Abandon Shipping: In Hope Despite Everything, Mieke chased Spirou, but eventually she turned the page and moved on when Spirou kept ignoring her. Despite this, there were still some ship teases between the two. At least until Spirou saw Mieke kissing a resistance soldier, a relationship she's been hiding from everyone.
Adorkable: Fantasio can have this effect on the audience/readers, especially in Le groom vert de gris, Le triomphe de Zorglub, and the movie. Lampshaded in the latter work where Seccotine approves his description of being "cutely stupid".
In The Diary of a Naive Young Man, did Kassandra Stahl truly love Spirou? Or was it just a ploy to convert him into a communist? Or both?
In Pacific Palace, has Elena fallen in love with Spirou? Or was she looking for one-night stand?
Arc Fatigue: Hope Despite Everything, part 1 starts very slow and fans complain that there aren't much action. The story tells a good deal about the reasons leading to WWII, the occupation by the Nazis and all its effects on people, but fans are only interested in finding out what's going to happen to Kassandra.
Better on DVD: Every Spirou fans rejoiced when The Diary of a Naive Young Man was getting a sequel titled Hope Despite Everything. That is until they found out that said sequel is 300 pages long and broken down in FOUR albums. With the slow pace of release of the albums, about once per year, fans wished they were all released at once.
Bizarro Episode: Machine qui rêve stands out for many reasons. The first is that it is a Darker and EdgierOut-of-Genre Experience, reminding of thrillers like The Fugitive instead of a standard Spirou and Fantasio plot, it has no humor, and it stars a lonely, frightened hero as Fantasio and Spip barely appear in at all. (Nor Spirou, actually, as we followed his clone all along.) The art has never been this realistic, Spirou is in civilian clothes all along, and for the first time, Seccotine shows a romantic interest in one of the heroes. Still on the realism topic, Seccotine is revealed to be actually named Sophie, and she does not want to be referred to by this "silly nickname" any more. Spirou and Fantasio talk about using their real first names as well. The atmosphere was quite anxiety-inducing, given that it is Always Night (reinforced that by the fact that the comic was printed on black pages, except for the last one), often under a Gray Rain of Depression, and mad science here has terrifying implications, far from Zorglub's silly antics. The anxiety is also fueled by the fact that the action is very slowed down, following essentially Spirou or rather his cloneon the run, suffering a Sanity Slippage from assassination attempts, a friend's apparent treason, and being hunted down like a criminal. The cover was of a never-seen-before type either, being a close-up on the terrified protagonist's face◊ ( Once again, the clone.). The Tomato Surprise reveal in the end is also quite unusual for the series, as a Twist Ending is absolutely not in its codes. Had Tome and Janry go on with the series, the next album, ''Zorglub in Cuba'' would have keep a realist art and a disturbing atmosphere, albeit being on the funnier side, but they finally resigned instead. Nowadays, the album is sometimes praised for its complex scenario and beautiful art. But mostly, it was met with mixed reactions and this album stayed an oddball, never alluded to in later albums. What happened to the clone since this story remains unknown. The only traces that stayed after in the series are the fact that, since then, Spirou is usually in full civilian clothes (except in Yoann and Vehlmann's run, which make a point to find a different way to shoehorn it in in each issue), and that Seccotine is sometimes written as a love interest for the heroes.
Even today, everyone assumes that Spirou still wear his full uniform on a daily basis. Actually, he mixed its bottom with civilian clothes (a white pullover and a red jacket) and ditched the gloves as soon as 1969. Since 1998, in comics and animated adaptations, he wears usually civilian clothes, albeit still full red most of the time. As a nod to the common knowledge though, during Vehlmann and Yoann's run (2009 to 2016) Spirou would often have to wear the costume under different pretexts (publicity stunts, contractual obligation, having literally nothing else to wear...). Also, sometimes in recent albums (Spirou in Tokyo, in Berlin), and adaptations such as the the live action film, Spirou put the bellboy uniform on to infiltrate an hotel, then can't find other clothes to wear until the end.
Fantasio and Seccotine argued mostly in her introduction album, La corne du rhinocéros (The Rhinoceros' Horn), before the exchanges became friendlier. Plus these were normal quarrels, and yet the readers tend to remember their relationship as an example of a Belligerent Sexual Tension. This was carried over since in the second Animated Adaptation, the Live-Action Adaptation, and the tie-in comics of it, Le triomphe de Zorglub. Fantasio and Seccotine kiss in the end of the latter two works.In an interview, the artist and the scenarist of Le triomphe de Zorglub revealed, puzzled, that they thought that such a scene happened before, in a comics of the main series. They were surprised after they checked that it did not, as according to the scenarist, the atmosphere been "electric" for years between those two characters.
