Goodbye, Asterix

IF we needed another reason to lament the passing of the good old days 8212; when five paise still bought you a toffee at the local all-pur...

IF we needed another reason to lament the passing of the good old days 8212; when five paise still bought you a toffee at the local all-purpose store, a mall referred to promenades in Shimla or Darjeeling and a home phone number set you apart from your classmates 8212; it8217;s there in Asterix and the Falling Sky.

For all those fitting into a certain demographic box, the latest escapade of the Gaulish hero is a reminder that Asterix is dead; long live Asterix. For those who came later and chanced to pick up this album before all others, the tragedy is multiplied: they8217;ll probably never pick up any other volume.

The Falling Sky is not just bad, it8217;s a complete waste of time. It8217;s Uderzo8217;s ninth solitary outing since Goscinny died in 1977 though Asterix in Belgium appeared two years later, and it8217;s confirmation that the downslide that began with The Great Divide has finally hit rock-bottom.

It8217;s interesting to analyse why, since Uderzo tries all the time-tested devices 8212; puns, gags, running jokes, community caricatures, national stereotypes 8212; that make the Asterix stories as rich a treat for adults as the drawings and the slapstick humour do for younger readers.

The storyline, thin as it is, centres around the arrival of aliens from a distant star called Tadsilweny acronym for Walt Disney. The ambassador, Toon, is in the little village we know so well to warn the villagers we know so well of 8216;8216;a real and present danger8217;8217;: Nagma. Rearrange the letters and it spells manga, the Japanese imports giving indigenous Franco-Belgian comics a run for their money.

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lsquo;The Falling Skyrsquo; is not just bad, itrsquo;s a complete waste of time. The downslide that began with lsquo;The Great Dividersquo; has hit rock-bottom

So far so good. This is known territory for Uderzo, a set foreign target prime for lampooning. But then the artist decides to get political. So, in addition to a Schwarzenegger clone who thrives on hot dogs which elicits a 8216;yuk8217; from Asterix, Uderzo throws in a great sage called Hubs, a mean space-invader in search of a 8216;8216;deadly weapon8217;8217;, strange missiles that threaten to set the entire village on fire and a face-off between 8216;8216;cyberats8217;8217; and 8216;8216;superclones8217;8217;.

Predictably, the story gets lost somewhere in the overwhelming political innuendo. Though Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge do a valiant job of the translation 8212; given their record, no less could be expected 8212; Uderzo simply does not possess the rapier-sharp wit and the narrative sense of his late partner. He loses his reader somewhere around page 25; the bulk of the remaining 22 pages is made up of unnecessarily large panels, a clear indicator that ideas are in short supply.

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Call it wishful thinking if you will, but this is said to be the last Asterix album. Aficionados on the worldwide web have started pointing out the startling similarity between the covers of Asterix the Gaul, the first, and the latest volume. And, of course, there8217;s the falling sky itself 8212; if they8217;ve conquered that final frontier, another cross-continental adventure will be a rather tame follow-up.

That is not to say, however, that we will miss all the wordplay, the revisionist allusions and the satire Goscinny and Uderzo8217;s creations introduced us to. Would Diagon Alley or Dumbledore8217;s Pensieve have been as much of a hit if Asterix hadn8217;t taught us to look for puns? Would Lagaan8217;s co-opting of the googly been as much of a success if we hadn8217;t seen how Getafix put the tea in Britain?

By Toutatis, no!