Asterix and the Secret Weapon » (New)

A woman bard? That’s unheard of in Ancient Gaul. So when the mothers in Asterix’s town want to replace Cacofonix with Bravura, the men are horrified. But Bravura hits the right notes musically, and she proves very valuable when Julius Caesar sends in his secret weapon: a group of female legionaries. Caesar thinks the Gauls will be too noble to fight the women...but Bravura has no such scruples! And even Cacofonix succeeds in coming into his own.

Kathleen Karr - Children's Literature

The first album of Asterix comics appeared in 1961 and soon became a raging bestseller in France, topping even Tintin. Originally created by the team of R. Goscinny and Uderzo, it has been continued for the past several decades since Goscinny's death by his partner. Asterix is imbued with very French sensibilities and has taken its time catching on in the United States, but the recent reissue of several numbers should remedy this situation. Asterix, of course, is a Gaul. A very short Gaul. His buddy Obelix is a huge Gaul (transporting menhirs by sheer back-strength is his occupation, after all.) Together they continually harass the entire Roman Empire in the year 50 B.C. Their garbled Latin is only one of the amusements involved. In this particular number, the heroes' village is turned upside down by the appearance of a women's lib bard as new teacher of its children and women. The men escape to the woods, only to be challenged by Rome's latest weapon, a "century" of women warriors. While the premise is already dated and not a little chauvinistic, Latin classes and lovers of the absurd should eat it up. 2002 (orig. 1991), Sterling,