchMilitant extremely religious]] colonists they are supposed to help.
77	* CrapsackWorld: Earth is polluted and overpopulated, and out of three other planets colonized, two have produced oppressive regimes within years of colonisation and within days of landing the third is moving in the same direction.
78	* CreatorProvincialism: A lot of the colonists on Aldebaran (including the highest government authorities), appear to be of Brazilian origin, at least judging by their names and appearance.
79	%%* CultColony: The plan for Antares, though some colonists object.
80	* {{Deuteragonist}}: The first cycle of books starts with Marc as the protagonist and Kim as the TagalongKid. But as the series progresses, Kim first becomes the deuteragonist and then the true protagonist, with Marc being relegated into a supporting role.
81	* DoomedHometown: The first series starts with a stranger coming to the heroes' village, warning them of the imminent arrival of [[EldritchAbomination a massive, incredibly dangerous sea creature]] which will cause the annihilation of their village. And of course, the villagers don't trust him...
82	* DrivenToSuicide:
83	** Bert and Phi Ahn hang themselves after their daughter is taken away to serve as breeding stock.
84	** Some trapped crew members of the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky kill themselves with pills.
85	** Jedediah Thornton throws himself off the side of the ship after Sven, the alien he so wanted to meet, gives him a thorough TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
86	* DudeMagnet: Kim. Let's count them, shall we? [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend Marc Sorensen]], [[LikesOlderWomen Hector Albornoz]], [[FriendsWithBenefits Toshiro Matsuda]], [[DoggedNiceGuy lieutenant Steve Hudson]], [[StalkerWithACrush Sven]], [[HospitalHottie Dr Amos Blum]], and Leilah Nakad's son [[{{Fanboy}} Samir]] is a minor one. Oh, and [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Lorna White]].
87	* DwindlingParty: The rescue mission on Antares-5 progressively loses more and more members: One man dies on arrival when the pod crash lands. Aninka is wounded and remains comatose for most of the trip (before eventually succumbing to internal bleeding). [[WeHardlyKnewYe Zhou's unnamed friend]] is stung by a venomous sand dwelling crustacean, and later [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Zhou]] absconds with the canoe and is never seen again. [[DeathOfAChild Erwan's death]] is particularly jarring, as he gets entirely drained of his blood by a giant cave dwelling leech, and yet is still isn't as jarring as [[BodyHorror what happens to Lynn]].
88	* EldritchAbomination: The Mantrisse appears as this. It certainly has no ill-will towards humans, it simply doesn't realise they are any different from other forms of life. One of the [[spoiler:Bételgeuse ones even has tentacles of sorts.]]
89	* EvilDetectingBaby: Kim's daughter Lynn has an instinct for when things are about to go horribly wrong.
90	* FairCop: Officer Nora Hutton is a member of the law enforcement team assigned to project Antares by the United Nations. She's first seen admiring Alexa's [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown handiwork]] when she saves Mai Lan from an attempted gang rape. The next time we see her is when she frees Alexa from her cell so that she can go and save Kim and the gang, which is when she also informs Alexa of the recent sectarian drift which has cost Hutton her position on the force. Thankfully, she later gets her job back, and even rescues Lorna from her violently abusive parents.
91	* FishPeople: Tsalterians are hairless, have gills and also fins which they seem to shed at certain stages.
92	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The Thornton brothers. Jedediah is a self-important religious fanatic while his brother Elijah, head of the Antares colony project, comes accross as more down-to-earth and reasonable. That said, he has no qualms over cutting corners on space travel maintenance (with disastrous results) and lets Jedediah get away with a hell of a lot more than should be acceptable.
93	** The brothers Liang have shades of this: Zhou is younger and more reckless, given that he stowed away illegally aboard a spaceship. He's belligerent, as seen when he picks a fight with John Nash, and is admonished by Zao for favoring violence as a solution to problems. In the end, Zhou steals the rescue team's boat and leaves, never to be seen again and is presumed dead; Zao is older, more serious and responsible, and actively volunteered to be among the first to travel to Antares-5 knowing full well that, should the colonization project fail, he would be left stranded. He also sticks to his principles, as shown when [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules he tells Elijah Thornton where to stick it]], and is possibly one of the only male characters who ''isn't'' sexually interested in Kim.
94	* ForbiddenZone: The giant swamps strike fear in all Aldébaran inhabitants, and no one dares go there or even fly over them.
