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nother reason for the success of this cartoon |
| series undoubtedly lies in the plots of the
stories, so rich in action and mystery, so swift and full of interesting hints
and tricks. And Mark's adventures also undoubtedly have special features of
their own, such as the main theme of many episodes, espionage,
which is inevitably connected with the type of conflict involving |
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the Ontario
Wolves: the war fought in North America at the end of the eighteenth
century.
That was a rather peculiar liberation war, since the English domination in America
was different from the colonial rule the English had established in India, in Kenya or
elsewhere. Here the "colonizers" belong to the same race as the "colonized", so
this War of Independence is a much more like a civil war fought in a blurred
and ambiguous setting where the two opponents speak the same language and look the
same physically. An atmosphere where, depending on how you are dressed, you can
look as if you are on the other side, and where friends and enemies can be confused
and double-dealers lord it. One should not forget that the English were the
greatest colonizers in history by virtue of their efficiency, fighting skills and
capacity to transfuse their civilization into faraway lands. Against |
such an ambiguous
background, therefore, an uprising is more likely to be carried out as guerrilla
warfare than a real war: it will be a conflict composed of small partisan war
actions, reprisals and sabotage.
This war is fought from house to house, village by village, and the enemy often
doesn't even have a face, as any friend might turn out to be an enemy, a
traitor, a spy. The ambiguity of this war without trenches that doesn't conform to
the conventional opposition of two standing armies enhances the suspense, the coups
de théâtre, the masked enemy, betrayals, desertion, greed for personal benefit
prevailing over the ideals of patriots. A world of deception, that leads naturally
into the most enthralling themes of adventure.
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HIS ENEMIES |
The Redcoats, with their
fiendish leaders (Colonel Sparrow and Major Stoddard), but also the cruel spies
working
for the English. |
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