Ashes, Ashes (French: Ravage) is a Post-Apocalyptic French graphic novel by Jean-David Morvan. First published in 2016 and seeing an English version in 2021, the series is an adaptation of a 1943 novel of the same name by René Barjavel, which is cited as one of the top-100 most influential Francophone novels written.
130 years in the future, all traces of technology have seemingly disappeared from the surface of the Earth. In what was once France, two surviving bands face off against each other in tribal combat, while the Patriarch of the larger clan plans his attack to destroy the “infernal machine” designed by his opponent. Meanwhile in 2052, a near future Utopia filled with breathtaking technological advancements falls to its knees, almost instantaneously, and a bright young man named Francois Deschamps finds himself entering the annals of history.
A cautionary tale told from both sides of the downfall, the series explores both the lengths one man will go prevent the past from repeating itself, and humankind's tenacity even in the face of total collapse.
Ashes, Ashes contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The comic not only puts more focus on the Patriarch's dystopian rule, which was only touched upon as the epilogue of Barjavel's book, but also spends more time building upon the characters.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Compared to the original novel, Blanche is not only shown to be more of a pronounced Action Survivor but is ultimately far less of a docile wife to Francois. She even goes so far as to renounce the Patriarch's vision in his funeral.
- Advert-Overloaded Future: 2052 Paris is portrayed as brimming with holographic displays of all kinds, which all flicker out the moment the apocalypse strikes.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Within only a few days from the end, most signs of civil order have already broken down, with some citizens turning to looting and pillaging a burning Paris to survive. Before long, there seems to be barely any sense of society at all in what had been France.
- After the End: Like the novel, the comic takes place after the breakdown of modern society, heavily implied to have been caused by a powerful solar flare.
- Anti-Hero: Francois, at least at first, given how he's willing to do whatever it takes to survive in the long term. Gradually, however, his drive to forge a different path for humanity takes him down an ever darker path.
- Bittersweet Ending: It takes about a century, but civilization finally gets a chance to properly rebuild, with Blanche renouncing the Patriarch's vision over his grave. Though she admits that freedom and progress will be hard, but as least it means she can die free.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Francois and Blanche are shown to have had this before the latter's sudden rise to stardom. Coincidentally, it's when Francois is rushing to save her from an exploitive producer that the collapse of civilization occurs.
- Cozy Catastrophe: Averted in the flashbacks. Any semblance of civil order in Paris all but crumbles within a few days of the solar flare. While even in the comparatively unharmed French countryside, society is shown to have largely broken down, as roving gangs haunt the highways and once-picturesque towns with utter abandon. One notable exception, however, is Francois' ancestral village in Provence, and even that required a lot of sacrifice.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Much of Francois' ideas, especially as he becomes the Patriarch, can come across as the mantra Travail, famille, patrie being taken to their (il)logical conclusion. This is carried over from the original Barjavel novel, which was written under the auspices of the Vichy regime.
- The Dog Bites Back: At the Patriarch's funeral, an aging Blanche reveals that while she's long forgiven Francois, she refuses to carry on his regime, and will see to it that his vision dies with him.
- Dramatic Irony: Albert, the young idealistic teenager who joins Francois' group and initially one of his most ardent admirers winds up among the last to stand up to the Patriarch a century later.
- Dwindling Party: Of the original group that join Francois and Blanche in escaping Paris, only a small handful make it to Provence.
- Future Primitive: As the Patriarch, Francois forges a civilization greatly resembling Dark Ages Europe. He ruthlessly enforces this by destroying not only whatever traces of advanced technology he could find, but also books and any shred of knowledge from the old world, believing that they would bring back the decadence and corruption of old.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Few suspected that a young graduate named Francois Deschamps would one day become the Patriarch, a feared visionary lording over the post-apocalyptic wastes.
- Grey Goo: Francois and his group stumble upon an abandoned institute where transhumanist scientists were experimenting with nanomachines to create a serum that could enhance and prolong an average human. They find that the researchers were not only successful but had made enough caches for them to carry along.
- Hypocrite: For the all the Patriarch's grandstanding about the evils of modern civilization and advanced technology, he nonetheless uses a nanomachine-infused serum to not only keep himself alive far longer than is natural, but also augment his strength to nigh-superhuman levels. He's also not afraid to arm his loyal warriors with scavenged modern body armor and scope-mounted crossbows, since they're not technically considered heretical.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Francois early on expresses admiration for the Age of Enlightenment as the "ideal" era for humanity to hearken back to, away from the decadence of modernity. As his group's trek southward progresses, however, he starts growing more authoritarian while goading his companions to be more ruthless. Over a century later, this has devolved into ruthlessly enforcing a status quo that's outright medieval out of the belief that it would keep mankind pure and safe from decadence.
- Just Before the End: The flashback sequences in 2052 begin almost before the collapse of modern civilization.
- Karmic Death: The Patriarch is finally impaled upon falling from the steam engine he had tried to destroy.
- Lonely at the Top: Francois is shown to have had friends and companionship among his group when they leave Paris. By the time he's the Patriarch, however, it's made clear that he's rules alone, viewing his own sons as barely more than vassals, and his own loyal, beloved Blanche is implied to be treated little better.
- Ludd Was Right: Averted. From the very beginning, Francois is shown to have a disdain for advanced technology and the modern world, which he blames for robbing humanity of its purity and drive. What's initially shown as simply a longing for the rural traditionalism of his home village and discomfort over the apparent shallowness of futuristic Paris, however, devolves over time into the Patriarch's nigh-maniacal obsession with keeping society perpetually in medieval standards, which is only causing more suffering.
- Moral Myopia: At first, Francois' disdain for the modern world seems relatable and his solutions pragmatic enough that it doesn't really raise eyebrows. As the story progresses, however, it becomes evident that's only because his ideas, and his alone are ever considered.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Dr. Fauque, Francois' mentor and his party's resident medic, serves as a moderating influence until dying during the trip south from Paris. It's tellingly after his demise that Francois really starts becoming more unhinged.
- Rule of Symbolism: The Patriarch is portrayed as bearing more than a passing resemblance to Don Quixote, especially with his beard and padded, knightly outfit. And similarly to him, he's fighting an ultimately futile battle.
- Setting Update: The cause of the apocalypse is changed from a South American superweapon attack gone horribly wrong in the novel, to a very powerful solar flare in the comic.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Francois Deschamps, whether as a young man or as the Patriarch, consistently believes that he's doing what is best for mankind by abandoning the weakness enabled by technological civilization. Whether others agree with him or not.
- Ye Goode Olde Days: The Patriarch's medieval rule tries to give this impression, as conceptually it is giving humanity back its vigor and purity, free of the corrupting influences of the modern world. In practice, however, it's also shown to be a dreary existence, where only the strong thrive and everyone else can barely survive into the next day.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: What ultimately brings the Patriarch to the edge isn't just the "infernal machine" his enemies are protecting a steam engine, but that the one who made it didn't rely on old world material but simple observation and intuition. The realization that humanity will find a way to rediscover what had been lost is one that he cannot accept.