95	* GenericCuteness: You have to take the characters' word about who is more attractive.
96	%%* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler: Kim's daughter, Lynn]].
97	* HairColorDissonance: Alexa's very distinctive white hair is repeatedly described as being blonde by other characters.
98	* HormoneAddledTeenager: Mai Lan suddenly starts acting like this after her encounter with the Mantrisse, which hints that it might be a side effect.
99	** Erwan's sole apparent personality trait in ''Antares''.
100	* HumanPopsicle: Colony ships are filled with these.
101	%%* IdiotHero: Marc Sorensen, in the first cycle.
102	* InformedAttractiveness: Kim's beauty is brought up often enough in-universe that she's a bit of a DudeMagnet as an adult. Yet her looks don't really stand out among the other women in the cast.
103	* InhumanableAlienRights: The UN has created rules for dealing with intelligent life should it be found, but unfortunately [[spoiler:was too Human-centric in defining what would constitute intelligence.]]
104	* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Mai Lan is one in-universe (not so much on a meta level). She's introduced in ''Betelgeuse'' book 1 happily walking around topless despite being probably in her late teens. The "innocent" part has somewhat gone by ''Antares'', where Mai Lan is now in her twenties and more brazen, in her pursuit of Marc most especially.
105	* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Weirdly averted on Aldébaran. Even though representatives of all races have been living perfectly mixed for a century on Aldébaran, and that extends to tiny villages where the same small gene pool has existed for nearly all that time, there's no evidence of intermixing whatsoever.
106	* JustFollowingOrders: Inspector Stutz stays away from politics, just wanting to be a good policeman (which he isn't). He's mocked for this.
107	* LeaderWannabe: Jedediah is convinced that he's in charge of the expedition launched in ''Antares'' book 5, when in reality he's only along for the trip by virtue of being the head honcho's brother.
108	%%* LovableRogue: Monsieur Pad.
109	* LoveDodecahedron: Most notably in ''Antares'': Kim and Marc are a couple. Mai Lan is attracted to Marc and he more or less reciprocates. Amos is attracted to Kim and she absolutely reciprocates. Lorna is crushing on Kim, who doesn't pay her any mind because she's just a kid.
110	* MadeOfIron: A side effect of encountering the Mantrisse is an oddly convenient HealingFactor, to the point where Kim survives a bullet to the stomach without any kind of proper medical care.
111	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: A rather interesting variant is sometimes used where the characters themselves are moved to the background for a single frame, so that some random NatureDocumentary type event can be highlighted in the foreground.
112	%%* MurderWater: One way the Mantrisse might manifest.
113	%%* NippleAndDimed: The series has both shown and avoided this trope.
114	* NoBiochemicalBarriers: [[spoiler:Lynn's father is an alien. See HalfHumanHybrid. However, several characters speculate that it was made possible by the changes the Mantrisse brought about in Kim's body.]]
115	** In the third and last episode of ''Retour sur Aldébaran'' it's revealed that [[spoiler:a precursor species modified proto-humanoids to help them evolve and then seeded them on different planets all over the galaxy. It is unknown if the species was from Earth or from a different planet, so it's not actually certain where "human-like intelligent life" originated yet.]]
116	* NoMusicAllowed: Music is forbidden by the corrupt government of Aldébaran.
117	* NervousWreck: Having spent the first volumes of the ''Antares'' cycle putting up a tough and no-nonsense front, Deputy Commander Ashley Scott turns out to be this when confronted with the dangerously unpredictable local fauna. Scott admits to Kim that she's terrified of dense jungle environments and creepy crawlies, and that she came along for the expedition as a way of getting over that fear.
118	* NumberedHomeworld: Aldebaran-4, Betelgeuse-6 and Antares-5 respectively, though for the sake of convenience, the number is dropped in everyday conversation, when it's clear that one means the planet and not the star.
119	* ParentalSubstitute: Kim alternates between this and CoolBigSis towards Mai Lan.
120	* PhlebotinumBreakdown: The FTL communication with Earth breaks down after landing on Aldebaran and is not up again a hundred years later, when its series is set.
121	%%* PoliceState: Aldebaran.
122	* PokemonSpeak: Iums were named this way.
123	* PrecociousCrush: Lorna, a teenager, briefly has a crush on Kim, who is in her mid-twenties.
