Night of End of Days
Night of End of Days
What I’m about to tell you has been kept confidential until now. But given the circumstances, all must be revealed to you. Around three hundred years ago, an asteroid fell on our planet in the middle of the Redlands.”
“Whoa, how did you do that? It’s like 3D.”
“Jon please...”
“But it was no regular asteroid...it was a super-advanced alien computer artifact with unique artificial intelligence. That intelligence, called N.ZERO-K. had just one goal: to destroy any form of organic life, to reproduce, and to send its progeny into space to infect other planets. It was, in a way, a computer virus, that could infect entire planets.”
“Lucky the agency was able to stop it”
“JON!”
“Oh. Sorry. I’m just impressed by this cubic screen...it’s new isn’t it? Can you watch TV on it?”
“Yes it’s one of my most recent inventions. If you have a USB -D port, site.”
“QUIET!”
“Sorry!”
“So the agency already active at the time, managed to stop the digital entity in the nick of time. Since it was considered a life form, destroying it would have gone against nature, so it was reprogrammed... renamed N.ZERO-L., this AI now had a new goal. Rather than destroying the earth, it made millions of presents and distributed then to children and that’s how we created...”
“WHAT?!”
“Wait a minute ...are you telling us that...”
“That it’s Santa Claus? Did I get it right?”
“Yes, Jon, N.ZERO-L is Santa Claus.”
Finale
“And that ends the most tumultuous, epic fun Christmas in the history of the agency!”
“Worst. Story. Ever.”
“It was dumb”
“But I swear it’s all true!”
“Henry, there are so many inconsistencies in your story that I can’t even begin to name them.”
Asked to tell a bedtime story on Christmas Eve, Henry recalls how Christmas was nearly destroyed. When agent Maple visits her father, the not-too-bright super-villain President Tiberius, she suspects mischief, believing he plans to eradicate Santa Claus. Concerned for the irrevocable loss this would be for humanity, she shares her concerns at the Agency. Martha, overseer of special missions, knowing Santa’s unique history with the Agency, immediately sends Jon Le Bon and colleagues Wxt, Maple and Henry to the North Pole to save the day while Billy and Shorthand provide help from HQ. Despite many near disasters: being hit by the monstrous blue Tenatos, becoming trapped in Christmas ornaments and discovering Tiberius has been manipulated by a more devious mind, Jon and his crew manage to save Christmas.
This stand-alone volume featuring Jon Le Bon is a new and creative take on Christmas that loses none of the imaginative qualities of the previous books in the graphic novel series. Originally published in French in 2019, Jon Le Bon! Super Agent: Night of End of Days represents another triumph of good over evil using the brilliant minds of the Agency, each with their own specialty and every possible high tech gizmo at their disposal. Irrepressible, quirky Jon Le Bon maintains his friendly easy going approach with an unquenchable eagerness and interest in everything around him, and, despite his rather bumbling approach, he always comes through.
As usual, the bold colorful artwork, rich in detail with stylized graphics and humorous detail, is compelling, with a triple page pull-out near the end providing a particularly impressive visual. Despite the familiar Christmas colors, Santa and his elves take on a completely new look as readers realize that, in fact, Santa is a master of technology. Occasional pithy interjections from the recipients of this bedtime story remind the reader to take the shenanigans with a grain of salt.
Entertaining, imaginative, with a collection of intriguing characters, whimsical humour and fanciful technological devices, Jon Le Bon! Super Agent: Night of End of Days will keep children fully engaged until the rich off-beat conclusion.
Aileen Wortley is a retired Children’s Librarian from Toronto, Ontario.