You can definitely see, especially with the final story, "The Empire of a Thousand Planets," how much George Lucas borrowed, I mean "was inspired by" this comic series.
Anyway the following is less a review and more a ranty comparison of the recent movie adaptation to this, volume one, of the Valerian series.
Based on just my reading of these few stories and reader comments elsewhere, it seems that Luc Besson, despite his proclamations of love for the series, committed a kind of character assassination.
In the first story in this volume, Valerian travels far back in time to 1000 AD and immediately gets himself in trouble. He is rescued by a young woman named Laureline, who, on learning that he is from the future, sort of blackmails him into taking her into the future. And thus is born the partnership. In the three stories that follow, the two have a friendly, but professional relationship. There's maybe the tiniest iota of flirting, but no romance whatsoever. Apparently, Valerian and Laureline's dynamic does get more romantic in later volumes, but I don't get the impression the "lurve" is ever an overwhelming part of any episode.
In the movie, Valerian comes on like Bill O'Reilly on a female Fox News employee. Valerian is portrayed as a love-sick Lothario who's gone all "The search is over, love was right before my eyes" on Laureline. And Laureline, possibly because Cara Delevigne has less range than a Mr. Potato (but the same eyebrows), seems to be bearing his attentions with the fake-humor-veneer-over-contempt utilized by many woman when similarly harassed by their boss. I think she's supposed to be finding his attentions amusing, but his wooing is too obnoxious to be even remotely charming. (And don't get me started on how miscast the two leads are. Oy vey.)
It's weird because given Luc Besson's comments, I expected a film adaptation in the same vein as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Updated, but still somewhat respectful of the source material. The movie version of Valerian is Besson's Gary Stu, a horny teen boy crushing hopelessly (and not-so hopelessly) on Laureline. It's awkward and distracting.
It's a pretty movie, although visually, Jupiter Ascending is actually more stunning. Just sayin'.
Valerian is definitely a case where the book is better than the movie. Aspects of the comic feel dated (the creators' extrapolated idea of 1980s fashion is hilarious), the translated dialogue often awkward, but the stories have the irrepressible joie de vivre that you'd expect from a big, silly-fun space opera.