Asterix and the Golden Sickle by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 2

The second Asterix album shows a boldness to the series in rapidly taking the main character away from the village and thus demonstrating early on that this is a series with a much broader scope than merely events in the village itself and the besieging camps. Instead much of the story is set in and around Lutetia, the ancient incarnation of the city of Paris.

In the current English translation, at least, the city isn't so obviously flagged as Paris. No footnotes identify it as such and many non-French readers may not immediately recognise the city on the river when it first appears. References to stereotypes of Parisians are also not so obviously on display to a non-French audience, whilst the city's iconic architecture is obviously too anachronistic to appear here. Only a reference to going down an underground tunnel as "take the subway" and a comment by a fisherman that all he catches are amphoras discarded by wine drinkers really reference the modern-day city. As a result, this could really be any city under Roman occupation

The sickle of the title is the object that Asterix and Obelix have come to buy, as the druid Getafix has broken his and needs a new one for a conference of druids which is often mentioned but not shown here. It's a little concerning for originality that both stories so far have involved the potential neutralisation of Getafix, even though here more emphasis is placed on his forthcoming conference than on the potential loss of some of his magic powers, though there are lines stating that mistletoe has to be cut with gold in order to be magic. The magic potion was initially portrayed as effectively a growth hormone, building up strength through regular doses, but here it is now settled as an instant source of strength, taking it away from the drug implications but at a risk of making the stories even more magical than needs be. Wisely once in Lutetia there's no mention of the potential magical effects of the sickle and it instead becomes an item in high seasonable demand, made worse by the disappearance of the best maker, Metallurgix.

Metallurgix is the first of many one-off characters who are distant relatives of one of the main cast, in this case Obelix. He even looks almost identical to his distant cousin, albeit being shorter and rather thinner. The connection is such to get Obelix to accompany Asterix on his mission whereas later on the strong friendship between the two would be enough to explain his leaving his menhir business behind for the duration. As a result, this is the first story to really fill out Obelix with his quirks such as smashing down doors by accident, embarrassing people with his offer of menhirs and obsession with wild boar. There's a clear affection between him and Asterix which makes for a good duo with strong dialogue between them. The rest of the regular cast are confined to small cameos at the start and the end, with the only items of note being that Cacofonix is shown to also be a teacher and his final look has not yet been settled on. The ending introduces the running gag of the bard being tied up so he cannot ruin a feast; earlier on his attempt to sing a song to mark the heroes' departure merely results in the whole crowd running away.

In Lutetia, the story is a somewhat simple tale of a missing person and the reluctance of locals to say what happened to him, followed by a hunt for the mastermind behind the kidnapping and theft. However, for an identity mystery the story doesn't really offer much in the way of clues and there are really only two potential suspects, the centurion and the laid-back prefect, Surplus Dairyprodus. The resolution comes all too quickly with the culprit confessing to his fellow Romans rather than simply asserting his veracity over the claims of the Gauls. Otherwise there's a bit of back and forthing as Asterix and Obelix head around Lutetia to chase clues and suspects, with the complication of routinely running into the same Roman squadron, led by a decurion (a rare sign of poor research as that was a cavalry not an infantry rank) and being put in jail time and again.

Overall the story is very much a run-around. There are signs that the series is still finding its feet with the jokes and satire not particularly obvious, whilst there's not much in the way of a travelogue and thus for all the prominence the cover gives to Lutetia (even more so than its predecessor which showed the city in silhouette and the heroes at a sign to it), this is a story that could be set in just about any city. In the long term it was probably a mistake to go to such an important location this early in the series and the result is a rather unmemorable tale.