Salut
Forgive me my English - I'm from Poland but I'm a big lover of bande deesinee, especialy Asterix which is very popular in my country.
So I read the new book (Asterix et le Griffon) and I'm very mixed.
On one hand I like it more then last two books. For me the problem with them was lack of any interesting adventures and Asterix didn't felt like a hero but as a observer. This isn't the case in the new book. Asterix is much more active and he is what pushing the plot. That's good and made the story interesting to read. There are some good ideas.
I like the winter set up and at least the book had some GREAT atmosphere and art. I like Obelix "love intrest" and I did like all the stuff with Idefix.
WHAT FELT LACKING IS THE COMEDY... What I LOVED about Asterix is that it wasn't just for kids, there been plenty of adult humor. Here is very little. There are cute jokes but these are jokes that will mostly entertain the kids. And the reason why the comedy feels weak here is how cultures are prestented (this is problem with all the new books)
In Gościnny's books there been plenty of great satire in how he presented the diffrent cultures - being commentary on modern time - plenty of clever refrences and a LOT of comedy from culture clashes.... Here - there is zero!
The Sarmatians (who are ment to be Russians) have some joke-names, they say "E" in a difrrent way and there is refrence to Bortsch... That's it?
If it was Gościnny making this you can be sure there been plenty of contemporary jokes. He would refrence vodka, Russian rulette, quotes from Dostoyevsky, jokes about Marx and Communism and Obelix would at some point punch a guy who looks like Putin.
No "Ils sont fous ces..." ???
The tribe is just bunch of nice people. Yes, they have warrior women (which is cool) but there is nothing characteristc about them like Helvetians or Corssicans. They are just forgettable.
Is this political correcntess? Did new writer didn't know how to wirte a good satire or did the publisher told him no? This takes very imporant element from Asterix and it dosen't feel as strong.
ALSO - The blond woman just vanishes from the book at the very end. Strange!
Shame as I consider orginal 24 Asterix books comedy gold and Uderzo books where still good. Here it felt very restricted which makes it far from having potential of the orginal. If this was some new series, I would say it was a good book, with few small problems. But as new Asterix book it's just feels lacking. Shame.
I think the only way for new Asterix books to be as good as the orginal is if they let the writer go more crazy but I don't think this will happen.
P.S.
Feel free to reply to my comment in French, I will translate it