Largo Winch: The Heir — Philippe Francq & Jean Van Hamme
Anti-establishment. Womanizer. Wanderer. Iconoclast. Meet Largo Winch — the man who, at 26, just inherited the W Group — a multi-national corporation that’s worth well over $10 Billion. That’s the character Jean Van Hamme created to be the starring hero of a series that takes readers into the dangerously seductive world of corporate boardrooms and unscrupulous men who play for the highest stakes.
It’s no surprise then, that the books inspired a video game, a TV series and two movies — one of which starred Sharon Stone.
In the world of comic books, the possibility of mature-themed comics was introduced to the English-speaking world in the late ’70s by Will Eisner’s A Contract with God. But that never really took off till Alan Moore came out with Watchmen in the mid-80s. The European comic book scene has always been ahead of the west on that count.
In America, the superhero took off in a big way, and some forty years later, introduced realism by giving their characters more depth and making them ‘flawed’ (read ‘human’). Europeans, however, stuck to storytelling through more realistic characters like Tintin, and superheroes were caricaturized to the point of humor — like Asterix. But they almost always based themselves in real places, and were invariably injected with humor (like Lucky Luke). So, the books were usually founded in realism. It was therefore easy for them to experiment with a more mature theme targeting an older audience — even as far back as the early 70’s — which is when Van Hamme had the idea for a series based on an anti-hero thrown into the world of high finance and dirty business practices.
The project, however, didn’t take off since Van Hamme was busy with other commissioned projects that he had already committed to. But twenty years later, when he met Francq, the two decided to work together and revived the Largo Winch story. And in 1990, The Heir finally hit the stands. It was in French, of course… and the English translations only came out in 2008!
And now, for the story…
The plot opens in New York. It’s late evening and two men are talking in the garden of a penthouse. One is an old man in a wheelchair. The other has a gun. His face is never revealed. As you follow the conversation, you realize that the old man is Nerio Winch — the head of the W Group, and the man with the gun is one of his Board Members. The old man is thrown from the roof-top and meets his end on the pavement below.
Turn the page to see what happens next, and you’ll find yourself in a new chapter — one that opens in Istanbul where a young man is walking through an antique store and helps keep an Amercian tourist from being conned by the owner. Follow the conversation of the grateful tourist and you see that the young man is Largo Winch. But the tourist isn’t what he seems, and frames Largo for murder. From then on, it’s a roller coaster ride as Largo goes to prison, escapes, learns of Nerio’s death, and makes his way across Europe while avoiding gunmen hell bent on preventing him returning to New York on time to claim his legacy. Add to that beautiful women and exotic locales, and you’ll find yourself in a fast-paced action thriller. And with each step that gets Largo closer to his father’s killer, you get into flashbacks that tell you of his adoption, his life as a runaway, his first crush on a gypsy girl (when he also picked up an expertise for throwing knives), life in high-priced boarding schools, and learning the ropes of business for a month each year on a private island.
And when he does make it back, he’s faced with the challenge of identifying the Board Member who’s responsible for Nerio’s death, and who’s been trying to kill him.
Reading this book is like watching a movie. The art is life-like in detail, and you can see the lines on a person’s face in a panel. The exotic locales which invariably form the background for a majority of the frames are photographic in detail.
The Heir is the first in a series of 8 collections. Each of the stories focuses on corporate challenges that Largo faces from competing businessmen, corporate espionage, and mergers & acquisitions — making each a story is steeped in financial laws with notes spread out that explain international banking policies (especially those on money laundering). This adds a depth of realism to the stories that’ll make you feel that most war frontlines are kindergarten classrooms when compared to board rooms of corporate empires.
This one won’t win any awards, but if you like pop fiction, then this one’s for you.
