Asterix and the Big Fight (1966)
Asterix and the Big Fight Review
Asterix and the Big Fight is the seventh volume of the Asterix comic strip series that was written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. It was published in 1966 and it is among the funniest installments.
Romans propose for a fight for the village against the chief. They have one advantage – Obelix threw a menhir at the druid, so he forgets how to make the potion for invincibility. Needless to say, a lot of hilarity ensues in what is a great return to the style of storytelling first seen all the way back in ‘Asterix the Gaul’. I am talking about a story that isn’t a travelogue, but is rather set in the village and is more humor-oriented.
The comic worked because the humor is excellent. The comedic highlight here is Getafix, who lost his mind and starts making random potions that change his face color. Those Technicolor-inspired sequences were hilarious. Psychoanalytix as another druid who helps him out was also very amusing. Another standout is Obelix, who is here very funny in his menhir obsession. Vitalstatistix got a solid arc for himself too with the final fight being quite memorable.
Others weren’t as interesting and the dog was seriously sidelined here, but the Romans were entertaining once again and the introduced threat of Romans that actually feels potent this time around gave a lot of immediacy to the storytelling. The story has a single concept that gets stretched to over forty pages and sometimes it felt overly simplistic, but mostly the humor was so good that it elevated the simple plot. The illustrations were stunningly detailed and colorful here and the dialogue is just as sophisticated as you’d expect from the series.
