Hosted by Glénat editions, the Comix Buro collection continues to score points with fresh or striking titles. Their new two-volume series Bettie Hunter invites you to follow a bounty hunter into the future. Will this trip be as successful as Amen or Valhalla Hotel?
Cosmic laughter
The job of bounty hunter is complicated and even more so when you are a woman. Like all stalking professionals, Bettie Hunter has no morals except respect for the customer… And it is not her last experience that will contradict her. For a pittance, she comes to retrieve the criminal Himmel by entering the body of a giant worm. Indeed, during the breeding season, this species stores its prey in its stomach. The screenwriter Aurélien Ducoudray takes up the codes of space opera, well known since Star Wars, while diverting them with humor. 
Bettie is an original bounty hunter. Possessing a Q.I. Very high, she did a thesis in xenobiology (extraterrestrial biology) from which we can regularly see very funny extracts. Through these pages, we will know everything about this giant worm. Despite her education, Bettie was never able to find work at university. She scours the space in search of bonuses. Like Han Solo, she uses humor in the most perilous situations. However, she remains honest by refusing corruption… even if it is for tax reasons. The adventurer does not forget to leave her business card in the earthworm's intestine but is temporarily forced to stop her work to save Mrs. Skraalgard's sister on Minaria Prime. The young adventurer thinks she will get the jackpot but finds herself in an even worse situation.
Political laughter
Bettie Hunter pretends to be a nurse for an O.N.G. in order to fulfill its rescue mission. She thinks she is responsible for the staff but finds herself nanny of orphaned insects because the planet where she intervenes has been invaded by earthlings. Like the Belgian colonizers in Rwanda, humans divided the natives into castes, provoking a war and counter-genocide as they left. Bettie penetrates the lives of refugees. She quickly understands the local language made of clicks but the children criticize her poor grammar. The O.N.G. claims to help these populations but the company is mainly looking to make money. This can be seen in the racism of Bettie's coordinator who despises both groups. 
Bettie Hunter becomes more serious in the last part but remains captivating until the end. We understand in 3/4 of the book the surprising reasons for the change of career of Bettie Hunter by her companion Harvey who raised him since the orphanage. This robot fan of classification was the librarian of the orphanage where the heroine was going to read. He had time to get to know her because humans are never adopted. The screenwriter Aurélien Ducoudray reverses the codes because, to the surprise of the reader, the inhabitants of the Earth are the dregs of humanity and this seems linked to a past fact. Are they the Nazis of space? This fun and political subject is admirably highlighted by the cartoonist Marc Lechuga whose style close to cartoon. We realize this during the pages on Bettie's childhood. DEF's very pop colors further reinforce this light element. Much more than a futuristic tale, Bettie Hunter is a formidable satire of our time by scratching wherever it hurts and often in unknown places. This mix between humor and denunciation makes the reading exciting and we can think that this duo of artists would be all the rage on Spirou. If you liked this trip to the future, find the chronicles of other titles of the same collection with La tour and Amen.
