History ComicBook / RicHochet

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Austin Chapin hires Ric to investigate his cousin, Alister Devill. Alister's family bloodline is afflicted by a vampire curse. Every 100 years, someone in the Devill family will turn into a vampire and attack people. He will then be killed, but [[HealingFactor will regenerate from his wounds]] and mysteriously disappear without a trace. Austin thinks Alister is next to become a vampire. After many attacks and strange occurrences, Alister is outed as a vampire, killed and his corpse is locked in a crypt. In the end, Ric discovered that everything was a lie, there's never any curse or vampires, Austin killed his cousin to seize his vast fortune. Austin hired Ric so the reporter would have confirmed his "theories" about Alister being a vampire. Had he not hired Ric, he would have gotten away with it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ric Hochet evolve into this to distinguish himself from Tintin. He steps on people's toes and poke his nose where he's not suppose. Sometimes, he knew the suspects were perfectly innocents, but provoke them to gauge their reactions. Despite all this, he does have a heart and is compassionate, just like Tintin.

* HighHeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Anna, one of Le Bourreau's newly recruited agent turn on him and help Ric. This was because of Le Bourreau killed Anna's brother in his [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame recruitment campaign.]]]]

** There was a series of murders and it was believed it was because of inheritance. In the end, every suspects were killed and all the inheritance money goes automatically to various charities. It may have been the work of an unknown third party and this became the only case Ric couldn't solve. [[spoiler:However, the album had an extra hidden page after the end. Ric did out found that the remaining suspect was indeed the murderer. [[RememberTheNewGuy It was Jacques, his friend and colleague]]. Jacques done so because his wife and child badly needed money and his health was failing. Seeing he was discovered, Jacques committed suicide. Not wanting Jacques's family to learn he was a murderer, Ric covered the whole thing up and never revealed the truth to anyone.]]

* CerberusSyndrome: The series started with harmless detective work in same line as /Spirou or Tintin. Then, murder solving became the staple of the series where blood and violence became more explicit and graphic.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Being [[TheChessmaster a mastermind]], Le Bourreau loves to manipulated everyone around him and make them do his bidding. This is justified since he's a valuable VIP to the East who can't afford to lose him. Also, his head injury and massive weight prevent him from doing anything useful on the field. Later becomes enforced as he lost the use of his legs.

* Ledru, a police detective and Bourdon's right-hand man. He is bitter over his boss, because he's being denied a promotion for many years. he eventually becomes the head of counter-terrorism branch, but there are still some friction.

* CoolOldGuy: Commissioner Bourdon is a pleasant old fellow.

* Ledru, a police detective and Bourdon's right-hand man. He is bitter over his boss, because he's being denied a promotion for many years. Eventually becomes the head of counter-terrorism branch.

* Ledru, A police detective and Bourdon's right-hand man. He is bitter over his boss, because he's being denied a promotion for many years. Eventually becomes the head of counter-terrorism branch.

** A series of murders occurred in a small village. Everyone suspected the local rich businessman, since the victims were his enemies and he wasn't very liked by other townsfolk. [[spoiler:It turns out that the businessman ''really was'' the murderer. He killed everyone, except for the first victim. The first murder was committed by the businessman's daughter who has severe mental illness ([[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} so severe that she's can't even recall committing the act]]). When her father found out about the murder, he killed all his enemies to rid of them and placed all suspicions on him to protect his daughter.]]

** [[spoiler:Horace Doriaz, a dangerous international criminal, sought vengeance against the family of a judge who condemned him, but also against the descendant of the hotel manager who did his mother terrible wrongs. Early in the 20th century, his mother and grandmother attended a Universal Exposition. When his mother return to the hotel they were staying at, the manager told her they had records of her ever checking-in, nor anyone ever saw her before. They also said she never had a grandmother and told her she was crazy. With no one helping her, Horace's mother then return to her home country, very distributed, grief-stricken and she never saw her own mother ever gain. It's only many years the truth was revealed: the grandmother had the plague during her stay and died. Such revelation would had caused a panic and the Expo would had been a massive financial failure. [[GovernmentConspiracy So with help of the authorities, they made this cover-up story to make her leave and save the Expo.]] Horace wanted to avenge his mother's pains, by enacting the same scenario to the judge's family and kill the descendant of the hotel manager.]]

