José Luis Munuera had created the unexpected and excellent surprise last year with the publication of the first volume of ZORGLUB, The Daughter of Z. At the beginning of autumn, he reciprocates with a second album less brilliant, but effective, L'Apprenti méchant (Dupuis).
The Bad Apprentice is a pleasant story to read, certainly. You never get bored, it's rhythmic and without downtime. The drawing is still clean, but also always a little cold, borrowing as much from the Japanese influence of manga as from the universe of American animation. So it's good entertainment overall. But….
But while La Fille du Z was an album that could appeal to readers of all generations, this one is obviously aimed at a teenage readership, too clearly targeted. If only by the characteristics of the villain of service; a ten-year-old kid named Cedric (or Zédrik) who wants to become a wickedness intern with Zorglub. The problem is that the story focuses primarily on him and the characters of Zandra and her girlfriend Shine. Zorglub, on the other hand, is relegated to the rank of supporting role and only serves to establish the context for the others. He is the comic fool; A bit of a shame when you give your name to the series. Cédric/Zédrik is not very exciting and remains too superficial to be really interested in him. And the facts presented constitute only a series of successive events without establishing a real solid basis for the story. Another disadvantage: the coloring using pink and other tones of the same kind. We really too often have the feeling of reading a " girlie" comic.
Apart from these flaws, or the fact that Zédrik is finally dressed in a superhero costume (another one!), The Bad Apprentice remains an album in which we feel that the author had fun doing it. He is already working on the next volume (Lady Z a priori), which proves that his subject is close to his heart. And it feels great during reading. The passages featuring Zorglub, especially with his valet Fredorg, offer some good lines and the dialogues are generally well shot, even if they are less successful than those of the first volume.
In the end, even if The Villain Apprentice is not up to its predecessor, it keeps the debutante series afloat. However, it remains to be hoped that the third part will return to the height of The Daughter of the Z and that this volume 2 will have been only a parenthesis that Munuera has offered himself to have fun. The general public (the famous 7 to 77 years old) would indeed like to finally find the spirit of joyful and colorful adventures – guarantee of quality entertainment of Dupuis editions for generations – which were once (until 1995) the trademark of Spirou & Fantasio, series that was scuttled in 2018 by the publisher to the detriment of a SuperGroom , for the moment very unconvincing, or sinister and moralizing stories of Emile Bravo plunging the famous duo of characters into the context of the Second World War. Zorglub has the obvious potential to take a place that has been vacant for too long, but Munuera must not only want to address the youngest. To be continued in 2019.