Complete Monster: Zantafio, Fantasio's greedy cousin, is considered to be the true Big Bad of the series despite his rare appearances. Losing all his redeeming qualities in his second appearance, he became the dictator of Palombia and planned to start a War for Fun and Profit with another country. After being foiled by Spirou and Fantasio, he later commits robberies and frames Fantasio for it out of spite, and later attempted to kill Spirou and Fantasio multiple times. With no loyalty to anyone, he betrayed his partner-in-crime during the operation; later betrayed Zorglub when working for him; disowned and attempted to kill his own uncle after learning that he knew about the existence of a Fountain of Youth; and manipulated villagers into leading him to said fountain, planning to get rid of them once they're no longer useful. Not above hurting animals, he sold the Marsupilami when he was broke, and attempted to kill Spip when he took his uncle's diary.
Creator Breakdown: Franquin in the middle of QRN sur Bretzelburg. His "last" book, Panade à Champignac, can either be seen as an affectionate goodbye to the series... or as a big "Fuck you, I'm going to work on Gaston Lagaffe instead".
Is Le Petit Spirou Spirou's son or Spirou when he was young? Stories suggest both ideas!
The one-shot series, Hope Despite Everything, takes place in the same universe as The Long Long Holiday. Both are set during WWII with one in Belgium and the other in France. Also, the artist for both works is Émile Bravo.
Morvan and Munuera tried to integrate elements from all their predecessors into their run (including Rob-Vel and Fournier), but unfortunately for them many fans wrote off the series after the departure of Tome and Janry.
Ho Yay: Spirou and Fantasio, obviously. There are things like this picture◊ to keep the rumors alive and kicking.
Taken out of context: Fantasio wakes up, apparently in the same bed as Spirou. He's covered in a whitish dripping liquid. He shouts "The condom! We forgot the condom!" (capote means both hood and condom)
The context: Fantasio and Spirou are sleeping in a castle ruin, in two separate beds. They used pieces of tarpaulin to keep themselves from the rain, except the one above Fantasio suddenly ripped and unloaded buckets of water on him. He wakes up shouting "The hood! We forgot the hood!" (on the car, to protect it from rain)
It should be noted that the example given is from the series "Spirou de...", which is basically a series of adventures unrelated to the canon universe... So this isn't exactly the best example to show how the Ho Yay is still alive and kicking...
In La Femme léopard, Spirou losts his job and Fantasio takes him in. They both sleep on the same bed. Later, Fantasio has left and his girlfriend Glu-Glu walks-in, finding Spirou asleep in Fantasio's bed. She starts wondering if the two are gay.
As a rule, most of the recent writers of the series have alluded to this in one form of another, with the What-If stories being the more audacious. Expect at least a Mistaken for Gay joke or Have I Mentioned That I Am Heterosexual Today moment per story.
In The Blue Gorgon, Seccotine and Kay become fast friends. At the beach, they always go in the water together while holding hands. And add the fact that they are wearing skimpy bikinis.
Moral Event Horizon: In Hope Despite Everything, Father André crosses it when he denounced Spirou to the Nazi because the boy hasn't paid his rent. While not a collaborator, Father André basically sent a kid he educated and cared at the orphanage to his death.
My Real Daddy: Rob-Vel created the series, but André Franquin's run remains the most memorable and celebrated. Franquin's designs remain the most iconic, and he created the most well-known parts of the Spirou universe, including Champignac, the Marsupilami, Zorglub, Zantafio, Seccotine and Gaston Lagaffe.
Strangled by the Red String: The totally Ass Pull romance between Spirou and Miss Flanner, in the last pages of Aux sources du Z (Z's origins). The first is a confirmed Celibate Hero (to the point that Vito once chosen him for a mission due to his indifference to women), and only felt resentment towards Flanner until then. He was mad at her for apparently drowning Spip, and punched her, making it his only exception to his Wouldn't Hit a Girl policy. As for Miss Flanner, she's been already involved for years in a Love Triangle with Champignac and Zorglub. She only showed condescension for Spirou as a result, certainly aware she was four time his age. It really hit them out of the blue, and many readers did not like Miss Flanner for reasons exposed in the Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry. Thus they really did not feel that this sarcastic, egocentric antagonist deserved to be this Ideal Hero's wife. Understandably, the next authors' run had suppressed the whole story (certainly through Time Travel) and Spirou is not even aware of Miss Flanner's existence since then.
Slow-Paced Beginning: Hope Despite Everything, part 1 starts very slowly with the invasion of Belgium by the Nazis followed by the Occupation. It's only at the very the end that the plot start moving forward.
Entresol, Spirou's unpleasant boss at the Moustic Hotel in Hope Despite Everything part 1, met his demise when he kicked a bomb to prove it's non-lethal. Not many fans will miss him because of his rudeness and jerkassness toward everyone. Even the hotel manager and hotel director disliked him.
