Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter (2019)

Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter Review

Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter is the 38th volume of the Asterix comic strip series that was written and illustrated by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad. It’s one of the weaker entries in the series.

The daughter of the famous Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix is being hunted down by the Romans. She secretly finds refuge in the village of our indomitable Gauls – the only place in Roman-occupied Gaul that can guarantee her protection. This comic pretty much functions as a very late sequel to ‘Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield’. I would have preferred to know what happened to Vercingetorix himself, but the story focused solely on his daughter to middling results.

Adrenalin is fun and charming in her own right. She’s the familiar type of spunky teenage heroine that is rebellious and stubborn. I liked how she looks and her interactions with others were uniformly interesting. The problem here is that the plot surrounding her was so mediocre. Asterix and Obelix themselves got pretty much nothing to do here, but Fulliautomatix and Unhygienix got meaningful parental roles and the pirates were utilized quite a lot here, which is always a plus.

But going back to that script, it’s just not good. Not much happens here. The main theme of the disconnect between the newer and older generations was fine, but it needed more cooking in the oven. Other than that idea, there is no sophisticated historical commentary to be found whatsoever and the humor left a lot to be desired. Obelix viewing himself as one of the teenagers was the rare humorous moment in an otherwise unfunny slog of a book.

The illustrations by Conrad are once again terrific. He continues to trump his writing partner as the illustrations are the highlights in these later books, in particular his long, one-page panels that are so gorgeous and meticulously detailed without being overstuffed. But the pacing was all wrong here as it was rushed while still somehow not being all that engaging due to uninteresting plotting and rough dialogue (that speech dialect in broken English made those bubbles frustrating and so annoying to read).

Overall, Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter has its solid moments and excellent illustrations, but the dialogue is mediocre and the plot here was convoluted and simply not that interesting. It’s one of the weaker Asterix volumes as a result.

My Rating – 3.4