Asterix Marathon #10 - Asterix the Legionary

Now, there's a name and a role you'd never expect to see together. It's also one of the albums I rate quite highly.

After Obelix starts acting strangely - bumping into trees and not having the appetite for a third boar - Asterix realises that he is madly in love with Panacea, the daughter of another villager who had left to study in Condatum (Rennes). Asterix persuades his friend to act on his crush, but they both learn that Panacea has a fiancé in Condatum named Tragicomix, who has been conscripted by the Romans and shipped off to North Africa to fight in Caesar's civil war against Pompey. Although heartbroken, Obelix promises to get Tragicomix back, and he and Asterix end up enlisting in a legion with numerous other recruits: Neveratalos the Greek (who starts an argument about their meagre wages), Gastronomix the Belgian (whose hairline resembles that of a certain other popular comic character), Hemispheric the Goth (an apology for the writer's harsh treatment of Goths in a previous story), Selectivemploymentax the Briton (the only person to enjoy the military catering), and Ptenisnet the Egyptian (I'll talk about him in a moment).

Amateur historian me is going to briefly take over now, by saying that service in the Legions was reserved for Roman and Italian citizens during Caesar's lifetime, with other subjects serving in units known as Auxilia. However, this is hand-waved in favour of a more contemporary reference; a military force comprised of multiple nationalities and serving in North Africa is a parody of the French Foreign Legion. And that's fine, because it brings with it plenty of laughs.

One of my favourite characters in this album is Ptenisnet. His dialogue is comprised entirely of hieroglyphs, and the language barrier adds to the humour of why he's there; He initially mistakes the recruiting office for a hotel, and they go along with it so he'll enlist, and he spends the entire story convinced he's on a package holiday. He's also quite fond of a popular child's game in which you respond to something with the phrase "old hairy", followed by a body part which rhymes with whatever word the person said last. This culminates in a galley captain promising everybody a tot of rum, and then quickly threatening to throw him overboard if he says another hieroglyph.

If that prolonged misunderstanding isn't enough, then my other favourite joke revolves around how the Gauls' eagerness to get shipped off to Africa combined with their very un-military behaviour repeatedly reduces their superiors to sobbing, prompting an onlooker to ask if they're missing somebody back home. Again, this culminates in the reinforcements arriving at Caesar's camp, but upon reporting to the Centurion of the Watch, everybody's wandered off except the interpreter.

If you only read one Asterix comic in your lifetime, I recommend you make it this one.