In Hope Despite Everything, Father André gets his due where he's beaten with a broom for denouncing Spirou to the Nazi. He then exiles himself to the Vatican to avoid prosecution.
Same with the policeman with glasses who harassed Spirou and Fantasio during the Occupation. He's blown apart by a grenade.
His name was Ptirou has Ptirou's mother dying during an acrobat act and he himself meeting a similar end after sustaining a severe fall, and barely managing to avoid making his death a Senseless Sacrifice by figuring out where Juliette's medicine ended up and saving her life before passing away during the New Year's Eve fireworks.
In the third Champignac book, Blair's sudden death from a botched abortion in the first pages of the book, and the ending where Champignac deposits a box of contraceptive pills on her grave after they have been invented, some time after her death.
In The Diary of a Naive Young Man and its sequel Hope Despite Everything: Spirou/Kassandra and Spirou/Mieke.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Readers are supposed to feel sorry for Miss Flanner because she's dying from radiation poisoning. However, giving that she was even more immoral than Zorglub and doesn't have any of his comical antics, she comes off as a selfish arrogant individual. A flashback showed that she and Zorglub broke into a military base to steal plutonium. Zorglub told her to wait for him before starting their experiment. Flanner disregarded the warning and this led to her poisoning. And she didn't even bother to wear a radiation suit to begin with. Her introduction album showed her flooding Paris just so she could enjoy a quiet diner with the count of Champignac. Flanner argued that the damage will create new jobs and solve the country's unemployment problem, never mind the billion dollar damages and losses that she caused. She also stole all the priceless paintings in the city and burned one that she didn't like. At the end, she undoes the flood, but leaves the city in ruins and gets away scot-free on insistence of the count. Taking all the above, Flanner is the sole responsible for her current state. Not many fans are not going to miss her.
Values Dissonance: Similarly to Tintin, several classic albums of Spirou made in mid-late 20th Century Europe depict foreign people in ways that are very dissonant to modern readers, often falling into racist caricature territory. The most glaring example being the Black Face African tribe from The Rhinoceros' Horn.
Viewers Are Geniuses: The cover of The Diary of a Naive Young Man has as black border on the left, a red border on the right with a yellowsish background at the center with Spirou and Spip. This represents the colors of the Belgium flag. It also symbolizes Poland who's caught between Nazi Germany on the West and the Soviets on the East.
Zorglub, even before his Heel–Face Turn. Also the whole point of Le Réveil du Z, where Zorglub's successor only manages to recreate The Theme Park Version of the original's vision.
Let's not forget Vito "La Déveine" Cortizone, a powerful mafia don who eventually is somehow deported through the little rural town of Champignac with nearly no security.
The Triangle went from "globe-spanning barely competent criminal organisation" in Du Glucose for Noémie to "half a dozen idiots who can't even operate their secret lair's traps correctly" in L'Abbaye Truquée, mainly because they lost most of their competent members in previously failed operations told between Glucose and Abbaye.
Animated
Complete Monster (1992-1995 series): Cyanure—French for Cyanide—does everything her comic counterpart did and goes much farther. When she comes across one of the Count's creations, which can reduce anything or anyone's size, she uses it to reduce anything's and anyone's size for her own amusement. A sadist, Cyanure laughed at Spirou and Fantasio's cries of pain when she uses speakers at maximum volume against them, and laughed at a tied-up mini Fantasio when a toy train was about to run over him. In an attempt to kill all humans by mass-producing herself into an army, she kidnaps Professor Sushiyaka to record his paralyzing scream. When he refuses, Cyanure attempts to kidnap her nephew, and when capturing Fantasio instead, she dismantles and set aflame one of her own clones in front of Sushiyaka and threatens to do so to Fantasio if he doesn't record the scream. Even Cyanure's supposed care about machines when she talks about liberating them from humanity's control is subverted when she badmouths Domus' robots and shows no empathy to their destruction—nor Domus', who was completely faithful to her—proving that Cyanure ultimately cares for no one but herself.
◊ ( Once again, the clone.). The Tomato Surprise reveal in the end is also quite unusual for the series, as a Twist Ending is absolutely not in its codes. Had Tome and Janry go on with the series, the next album, ''Zorglub in Cuba'' would have keep a realist art and a disturbing atmosphere, albeit being on the funnier side, but they finally resigned instead. Nowadays, the album is sometimes praised for its complex scenario and beautiful art. But mostly, it was met with mixed reactions and this album stayed an oddball, never alluded to in later albums. What happened to the clone since this story remains unknown . The only traces that stayed after in the series are the fact that, since then, Spirou is usually in full civilian clothes (except in Yoann and Vehlmann's run, which make a point to find a different way to shoehorn it in in each issue), and that Seccotine is sometimes written as a love interest for the heroes.