124	* RelationshipRevolvingDoor: Kim and Marc, who have broken up and gotten back together thrice over the course of the story. That said, none of their break-ups have ever been based on anything but bad timing, and they remain very good friends outside of their relationship.
125	* SarcasticConfession: When asked about her mysterious past, Manon states that maybe she was an [[spoiler:ex-terrorist or an ex-bank robber.]] This is revealed true in the next volume.
126	* SceneryPorn: Especially on Bételgeuse. Often as a backdrop for fauna porn.
127	* SheIsAllGrownUp: Kim when Marc gets out of prison.
128	* SingleBiomePlanet: Aldebaran-4 is mostly ocean with a few scattered islands, Betelgeuse-6 is a desert world with most of the vegetation confined to deep river canyons. Averted with Antares-5 which has a varied biosphere.
129	* SingleSpecimenSpecies: The mantrisse, [[spoiler: at least in the first cycle. Later it turns out that it wasn't native to Aldébaran, and there are more on other worlds.]]
130	* SinisterMinister: Algeron Loomis. It doesn't help that he's top cop in a police state.
131	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Kim Keller has trouble dealing with it once [[SheIsAllGrownUp grown up]], mostly because of [[DCupDistress her chest]].
132	* TheSociopath: George Dixon from ''Betelgeuse'' is a rude and callous man who barely displays any emotion and has a nasty habit of shooting anything on sight, and refuses to acknowledge or understand why that is not always necessary. This eventually culminates in Dixon shooting Kim in the stomach at close range during an argument, after which Steve, ''the nicest person on the team'', finally snaps and gives him a long time-coming, very well deserved NoHoldsBarredBeatDown.
133	* SomeCallMeTim: Eldermore Paderevsky, a.k.a. monsieur Pad.
134	* SourPrudes: Jedediah Thornton. His unnamed church (read: cult) is full of these to an absurd degree, to the point where the women are made to wear inflatable bodysuits to conceal their figures and happily dish out a dose of SlutShaming to any woman who doesn't.
135	* TagalongKid: Kim Keller in ''Aldebaran''.
136	** Mai Lan in ''Betelgeuse''.
137	** Lorna, Erwan and Lynn in ''Antares''.
138	** Pam in ''Survivors''.
139	* TimeTravel:
140	** [[QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything Quantum FTL jumps]] do that. Each planet is located in a different "place" on the timeline and FTL jumps travel in time according to that position.
141	** Oh, there are some quantum anomalies on the planet of the ''Survivors'' spin-off and its appends sometimes. [[spoiler:Notably for four characters of the cast.]]
142	* TouchedByVorlons: [[spoiler:The few humans who have encountered the Mantrisse have become functionally immortal.]]
143	%%* TheTrickster: Monsieur Pad regularly shows ImmortalImmaturity.
144	* TroubledTeen: Lorna White initially presents herself as a sullen, rebellious troublemaker. Having secretly snuck out of the Robert Godard via a reserve vehicle with her friend Erwan, she is found by Kim Keller and the Antares-5 recon team and proceeds to make a nuisance of herself at every turn, namely refusing to pull her weight and stirring up drama in order to get [[CelebrityCrush Kim's]] attention. Lynn's abduction and Erwan's death snap Lorna out of it and she is reduced to the terrified little kid she truly is beneath her grumpy exterior, which only gets worse when the team gets back to base and meets [[AbusiveParents Lorna's horrible father]], who just so happens to be the same cultist who tried to rape Mai Lan. [[HopeSpot Lorna gets some respite when Alexa protects her from her father, and even excitedly tells Mai Lan about her new girlfriend]], but her homophobic parents decide to ruin that too. The next time we see Lorna is when the police find her manacled in her parents' bathroom, with several broken teeth and a black eye. By the end you really just want to give the poor kid a hug.
145	* UnevenHybrid: Kim and Sven's daughter Lynn takes noticeably more from her human side than her Tsalterian side, namely the fact that she does grow hair, unlike the bald aliens, and lacks the odd, flat nose they all have. Lampshaded when Lynn meets her father, as they both agree it's a good thing she inherited Kim's nose and not Sven's.
146	%%* WhamEpisode: Aldebaran Cycle, ''La Photo'' ("The Picture"), third album in the series. Specifically, the [[WhamLine last page]].

Context ComicBook / TheWorldsOfAldebaran