| ¡Soborno! | |
| Noimage: | yes |
| Publisher: | Editorial Bruguera |
| Date: | 1977 |
| Series: | Mort & Phil |
| Origlanguage: | Spanish |
| Origpublication: | Mortadelo |
| Origissues: | 335-345 |
| Origdate: | 1977 |
| Writers: | Ibáñez |
| Artists: | Ibáñez |
| Previssue: | El brujo, 1977 |
| Nextissue: | Los guardaespaldas, 1977 |
¡Soborno! (English: Bribery!) is a 1977 comic written and drawn by Francisco Ibañez for the Mortadelo y Filemón (Mort & Phil) comic series.
The comic strip was first published in the Mortadelo magazine, issues #335 (April 1977) to #345 (July 1977).[1]
The city is plagued by a massive wave of bribery crimes initiated by gangster boss Rodolfo Cobardino. His schemes sometimes take on outrageous proportions, like,
While Mortadelo and Filemon inflict their usual share of mayhem as they investigate these cases, their antics indirectly help in putting Cobardino's operations to a near standstill. In the final part, Cobardino tries to bribe El Super himself with a suitcase full of money to keep his meddling agents off his back. But each time he appears at the T.I.A. headquarters, he is received by Mortadelo and Filemon, who unwittingly end up destroying the suitcases (and the money inside) via an automatic shredding machine, acid, a hungry goat, and even a laser mistaken for an x-ray device.
Finally, Cobardino secures the last of his money inside a steel suitcase, but a rogue lightning strike obliterates even this precaution, pushing the already over-frustrated Cobardino over the brink of insanity. However, when El Super wonders why Cobardino would turn up to bribe him with only one coin in his pocket, Mortadelo's loose comment about a statement from Filemon that El Super would sell his grandmother for just two reals concludes the story with a furious triple chase involving El Super hunting Filemon, and Mortadelo fleeing Filemon's wrath.[2]