Meet Adrenaline: Asterix series gets first female star

By Alix Culbertson and David Chipakupaku, news reporters

​​​​​​​A female star has been introduced to the latest Asterix adventure for the first time in the series’ 60-year history.

Adrenaline is the star of the French comic book’s 38th edition, called Asterix And The Chieftain’s Daughter.

In a move to update the books, Adrenaline will keep Asterix, the pint-sized Gaul forever outsmarting the Romans, and his portly sidekick Obelix, on their toes as she explores adolescent rebellion.

The newest star of the books, first released in 1959, has long red plaited hair, black trousers, gold headphones – and a grumpy teenage attitude.

Her introduction is thanks to writer Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrator Didier Conrad, who have created the last three editions, sticking close to the original format.

“We didn’t want to develop a character who would be based on her seductive side as we usually do with female characters in Asterix,” Mr Conrad said.

“Most of the time they are young attractive women who seduce Obelix and their role stops there.”

Adrenaline was well received by fans in Paris where the books appeared on shelves on Thursday.

The latest edition of the comic series sees Asterix and Obelix trying to protect Adrenaline, who is being hunted down by the series’ villanoious Romans.

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The pair will also have to deal with the intergenerational gap between themselves and the teenager.

“In terms of the vocabulary it was quite amusing because I had to create a sort of teenage language for the time,” scriptwriter Mr Ferri said.

“We don’t have a lot of documentation about that. So the idea was to use certain expressions like teenagers do.”

Over 370m copies of the Asterix series have been sold worldwide, with the series having been translated into more than 100 languages.

Asterix has also inspired dozens of movies, cartoon series and even a theme park – Parc Asterix – in France.

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