History ComicBook / ValorYAlToro

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: In order to infiltrate the bullring, Mortadelo and Filemón take up a disguise and join the staff door's line. First it goes the flagger, then the hasher, and finally the agents wearing a cheap bull costume claiming to be the bull. It works thanks to the doorman's absentminded DoubleTake.

* AllForNothing: At the end of the book, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the secret plans never left the center, as Bacterio accidentally switched their case with a rheumatism tab tube.]] To say that Mortadelo and Filemón are naturally not amused would be an understatement.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Played for laughs. The cruiser ship is named ''Ile du Soria'' ("Soria Island" in French). Soria is a Spanish landlocked city, not an island.

** The crowd at the bullring. When Mortadelo, Filemón and the picador's horse get thrown to the rows, the people around get indignant, lift them shockingly over the head and throw them back to the ruedo. Later, they also riot and jump in to beat them when it is made clear the bullfight show is over.

* BananaRepublic: The aptly named Republic of Banania is implied to be one from its name, although it is pretty indistinguishable from Spain.

* DissonantSerenity: Mortadelo clocks a HornyVikings-dressed opera singer over the head believing he was the bull, so Filemón berates him into making sure the next time. Only that the next time Mortadelo faces the bull, he nonchalantly asks the animal if he's the LivingMacGuffin they are seeking - while Filemón [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere runs away]]. Obviously, he ends up immediately thrashed around.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Like the previous comic book, although with some help from serendipity rather than sheer competence, here Mortadelo and Filemón show themselves as decently skilled and actually fulfill their mission.
** Filemón wears his red jacket, a call-back to the single-page adventures era that only appears in two full-length books (with ComicBook/ElSulfatoAtomico being the other one) and lacks his trademark bow-tie, a side-effect of the fact that he was supposed to be a different character in the first place and Ibáñez didn't bother to redraw his entire outfit just to add that one detail when the rest was close enough already.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: In order to infiltrate the bullring, Mortadelo and Filemón take up a disguise and join the staff door's line. First it goes the flagger, then the hasher, and finally the agents wearing a cheap bull costume claiming to be the bull. It works thanks to the doorman's DoubleTake.

* MeaningfulName: TheBrute is almost completely deaf, and is called Tapia ("wall"), after the Spanish idiom "Estás sordo como una tapia" ("You're deaf like a wall").

* RefugeInAudacity: Used constantly by both heroes and villains, counting the very usage of a bull to hide the plans.

* BaitAndSwitch: Typical of Ibáñez, the story opens with Filemón being seen behind a luxury car's window... only for the car to drive away, revealing Filemón was actually riding a bike next to the car.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: While Mortadelo and Filemón are being ganged up by the bullring crowd, Apolonio throws a powerful smokescreen to help Rata and company grab the bull and escape. This only results in their defeat: the smoke allows the agents escape and find the bull first, while Rata accidentally attacks a cop believing to be the animal and it gets them arrested.

** This time Mortadelo is not the only, as Rata's henchmen (and Rata himself) are prone to misunderstand Apolonio's orders this way.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Played for laughs. The agents are told by a photographer that the bull was about to exit the hotel, so they immediately jump in to knock it out with their nightsticks... only for the "bull" to be actually a hulking wrestling champion with said nickname, who promptly beats them down.

** A single Bananian cop arrests Apolonio and the entire Rata gang after knocking them out.

* DissonantSerenity: Mortadelo clocks a HornyVikings-dressed opera singer over the head believing he was the bull, so Filemón berates him into making sure the next time. Only that the next time Mortadelo faces the bull, and then he nonchalantly asks the animal if he's the LivingMacGuffin they are seeking. Obviously, both him and Filemón end up immediately thrashed around.

It was penned by Ibáñez in a midst of heavy negotiations with its publisher, the infamous Editorial Bruguera, and has a lot of behind-the-scenes stories. The comic book was originally unrelated to ''Mortadelo y Filemón'', instead being the first installment of what was essentially a CaptainErsatz series meant to be sold to another publisher, but when the troubles were solved, Ibáñez re-adapted it into ''M&F''. The planned dopplegangers, Ocarino and Lentejo, can still be seen in the original manuscript of the first seven pages when looked at from the back, surviving behind the stickers used to cover them up with Mortadelo and Filemón.

It was penned by Ibáñez in a midst of heavy negotiations with its publisher, the infamous Editorial Bruguera, and has a lot of behind-the-scenes stories. The comic book was originally unrelated to ''Mortadelo y Filemón'', instead being the first installment of what was essentially a CaptainErsatz series meant to be sold to another publisher, but when the troubles were solved, Ibáñez re-adapted it into ''M&F''. The planned dopplegangers, Ocarino and Lentejo, can still be seen in the original seven pages when looked at from the back, surviving behind the stickers used to cover them up with Mortadelo and Filemón.

It was penned by Ibáñez in a midst of heavy negotiations with its publisher, the infamous Editorial Bruguera, and has a ot of behind-the-scenes stories. The comic book was originally unrelated to ''Mortadelo y Filemón'', instead being the first installment of what was essentially a CaptainErsatz series meant to be sold to another publisher, but when the troubles were, Ibáñez re-adapted it into ''M&F''.

* AristicLicenseGeography: Played for laughs. The cruiser ship is named ''Ile du Soria'' ("Soria Island" in French). Soria is a Spanish landlocked city, not an island.

* ALoadOfBull: The whole story's schtick. A lot of hilarity comes out from the fact that both heroes and villains have to steer around an enormous, aggressive toro de lidia.

* BadassBystander: The crowd at the bullring. When Mortadelo, Filemón and the picador's horse get thrown to the rows, the people around get indignant, lift them shockingly over the head and throw them back to the ruedo. Later, they also riot and jump in to beat them when it is made clear the bullfight show is over.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Like the previous comic book, although with some help from serendipity rather than sheer badassery, here Mortadelo and Filemón show themselves as decently competent and actually fulfill their mission.

* KillerGorilla: Mortadelo disguises himself as an angry-looking gorilla, scaring the heck out of the waiter.

* BadassBystander: The crowd at the bullring. When Mortadelo, Filemón and the picador's horse get thrown to the rows, the people around get indignant, lift them over the head and throw them back to the ruedo. They also later jump in to beat them when it is made clear the bullfight show is over.

* DissonantSerenity: Mortadelo clocks a HornedVikings-dressed opera singer over the head believing he was the bull, so Filemón berates him into making sure the next time. Only that the next time Mortadelo faces the bull, and then he nonchalantly asks the animal if he's the LivingMacGuffin they are seeking. Obviously, both him and Filemón end up immediately thrashed around.
* EvilScientist: Subverted. It's implied Prof. Apolonio is one of those, if anything because he is a professor and has kind of the look in accordance, but he's not seen doing anything related to science on-page.

* SinisterSchnoz: Evil professor Apolonio has a hooked nose.

Secret agents Mortadelo and Filemón are called again by the TIA to execute a difficult mission. The criminal gang of the Rata, led by the evil Prof. Apolonio, has stolen a batch of plans of a high-tech defense project from the Center of Agrounautical Research of the Cosmos, which will derail the project's development and endanger the entire country if not recovered. The two agents intercept the gang in route to leaving the country by cruiser, but in the process they discover the plans are guarded in a perilous recipient - the horn of a huge Spanish fighting bull.

* LivingMcGuffin: A subversion where the McGuffin itself is not the bull, but it is contained in him.
* ALoadOfBull: The whole story's schtick.