Noting that in the 1990s nationalistic ideologies in many European areas responded to economical and political problems by blaming foreign elements of whatever nature (ethnicity, religion, etc.) the authors argue that widespread mass literature forms such as comics can be used (or abused) by nationalistic ideologies to reinforce national identities. Only a few specialized studies have dealt with these issues, even though comics – especially in translation – are very popular and always a challenge to the translator because of the semiotic complexity of the medium. The authors review the different competences which translators of comics have to posses, focussing especially on ethical competence. The necessity to discuss ethics in Translation Studies is demonstrated by the Croatian translation of Astérix, which manipulates for political purposes the satirical representation of the French ideological system in the original publications in the 1960s. While Yugoslavia still existed, there was only one version of Astérix for both Serbia and Croatia. After the declaration of independence of Croatia, a new Croatian Astérix was launched with extensive media coverage. On the basis of many examples of the transfiguration of cultural and linguistic elements and the use of allusions, the authors show how it was possible to influence the readers to have negative feelings towards the Serbs. Finally, the authors underline that skopos theory, according to which the end justifies the means, can hide dangers if it is not guided by ethical principles, even admitting that translators are often not responsible for choices made by the commissioners.