Written by: Marc Legendre
Animations: Charel Cambré
Publisher: Standaard Uitgeverij
Amoras, innocence lost
Dynamic duos are always catchy, be it in movies, games or comic books. In 1945, Willy Vandersteen started out with a duo called The Adventures of Rikki and Wiske, which did not survive for that long. Well, at least Rikki didn’t make the cut. Soon after the new duo, Suske and Wiske was forged and along the way, the comics saw releases not only in Belgium but the United Kingdom and the States as well. ‘Suske en Wiske’, ‘Bob et Bobette’, ‘Willy and Wanda’ and ‘Spike and Suzy’ were all the different names given to this adventurous duo of children that had a supporting family for all their adventures to come. To celebrate the 100th birthday of Willy Vandersteen, who sadly passed away in 1990, the company behind the series decided to do a ‘reboot for adults’ to commemorate their spiritual father. Soon after, Amoras was born and after that J.Rom – Force of Gold, which is based on one of the Suske and Wiske books’ characters, also saw the light. We had the chance to take a look at the first four issues of Amoras and the first issue of J.Rom (Which will be discussed in a separate article). Be warned, spoilers ahead! (Don’t worry, we’ll keep certain items fairly vague.)
Amoras issues 1-4
Suske and Wiske are back, but not in the child friendly manner many of its original fans know them. The overall setting has drastically changed and now Suske and Wiske are truly a part of our world, with a raging financial crisis, unemployment and an overall gritty atmosphere. Luckily not everything from original charming comic books have been cancelled, namely professor ‘Barabas’ is still present with his time machine, an invention that will be the center of the entire Amoras series.
‘Lambik’, the meddling middle aged man who aids Suske and Wiske on their adventures is still in the story, as well as ‘Jerom’, the heroic strongman. Both still stick together like glue, even when they don’t agree with each other most of the time. Lambik and Jerom are two of the unfortunate people that have been struck by the ongoing crisis and thus as a result they have lost their jobs and means of an income. This is a great opportunity for Lambik to do an appeal on his meddling skills, which seem to come very naturally, and come up with a plan to prevent the crisis. This plan seems to revolve around the earlier mentioned time machine. Lambik wants to flash back in time in order to prevent the crisis and make sure he does not lose his job. Overall an admirable idea, if it wasn’t for its execution, namely behind the back of professor Barabas.
Suske and Wiske are watching over the lab of professor Barabas, seeing he is on his way to a conference to come up for ideas to improve the quality of life on our planet. Wiske decides to goof off and suggest playing around with the time machine, which already sounds like something that might be a bit risky, especially with the good professor abroad. When messing around with the machine, which has been set to ‘the island of Amoras in 2047’, they hear a strange noise which seems to come from a set of burglars sneaking their way inside. Their only solution seems to be hiding inside of the time machine capsule, in order to avoid being detected. Little did they know the suspected burglars were none other than Lambik and Jerom, which had a ‘date’ of their own with the time machine.
When Lambik starts messing around with the time machine, things go bad really quick. The machine catches fire, Suske and Wiske are zapped to Amoras in 2047 and the machine explodes, leaving no option for the duo to return. Lambik sees no other solution to get drunk and drown his sorrow when he finds out who was in the time machine. Instead of taking action, you will be annoyed about the lack of action. Jerom however motivates him to bring home the news to their aunt ‘Sidonia’, who also played an important role in the original series. Upon hearing the news, their aunt ends up in the loony bin, in which she stays for most of the time, over the course of the four issues we have read. That being said, even she knows it’s time for action and she does not sit still in coming up with a plan.
Luckily Suske and Wiske have aged a tad, making them teenagers that have a lot of experience with different kinds of adventures. Sadly, the island Amoras in 2047 does not seem like the ideal place for a normal adventure because the island has been torn up by war. Add up the fact that Suske and Wiske have each been zapped to another location, does not improve the situation. Another bad omen is the fact that ‘Krimson’, their arch nemesis, is behind all of the suffering that took place and is currently taking place on Amoras. It seems he has also found out a way to be in two time periods at once. This is actually the main plot of Amoras.
Suske meets ‘Jérusalem’, a girl that has something up her sleeves and not in a positive sense. She tends to use manipulative tactics and is not afraid to use violence in many situations. Jérusalem seems to be the character that compromises the original cast’s innocence and she succeeds very well in doing so. Whilst Suske was happy to have her at his side in many situations, it feels as if he traded in one evil for another. The heroic characters don’t seem to realize what is going on and what Jérusalem might be capable of.
The story progresses with, Barabas ending up in one of Krimson’s evil ploys, namely designing a new time machine, or at least improving one in the hands of Krimson. This creates a chance for the rest of the party to either go look for Suske and Wiske or to get them back. Sadly Barabas is not informed of the situation or the fact that Krimson is actually going back and forth to the same time period as our two young heroes. When Barabas gets informed of the situation, Lambik decides to get in the way again and zap his way to Amoras himself, creating new conflicts along the way. Well, getting in the way might be too harsh because Barabas soon encounters a new bump along the road after getting kidnapped by someone else.
Overall the flow of the story is fairly rapid, as many action scenes quickly follow up on each other. Suske and Wiske’s innocence is getting tested and they will have to deal out a fair amount of punches, kicks, swearing and more, in order to survive in the desolate wasteland. The story switches back and forward between the present time, the future and between the different characters. Brace yourself for some nudity and blood splatters along the way. It’s clear that Marc Legendre had a great story in mind for Amoras.
That being said, the series still presents us with a decent amount of humorous moments in order to break the tension. This does not only create a nostalgic feeling but it shows that even in dire situations something funny can do a lot to lighten the mood.
Character wise all the characters have been adapted quite nicely to their new grim surroundings and some characters even had certain features enhanced. Whilst Lambik looks a tad more realistic, his annoying character traits have been enhanced to the point that you truly get annoyed by his actions. Jerom stays his silent self, with an occasion wise suggestions with the same good grammar than Yoda would use. Sidonia and Barabas act a lot like they would in the original comic books but in the end it’s all about Suske and Wiske. Both characters have aged and matured a lot, making them a lot more realistic as well. It’s clear they are having troubles adjusting to a more violent surrounding, which makes them do things they normally would not do in the original series. A fun evolution to some, whilst other may disagree with me on that matter.
The art style differs a lot from the original colorful drawings with the now darker and more mature style of the comic books. That being said, the talented Charel Cambré did a wonderful job in making the art for this reboot for adults. Violent scenes are graphic, whilst at the same time not too graphic, still making the series accessible for younger teens as well. The overall atmosphere gets an extra boost with the ‘bland’ color palette making the world of Amoras even more grim. Overall the pages are divided in a traditional comic book layout with the occasional set of ‘blended pictures’ along the way.
Conclusion
The first four issues of Amoras prove us that Suske and Wiske and their friends and foes are able to pull off more adult roles. Not only are the drawings great, the story is certainly on par with great action novels and adventure tales alike. Whilst it’s pretty impossible to grade four issues at the same time, it is easy to say that we are looking forward to the fifth issue.
Amoras, innocence lost,
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