Nyctalope


The Nyctalope, real name Léo Saint-Clair, is a pulp fiction hero created by French writer Jean de La Hire in 1911. He may be the first cyborg in literature and is seen as a significant precursor to the superhero genre. The character has an artificial heart and powers such as excellent night vision, which is the source of his name.

Creation

Jean de La Hire began his series involving the Nyctalope in 1908 with the novel L'Homme Qui Peut Vivre dans l'Eau. The Nyctalope himself does not appear in the story, which stars his father. Léo Saint-Clair, alias the Nyctalope, debuted in the 1911 novel Le Mystère des XV, later translated as The Nyctalope on Mars. The Nyctalope has an artificial heart and other organs, which give him powers and improved senses. Most notably, his enhanced eyes give him excellent night vision, hence the name "Nyctalope".

Description

Stories typically depict the Nyctalope fighting threats to humanity such as dictators, mad scientists, and aliens. Following Le Mystère des XV, La Hire wrote a number of other books and stories featuring the character into the 1940s. The 1933 story L'Assassinat du Nyctalope includes his origin story. The Nyctalope predated comic book superheroes like Superman and Batman by three decades, and is sometimes seen as an early superhero or "proto-superhero". In addition, the fact that he has both mechanical and organic body parts may make him the first cyborg character in fiction, prefiguring characters like Iron Man, who similarly has an artificial heart.

Books

Novels

  1. L'Homme Qui Peut Vivre dans l'Eau
  2. Le Mystère des XV
  3. Lucifer
  4. L'Amazone du Mont Everest
  5. La Captive du Démon
  6. Titania
  7. Belzébuth
  8. Gorillard
  9. Les Mystères de Lyon
  10. L'Assassinat du Nyctalope
  11. Le Sphinx du Maroc
  12. La Croisière du Nyctalope
  13. Le Mystère de la Croix du Sang
  14. L'Enfant Perdu
  15. Le Roi de la Nuit
  16. Rien qu'une Nuit
  17. La Sorcière Nue
  18. L'Énigme du Squelette
  19. The Return of the Nyctalope
The Nyctalope remained obscure for years after La Hire's death in 1956. In the 21st century, several of the original Nyctalope stories were anthologized and translated into English.

Short stories

The Nyctalope has appeared in several short stories published in the anthology Tales of the Shadowmen;
The Nyctalope also stars in two collections of new stories written by other writers, The Nyctalope Steps In and Night of the Nyctalope.

Comics

The Nyctalope is one of the main characters in Serge Lehman's Chimera Brigade comic book, set just before World War II. He is also mentioned in volumes 2 and 3 of the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore.