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It was clear that the Asterix series was never going to be the same without its original creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo involved, although the series managed very well with Uderzo taking on both writing and drawing duties after Goscinny’s death in 1977. Since Uderzo retired in 2009, the series has continued with the new creative team of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, and to be honest, on a surface glance at Asterix and the Chariot Race (their third post-Uderzo title and the 37th title in the series) you’d scarcely notice the difference. Uderzo’s drawing style is replicated well, the characters retain their familiar characteristics, poses and mannerisms, and the plot is classic Asterix. There is nonetheless a nagging feeling that something is missing. The Roman-bashing Gauls are back in action then, but in Asterix and the Chariot Race  it’s not so much a one-sided magic potion-fuelled punch-up as a competitive race in the manner of Asterix and the Olympic Games  ...

In an attempt to undermine relations in the indomitable Gaulish village, Caesar sends out an agent who has an uncanny ability to sow discord wherever he goes. In no time at all he has the combative inhabitants at each other’s throats. Classic Asterix tale, this makes good use of the colourful characters in the village, and even has a landmark battle where all four Roman camps join forces in battle against a village without magic potion, and practice their own form of “psychological warfare”. Even the pirates get in on the act. Marvellous.

Good, but not classic post-Goscinny Asterix. Uderzo tells a nice visual story and the script - in the English version - is well adapted with all the usual terrible puns, but little that is really inspired. The Arabian Nights in India story is fine, we get the usual fun with the pirates and there's a nice cameo by Julius Caesar, but really you miss the big punch-ups with the Romans.

One of the very best Asterix stories, all the way back from 1967, Asterix The Legionary is strong in every department – a purposeful story, superb drawings, marvellous secondary characters and - since the boys have joined the Roman Legion in their attempt to bring back the boyfriend of Panacea, who has been recruited – there are plenty of Romans to both bash and endless frustrate. The script and names are wittily translated, as ever, into English and there are good running jokes throughout – one at the expense of a hieroglyphic-speaking Egyptian unwittingly conscripted into the army believing the barracks is a hotel, the other around characters constantly breaking down into tears.  Needless to say, the journey gives the boys an opportunity to get reacquainted with their old friends the pirates on the way to Rome and again on the return journey.