New York, de nos jours. Lors d'une exposition sur les trésors du Vatican, quatre cavaliers habillés en Templier surgissent et dérobent un objet. Cette disparition inquiète au plus haut point le Vatican qui comprend que ce vol spectaculaire a un lien avec un secret qui remonte au XIIIème siècle... Cet objet, récupéré par les Templiers, peut tout simplement remettre en question les fondements de la chrétienté ! Un agent du FBI, associé à une jeune archéologue, part à la recherche de l'objet : une enquête de tous les dangers... Le Dernier Templier a d'abord été un roman de M. Khoury devenu un best-seller international et qui sera adapté en une série télé (sur M6 en 2009). Mais il s'agit surtout d'un récit d'aventure haletant à travers les âges !
This is probably the least exciting volume out of the four comics made based on Raymond Khoury's book The Last Templar, but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless. In this series we follow two story lines: that of the Templar Knights when their city was destroyed, and that of Tess Chaykin whose visit to a gala was aggressively interrupted by a group of robbers claiming the legacy of the original Templar Knights and, as a result of that, becomes an informal part of the investigating team. This is the first in a series of four, so we are introduced to the main characters and the start of the adventure is set up, but not a lot of details are fleshed out yet and I actually found it a little meh until the very end. The ending is a great cliffhanger and it made me very curious about the rest of the series (and glad I had picked them up at the same time).
brief synopsis: An obscure artefact is stolen from the Met by four men dressed as Templars. While the FBI investigates the case, a Vatican official does some investigating oo his own, one that leaves no witnesses behind.
setting: Acre, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem New York Vatican City
named personalities: Martin - a Knight of the Temple of Jerusalem Aimard - ditto; Martin's friend and master William of Beaujeu - grand master of the temple Kim - a little girl Tess Chaykin - Kim's blonde archaeologist mother Clive Edmonson - Tess' friend Sean Reilly - an FBI agent Aparo - ditto Amelia - ditto Rienzi - a cardinal Brugnone - a monsignor Buchinski - an FBI agent Mrs Gibson - an FBI secretary Michael De Angelis - a monsignor Jansson - Sean's boss Lucien - a French antiques dealer Gus Waldron - one of the MET raiders; a former boxer Conan - the barbarian Branko Petrovic - a name the Gus gave up
Some plotlines are clearer than when I read The Last Templar.
I did write a review, but who knows what happened to it. Anyway, I've always enjoyed reading about the Templars and I do enjoy a graphic novel once in a while, so this was a happy mixture. It's a good beginning to the story and one of these days I'll have time for the next.
Etant assez intriguée par tout ce qui est templier j’ai été tout de suite attirée par celui ci, d’autant que la couverture est sublime.
L’histoire semble particulièrement intéressante malgré que l’on en voit qu’un tout petit morceau dans ce tome 1 qui m’a semblé bien trop rapide. A peine commencé, j’en étais déjà au bout. L’intrigue donne envie, mais il y a trop d’action pour trop peu d’histoire et cela a nui à mon intérêt pour le livre.
Le livre est ponctué de quelques flash-black racontant une histoire d’un passé lointain. Celui d’un templier ! Ce qui heureusement nous garde dans la lecture.
Les personnages ! Alors eux, ils ont commencé à m’intéresser, et pouf ! Je me suis lassé. Ils ne bénéficient d’aucun développement. Alors oui, c’est un tome 1 mais quand même. J’aurais préféré moins d’action et plus de développement pour s’habituer et s’attacher aux personnages avant d’entrer dans le vif du sujet. Je ne parle même pas des relations entre eux qui vont beaucoup trop vite, et qu’on ne peut même pas comprendre, tellement elles sortent d’on ne sait où.
Le rattrapage se fait sur les dessins qui sont magnifiques. Réalistes mais pas trop, ce sont typiquement les illustrations que j’affectionne.
Cette BD est l’adaptation d’un roman que je suis bien tentée de lire !
Conclusion : Ce n’est pas un livre que j’ai adoré mais je l’ai suffisamment apprécié pour vouloir lire la suite et sa version d’origine. Donc je le conseille tout de même !
Cinebook’s new series is a tale that begins the Templar knights as they are forced to flee Jerusalem. With the battle all but lost two knights are entrusted with the task of getting a small chest away by sea, a mission they barely achieve. The story then moves to present day New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting a spectacular launch for their new show called the Treasures Of The Vatican where we’re introduced to archaeologist Tess Chaykin, along with her mother and daughter. Just as she begins catching up with an old archaeologist friend four horseman dressed as Templar knights assault the exhibition with swords and automatic weapons, grabbing valuable artefacts before fleeing into the night.
It’s a serious enough case to warrant the presence of the FBI, and soon a shaken Tess and her family find themselves being charmed by the handsome Agent Reilly. Later, when reviewing the CCTV footage, Reilly realises the close proximity of Tess to one of the criminals so arranges to meet up, allowing Tess to not just share her eye-witness account but her insights and knowledge of the Templars. Significantly, it’s the object she witnessed being taken, a sixteenth century encoder, that proves interesting.
Back at the Vatican a meeting of cardinals are horrified at the events in New York, but one is more disturbed than most, realising the significance of one of the stolen objects. And back in Manhattan, one of the members of the heist crew is attempting to sell one of the objects through a crooked antiques dealer. The dealer knows this is immensely risky, and fearing for his own safety gets the authorities involved, leading to the flushing out of the crook.
There’s is clearly more this encoder than first meets the eye, and with religious fervour, twisted and incomplete histories, and a great helping of speculation of legend the waters are well and truly muddied, although there does appear to be one individual who knows exactly what’s going on and what it all means.
The Last Templar, like many a good adventure yarn, takes a historical context and weaves in an ancient secret and a silent conspiracy with the promise of great riches. The book states it’s not suitable for the under 12s, largely due to a few bloody deaths along the way, but certainly for kids and adults it’s got the makings of an interesting mystery with plenty of secrets to be unlocked.