GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE: FRENCH SUPERHERO

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog will look at a French-created figure.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE (Guardian of the Republic)

Origin: This costumed hero works in a semi-official capacity to safeguard the people and government of France against external and internal enemies plus menaces created by super-science or the supernatural.

Various figures have been trusted with the Gardien mantle ever since the 1780s and in my opinion this fictional character has the most detailed chronology of any multi-generational line of costumed heroes outside the Phantom.

In a nice touch the Marquis de Lafayette was secretly the very first Gardien de la Republique (seen in costume at right) when he returned to France after America’s Revolutionary War. Since then, as mentioned above, the title and costumed identity have been passed down to other figures for nearly 250 years.

Beginning in World War Two, several Gardiens have had costumed female sidekicks who all used the nom de guerre “Marianne.”

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE II

Real Name: Albert Saint-Clair

The Marquis de Lafayette felt his age necessitated that he step down as the Gardien during the period when France was under the Directoire (1795-1799). He chose one of his aides, Albert Saint-Clair, to be the second Gardien de la Republique.

Albert wore the costume even during Napoleon’s reign as Emperor because he felt France’s external enemies were even worse. France’s foes weren’t fighting for “freedom” in any real sense of the word, they just wanted to restore the various European monarchies that Napoleon had deposed.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE III

Real Name: Jean Saint-Clair

The second Gardien was killed in 1815, so his son Jean donned the costume. With Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, this Gardien worked as a costumed operative of THE Eugene Francois Vidocq’s Surete. 

Jean met his death in 1830.   

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE IV

Real Name: Pierre Saint-Clair

Another member of the Saint-Clair family line. Pierre did not adopt the Gardien de la Republique identity until the Revolutions of 1848, so eighteen years went by with no acting Gardien.

Pierre once shared a crossover story with another French comic book superhero, the Prince de la Nuit (Night Prince) during the 1850s. As the Gardien, he served until 1870 when he was killed during the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE V

Real Name: Not yet known.

Nothing has been revealed about this Gardien except the fact that he assumed the costumed identity in 1871 and served until being assassinated in 1894 during the infamous Dreyfus Affair.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE VI

Real Name: Victor Romary

This man took up the costume after the Fifth Gardien’s assassination in 1894. He faced a long line of colorful villains and when World War One began in 1914 he worked as a special ops agent for France against the Central Powers.

Victor’s Gardien died in battle at Verdun in 1916.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE VII

Real Name: Serdar (only known name)

Serdar, a Senegalese soldier in the French Army, was on hand when the Sixth Gardien, Victor Romary, was killed at Verdun. Inspired by the Gardien de la Republique concept, Serdar became the new bearer of that mantle.

This Gardien served until being relieved of his duties in 1919. Eventually he went home to Senegal where he adopted a new costume and became the Gardien du Senegal (Guardian of Senegal).

That new superhero was still in action as of 1942 and was fighting the Nazis. The final story of the Gardien du Senegal has yet to be written, so his ultimate fate is not known.   

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE VIII

Real Name: Not yet known.

The adventures of the Eighth Gardien have not been written yet, so very little is known except that he was killed fighting Nazi operatives in 1937. It is possible he was another member of the Saint-Clair family.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE IX

Real Name: Marc Saint-Clair

This Gardien was definitely from the Saint-Clair line. He had been secretly trained from a very young age to one day take over as a Gardien de la Republique.

Upon the death of his predecessor in 1937 he adopted the costumed identity. In July 1940, when conquered France became the Nazi-sympathizing Vichy Republic, Marc joined the Free French Forces and helped battle the German juggernaut.

He recruited a female sidekick codenamed Marianne – real name Jeanne Hallard – that same year, 1940. As the war went on, this Gardien and Marianne joined the superhero team called the Partisans and fought Nazi supervillains until his 1945 death in combat. 

THE VICHY GARDIEN

Real Name: Bernard de Sault

For a time there were two separate Gardien figures in action. This villainous Vichy Gardien was recruited from the Milice by Vichy Minister Pierre Laval. Experimental drugs made this figure stronger than the Free French Gardien, but the greater experience of the Ninth Gardien and his sidekick Marianne prevailed in clashes with the Vichy Gardien.

Bernard was killed in battle by the real, Ninth Gardien in 1944.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE X

Real Name: Jeanne Hallard

Technically called la Gardienne de la Republique, this first Marianne became the new Gardien after the death of her mentor, the Ninth Gardien, in 1945.

Jeanne served in the costume until retiring in 1954 but her full adventures as the Gardienne have yet to be written.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE XI – XIII

Only their names are known as of this writing: Marc Fayol, Arnaud Moreuil and Eric Velasquez.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE XIV

Real Name: Pierre Finet

This Gardien replaced Eric Velasquez in 1963. He only served until 1968, when he resigned over suspicions that the Gardien Program had been infiltrated by hostile political interests.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE XV

Real Name: Frank Maillard

When the Fourteenth Gardien resigned, the sinister Francois Martel, covert leader of the hostile forces infesting the Gardien Program, recruited Frank Maillard as the Fifteenth incarnation of the costumed figure.

The departed Pierre Finet proved to the new Gardien that Martel and his allies had perverted the original intent of the Gardien Program. Together they brought down Francois and his co-conspirators and put the Gardiens back on the proper path. 

Franck Maillard served from 1968-1980.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE XVI

Absolutely nothing is  known about this figure except that they served from 1980 to 2000.

GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE XVII

Real Name: Maxime Saint-Clair

The French government went back to the Saint-Clair family line to fill the role of the Gardien de la Republique in 2001. Nanotechnology injected into Maxime’s body has given him greater than normal strength, night-vision and remarkable stamina and agility.

Maxime wears bullet-proof body armor designed by French scientists and wields two tonfa-batons in battle.

The Maxime Saint-Clair Gardien was the first one depicted in comic books with his predecessors being featured in stories of their own over the years.

The secret identity of this Seventeenth Gardien’s Marianne (at right) is Alima Berzain. Among the foes that she and Maxime fight is the international organization C.R.I.M.E.N.

In a time-travel tale the Gardien de la Republique has even had a crossover story with Barbarella herself! (See below)

IBERIA, INC: SPAIN’S SUPERHEROES – Beginning in 1996, Spain’s homegrown superteam Iberia, Inc. caught lightning in a bottle with stories that combined the best qualities of Claremont’s X-Men with the multi-decade saga of the Watchmen. Click HERE.