Point Blanc (graphic novel)

Point Blanc (graphic novel)
General Information
Release date	July 3, 2006
Pages	144

Point Blanc: The Graphic Novel is the graphic novel interpretation of the second Alex Rider book: Point Blanc.

The first four pages are available free online here.

Adaptors

Antony Johnston, an award-winning British author known for his post-apocalyptic comic series Wasteland, adapted the Point Blanc novel to comic format. The artists of the graphic novel are known as Yuzuru and Kanako, two sisters who have co-illustrated many titles including The Five Ancestors series and all the current Alex Rider graphic novels.

COVER NOTES:

There also seems to be two covers for this novel: one has Alex with LONG hair and the other has Alex with the more correct for this novel's circumstances, very short hair.

Summary

Walker Books (UK)

An explosive graphic novel adaptation of Alex Rider's second thrilling mission.

Investigations into the "accidental" deaths of two of the world's most powerful men have revealed just one link: both had a son attending Point Blanc Academy, a school for rebellious rich kids run by the sinister Dr. Grief and set high in the French Alps. Armed with a new collection of gadgets, Alex must infiltrate the academy as a pupil and establish the truth about what is really happening there... Featuring full-colour, action-packed, Manga-style art, this graphic novel is ideal for encouraging reluctant readers.

Plot

Alex Rider is assigned by MI6 to investigate the deaths of billionaires, Michael J. Roscoe and General Viktor Ivanov. Each of them had a son attending Point Blanc, an academy in the French Alps run by a South African scientist, Dr. Hugo Grief, and both died under mysterious circumstances.

Alex's cover is that of the son of a supermarket magnate, Sir David Friend.

Alex is taken to a hotel on the way to Point Blanc, where his dinner drink is drugged. His bed is then transported where Mrs. Stellenbosch (the lady who took him from Mr. Friend's house) strips Alex and has a team of scientists photograph his entire body. After the examination, Alex's clothes are put back on and he is returned to his hotel room.

Upon arriving at Point Blanc, Alex befriends a student who goes by the name of James Sprintz. James thinks something is wrong with the academy because the other boys were rebellious before and then suddenly became complacent. One day, James is taken and replaced with a look-alike who is no longer rebellious.

The following night, Alex examines the forbidden third floor to find replicas of the boys' rooms upstairs, with TV screens monitoring the boys' behavior downstairs. Following later investigations, Alex's finds the real boys locked in a basement jail. Alex sees James and tells him the truth, his identity and the reason why he was sent to Point Blanc Academy.

A teacher named Mrs. Stellenbosch is told of Alex's confessions to the boys after someone overhears it and knocks Alex unconscious, captures him and turns him over to Dr. Grief, who then reveals his plan to take over the world, named "Project Gemini."

In the 1980s, Grief cloned sixteen copies of himself in his home country of South Africa (where he greatly supported the apartheid regime). While the real boys are at Point Blanc Academy, a plastic surgeon named Baxter surgically alters Grief's 14-year-old clones to resemble them. Soon, the clone and the real boy are swapped.

The replica rooms are used by the clones to imitate the boys' behavior so the parents will not notice that they have been swapped. When the parents die and pass on their inheritance, Dr. Grief will take the assets from the clones. Eventually, he will be the most powerful man in the world, and reinstate apartheid globally.

Grief imprisons Alex, planning to dissect him alive the next day for a biology class. Alex uses his exploding ear-stud that was given to him by MI6's gadget genius Smithers to escape his cage. He fashions a makeshift snowboard to escape, but crashes and Alex is knocked unconscious and is taken to a hospital, where a visiting Mrs. Stellenbosch is told that Alex has broken several bones, fractured his skull and died. However, the fake death was a cover-up by MI6, who then send him out again with a team of SAS soldiers (among them is Wolf, an SAS soldier introduced in Stormbreaker) to help liberate the school.

As Dr. Grief attempts to escape, Alex kills him with a snowmobile by driving it up a ski jump and crashing it into Grief's helicopter, jumping off at the last minute.

In the final chapter of the novel, Alex goes to his school to find a clone that resembles him, who avoided capture and escaped. The clone and Alex fight, starting a fire in the science building, ending with one of them seemingly falling to his death. It is left ambiguous as to whether the clone or Alex survived, though at the beginning of Skeleton Key it is revealed that the clone was killed and the real Alex lives.

Differences from Novel

One of the main differences the graphic novel contains is the appearance of Sabina Pleasure. She is first seen in the Stormbreaker graphic novel, while within the original series she isn't introduced until Skeleton Key.

• Point Blanc Mission - Alex Rider official website
• Point Blanc: The Graphic Novel - Walker Books (UK)