Martin Mystère #409 'On the Trail of the Swan King’ and #410 'The Horror of Mayerling' (2024)

Much more than American comics, Italian comics revel in history and politics. It's common in the course of a story for the protagonist to travel to some new part of the world and receive pages and pages of exposition from locals so that he can complete his mission successfully. Martin Mystère draws from the 19th century pulp adventure mold of Allan Quatermain as interpreted by the Indiana Jones films. Mystère is an explorer but also an academic, just as likely to give a pages-long dissertation as to receive one.

Sergio Badino's story for issue #409 leans heavily into "dissertation" as Mystère travels to Bavaria and Austria to film a documentary about an unhappy family of 19th century royals. In this case, the exposition is the story; Mystère spends many pages speaking directly to the camera, and thus the reader. A frame story like this would never have been approved for an American comic book, and I'm curious to know how it was received in Italy.

Three scenes of action spice up the essay-like narrative. First, the story begins in media res, with a deliberately fallen tree blocking the heroes' progress on a snowy road. Second, Mystère is beset by skinheads in between recording sessions for his documentary. Third, a trip to the country leads to the rescue (again from Neo-Nazi punks) of an architect who has made a discovery while supervising renovations on Hitler's former mountaintop bunker The Eagles' Nest. The issue ends full circle back at the snowy road, setting up a cliffhanger for the following issue to resolve.

In Italian comic books, the cover is often thematic rather than exactly picturing a scene from the story. In this case, the theme does involve "German castles" with a little bit of "menacing furry humanoids." There's no gunplay or gondola involved though, and the actual story is set in winter. Author Sergio Badino gives his artists lots of reference material. In this case, he requested the boat from the 1973 film "Ludwig," a biography of Ludwig II, the "Mad King" of Bavaria in the mid-nineteenth century, whose extended family figures heavily into this issue of Martin Mystère. He is the "Swan King" of the title, making the boat something of an Easter Egg.

Aprt from the "Trail of the Swan King" or "Eagles' Nest" overall story title, issue #410 also had the separate separate production title "L'erede del Presagio" (The Heir of Omens). This refers to Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, who receives a prophecy that his son will bring ruin upon the world. The published title for this story changed to "Orrore di Mayerling" (The Horror of Mayerling) referring to Rudolf's mansion, in which he died by suicide.

Finally each issue of Martin Mystère has a title on the cover and book spine. This is normally the same as the published title for the story within. But #410 was a special issue, because the series creator Alfredo Castelli had just died. This issue was therefore augmented by a 48 page supplement, "Ciao, Alfredo" containing pin-ups and tributes to him. The cover shows Castelli surrounded by some of his most memorable characters and bears the title "L' Uomo del Mystère" ("The Man of Mystery"). Unfortunately this means that the actual story has no cover associated with it.

#410 is much more action-oriented than #409, which had many extended segments of Martin narrating European history for a documentary. Like Part One, it hops back and forth between Martin's frame story (exploring Hitler's ancestry, first in Germany and then in Siberia) and Rudolf's flashback story (meeting prophets in London and Siberia). It raises interesting questions about the nature of justice and the possibility that there are some truths for which the world is not ready.

The overall story takes its inspiration from a rumor that Adolf Hitler's father Alois was half-Jewish, because Alois' unmarried mother Maria Schicklgruber became pregnant while working in a Jewish household. Recent genetic testing has shown that Hitler had no Jewish ancestry, but this tale runs in a different direction with a related idea.