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ava is Martin Mystère's inseparable assistant and friend, |
with whom Martin shares all his discoveries and all his adventures.
His aspect is inequivocably that of a Neanderthal man: short and stocky, muscular,
slightly bent, a low receding forehead.
Java doesn't have the faculty of speech: he expresses himself through gestures |
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and
gives out grunts like an animal, which turn into genuine roars
when he's in a rage. He has a highly expressive facial expression, which enables him to
highlight - often humorously - the feelings he's experiencing. He has a flash of
penetrating intelligence shining in his eyes, but it's a completely "different"
kind of intelligence from that of twentieth-century man. In a way that's hard for
us to understand, Java experiences an intense and subtle relationship with the
forces of nature, a type of relation that has almost completely died out in modern
man. For example, Java can "perceive" a very faint track in dense forest undergrowth
or in the maze of city traffic. Java chose to abandon his native "City of Ethereal
Shadows" hidden amid the inaccessible Jangaj Mountains (Mongolia) and to go with
Martin Mystère into modern civilization because he wanted to track down and
neutralize a diabolical enemy. After integrating into modern civilization,
albeit with considerable difficulty, Java has become an American citizen; he is
economically independent and enjoys a love life that is as mysterious as it is
intense. Of opposite and complementary characters, Martin and Java succeed in living
together and get on just fine without even the need for words: "the detective of
the Impossible" can perfectly understand his friend's apparently undecipherable grunts.
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Diana
Lombard, a social worker by profession, is Martin Mystère's
girl-friend; the pair are bound by a very deep relationship that arose many years ago
in a dramatic situation. Diana is an important stable reference point for the
"Detective of the Impossible": a positive woman with her feet firmly planted
on the ground, very well educated and cultured (she's worked with Martin on occasions).
She has a fine sense of humor and she's very tolerant and long-suffering. But despite
their relationship, Martin and Diana live in separate apartments, |
and they each
preserve their own independence. Will Diana and Martin ever get married? Martin
Mystère's readers sincerely hope so and often send letters to the editorial board
begging the two to take the Great Leap of Faith. But anyway, as the proverb goes,
"What will be, will be".
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Angie is a sexy blonde, a real cute girl, slightly seductive à la Marilyn
Monroe, and she has a tendency to undress innocently in front of anyone, including
"Martindarling" (as she calls Martin), to whom she turns whenever she's in any kind
of trouble, i.e. very often. Much loved by her readers (but much less by Diana),
she often acts together with two comical and bungling criminals, John Dee and Edward
Kelly, whom she obstinately persists in regarding as "those English gentlemen".
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Koot
Hoomi is a "Guru" from Agharti, an ancient citadel poised between the real
world and the supernatural world. He used to be Martin Mystère's spiritual Master,
and he was also the spiritual Master of Martin's arch-enemy Sergej Orloff: he's given
both of them a weapon equipped with rays that originates from the Continent of Mu.
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Chris
Towers is the commander of the mysterious base "Elsewhere" and he often involves
Martin, an old buddy of his from university days, in adventures on the boundary
of reality.
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| Inspector Travis
is Martin Mystère's main contact at the New York Police Department. And now,
before finishing this part, a few final words to present a genuine "ace up Martin's
sleeve": the ray weapon. During an exploration in Nepal, Martin and Sergej Orloff,
who were friends at that time, became acquainted with the wise man Koot Hoomi,
who |
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gave each of them a weapon that was ten thousand years old and capable of momentarily paralyzing
(and in Orloff's case, of killing) an enemy. Martin has used this weapon for positive
purposes, while Orloff used it for wicked ends.
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THE MEN IN BLACK AND ORLOFF |
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An obscurantist sect that has rewritten history.
And a
great one-time buddy who's turned into his Nemesis. |
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