** [[spoiler:Horace Doriaz, a dangerous international criminal, sought vengeance against the family of a judge who condemned him, but also against the descendant of the hotel manager who did his mother terrible wrongs. Early in the 20th century, his mother and grandmother attended a Universal Exposition. When his mother return to the hotel they were staying at, the manager told her they had records of her ever checking-in, nor anyone ever saw her before. They also said she never had a grandmother and told her she was crazy. With no one helping her, Horace's mother then return to her home country, very distributed, grief-stricken and she never saw her own mother ever gain. It's only many years the truth was revealed: the grandmother had the plague during her stay and died. Such revelation would had caused a panic and the Expo would had been a massive financial failure. [[GovernmentConspiracy So with help of the authorities, they made this cover-up story to make her leave and save the Expo.]] Horace wanted to avenge his mother's pains, by enacting [[IronicPunishement the same scenario]] to the judge's family and kill the descendant of the hotel manager.]]

* CardboardPrison: Exploited with Le Bourreau because he's an invaluable asset to the Eastern bloc. Everytime he is jailed, foreign powers request his release in exchange for France's captured secret agents.

** Between General Val and Le Bourreau. Both are leading secret services agency, for France and the Eastern bloc respectively. They are both very cunning, resourceful and make use of secrets agents. They also have disabilities: Val is missing an arm and Le Bourreau has "a head injury that made him a diminished man" according to him.

* LatexPerfection: [[spoiler:Josyane Vautrin disguised herself as her father, an old corrupted judge. She even had gloves that served as fake hands.]]

* IdiotBall: Ric wants to write an article about life behind bars, so with Bourdon's permissions, he is given a false identity and placed in jail for a few days. The police had comb the entire list of detainees to make sure Ric wouldn't ran into his old enemies. [[MurphysLaw And of course he does]]. Detective Ledru had reviewed the list, but has forgotten that Philippe Manière was an alias for Pierrot Volcan Jr., AKA The Chameleon.

* {{Vengeance}}: This is one of motives of various criminals. Some examples:
** The mysterious criminal named Chameleon only motivation was to make Bourdon suffer. [[spoiler:His true name is Philippe Manière. [[CorruptCop He purposely joined the police as a detective]] to get close to Bourdon. Then, he sabotaged ongoing investigations so Bourdon will be ridiculed by the press. [[HumiliationConga Bourdon's superiors then removed him from the Chameleon case because of lack of results.]] Finally, Chameleon planned to kill Bourdon in a DeathTrap. All because Chameleon's foster father was a crook named Pierrot Volcan that Bourdon arrested years ago. Volcan died in jail and Chameleon swore to avenge his father.]]
** Le Bourreau blamed General Val for ruining his life. In [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]], Le Bourreau committed unspecified war crimes, prompting General Val set a trap for him. While Le Bourreau escaped, his head was severely injured. He made a vow to kill him and there are hints that he made several attempts before Ric finally subdued him. General Val mentioned that because of precautions, [[ProperlyParanoid he wasn't even allowed to shave by himself.]]

* {{Pride}}: Ric's FatalFlaw as well as Le Bourreau. In the latter case, [[spoiler:he used one of his underling as a suicide bomber to kill [[ArchNemesis General Val]]. Ric then insulted Le Bourreau that he couldn't do things himself and has to rely on others. Le Bourreau then yelled back that he is a self-made man and everything he does is his doing. He then entered the bombed zone to show Ric his handy work... only to find General Val and his minion alive, falling into Ric's trap. The hidden bomb was discovered and defused earlier by Ric and the secret services.]]