Asterix wakes up one morning to find a baby left on his doorstep. As most of the villagers begin to speculate that he's the father, he and Obelix reluctantly take the baby in. As they're not accustomed to childcare, our heroes attempt to investigate the baby's real parents, their only clue being embroidered linen wrappings which suggest he was from a wealthy Roman family. Their investigation soon attracts the attention of Crismus Cactus, the Prefect of Gaul, who is ostensibly conducting a census but is actually searching for a baby on the orders of Caesar's adopted son, Marcus Junius Brutus.
Most of the humour revolves the ineptitude of our heroes to take care of the baby, which descends into slapstick after the gourd Obelix uses to feed him is revealed to have contained some leftover magic potion. Soon, the baby is punching in doors and rattling cows. Alright, the animal cruelty might not sit well with modern audiences, but I still like Obelix's logic that because babies drink milk, he should borrow a cow.
While the overall premise sounds like your typical 1980s family comedy about action heroes having to take care of a baby, the story takes a really dark turn once Brutus enters the picture. He's appeared in previous albums, but only for a Shakespearean reference and foreshadowing jokes. But here, he's serving as a particularly nasty antagonist who is obsessed with finding the baby. After two failed attempts to send spies to The Indomitable Village to kidnap the baby (thanks to their target being under the influence of the magic potion), he launches an all-out attack, using ballistas to fire flaming bolts into the village to burn it to the ground. And while the men are fighting the Romans, Brutus sneaks off to the beach where Impedimenta is sheltering the women and children, and is able to take the baby away to a waiting pirate ship. The fact that the women weren't given any magic potion is bad enough, and Impedimenta is genuinely devastated at her failure to protect the baby when Asterix and Obelix realise what's happening.
Alright, I'm going to spoil it now. Asterix and Obelix rescue the baby and capture Brutus. Upon their return, they are met by Caesar, along with Cleopatra, who reveals that the baby is their son, Caesarion. While Caesar was campaigning in Germania, Brutus attempted to dispose of the child so he could become Caesar's sole heir. Cleopatra had Caesarion spirited away to The Indomitable Village, where she knew he would be safe.
So, Brutus is banished, Caesar offers to help rebuild the village, while Cleopatra hosts the traditional end-of-story banquet on her barge. But if you know your history, you'd know this happy ending won't last: Brutus would eventually kill Caesar, Caesarion would grow up to rule Egypt alongside his mother as Ptolemy XV, his mother would commit suicide, and then he would be killed on the orders of his distant cousin Octavian, who would go on to annex Egypt and become the first Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. The last pharaoh would not live past seventeen.
This comic may not be as great as some of the other ones, but I do like the suspenseful tone it later adopts.
No comments:
Post a Comment