The 1959 album cover
La Griffe noire (The Black Claw) is a comic book by Jacques Martin. It was first published in Tintin magazine in 1957-1959. Then it was published as a comic album in 1959. This is the fifth episode of the Alix series.
Alix is invited by his cousin Pétrone to Pompeii. The old friends of his cousin are successively attacked: they are hit in their back by a claw and they get paralyzed. Alix will soon discover that Pétrone and his friends are responsible for the destruction of Icara, a city in North Africa, and that a group of North African now seeks revenge.
La Griffe noire provides examples of the following tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Nubio and Rafa use a hypocaust duct to get into Gallas's house.
- Ancient Rome: The story begins in the Roman city of Pompeii.
- Artistic License – History: There was no Carthaginian settlement in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Best Served Cold: Pétrone and his friends destroyed Icara 30 years ago. Now a group of North Africans seeks revenge.
- Big Damn Heroes: Aguro is going to kill Enak. Alix and Servio burst in, hanging on lianas, and save Enak.
- Bittersweet Ending: Alix only brings one dose of antidote, so he can only treat Claudius. The other victims of the black claw remain paralyzed.
- Brainwashed: Rafa hypnotizes Alix, orders him to walk on the roof and tries to make him fall from it. Later, he hypnotizes Gallas to make him fall into a pool so that he drowns himself. In the temple, Rafa hypnotizes Pétrone and a whole platoon of Roman soldiers, so that they get out of the temple. He tries to hypnotize Alix again, but it does not work. In Africa, he unsuccessfully tries to hypnotize Aguro.
- The Cavalry: Pétrone and his servants arrive in the cemetary when Alix and Enak are going to be caught by Nubio.
- Character Witness: Alix and Servio save a black child who a gorilla attacked. The chief of the child's tribe decide not to kill them immediately, as he was supposed to do, to thank them.
- Chekhov's Volcano: Remarkably Averted. There are two volcanos: the Vesuvius in Pompeii and Mount Rukazori in Africa and none of them erupts.
- Darkest Africa: This depiction of ancient Africa includes the usual clichés: the thick jungle, the wildlife and the Hollywood Natives.
- Distressed Dude:
- Alix is hypnotized by Rafa. Rafa orders him to walk on the roof and tries to make him fall from it.
- Enak is kidnapped by Aguro's tribe. Aguro is going to kill him when Servio and Alix intervene.
- Evil Wears Black: The Big Bad, Rafa, wears a black toga.
- Flashback: The destruction of Icara is told by Gallas in a flashback.
- Hollywood Natives: The African natives are scantily clad. They are superstitious and gullible. They play Jungle Drums.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Rafa has hypnotic eyes and he uses them to brainwash Alix, Gallas, Pétrone and a whole platoon of Roman soldiers.
- Jungle Drums: The African natives play drums. The Romans are worried when they hear it from their camp.
- Killer Gorilla: A gorilla attacks a black child in the forest. Alix and Servio save him.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Instead of simply killing Alix, Rafa hypnotizes him, orders him to walk on the roof and tries to make him fall from it to make it look like an accident.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The guy who attacks Pétrone's friends wears a face-concealing mask with cat-like ears.
- Must Make Amends: Alix accidentally caused Claudius's paralysis, so he is determined to find an antidote.
- Mysterious Note: Enak and Alix find one in Pétrone's garden. This leads them to a cemetary, where they find a second one.
- The Natives Are Restless: Before the attack of the Roman camp, the natives are seen dancing frenetically. The narrator tells that the black men are overexcited.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Alix, Enak and Servio follow a river full of dangerous crocodiles.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After seizing the claw, Alix leaves it on a cushion next to Claudius. During his sleep, the boy turns around and he gets hurt by the claw, so he gets paralyzed.
- Nightmare Sequence: Alix sees Rafa in a dream and Rafa asks him not to treat the victims of the black claw.
- The Paralyzer: Rafa and his henchmen use a poison to paralyze the officers responsible for the destruction of Icara.
- Pirate: Pirates attack Alix's ship on the way back to Pompeii.
- Poor Communication Kills: After the disappearance of the Roman emissaries, the Romans do not bother asking the Icarans what happened, they wrongly assume that the Icarans have killed them and they decide to attack the city.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: It happens when the Romans attack Icara: they completely destroy the city.
- The Siege: The Roman camp on the coast of Africa is besieged by the African natives.
- Snakes Are Sinister: When Alix, Enak and Servio start following the river, they need to hide from a hostile tribe under a tree. There, a snake threatens to bite them, but Alix manages to kill it.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Alix sees Rafa in a dream and Rafa asks him not to treat the victims of the black claw.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The whole population of Pompeii wants to attack the temple after the death of Gallas.
- Unwitting Pawn: The African tribes that Rafa manipulates. He tells them that Alix came to Africa to enslave them.
- Vine Swing: Used by Servio and Alix to free Enak when he is going to be killed by Aguro.
