2 out of 5

The symbolism of the older Jodoroswky films adheres pretty strictly to Alejandro’s viewing of almost everything through male and female lenses, leaning into some pretty typical gender associations: men as easily distracted and sex-crazed; women as either saints or “whores,” with violence and sexual violence often used as ways of exploring these symbols. That’s… already problematic, though Alejandro’s movies do have an odd nature of innocence to them; his movies go fully into the realm of the representative, and aren’t necessarily there to make a ‘point.’ And then if you can allow for some of the more abhorrent content to the truly, just symbols and not statements, I’d even stretch that’s it’s possible to read some of this stuff as subversive Then, later on in his career, you’ll find Alejandro rather admitting to the shortsightedness of how he was handling / viewing such things; maybe some retconning of his world views to adapt to ever-changing standards and the world.

The first volume of his comic book sequel to El Topo the movie, Cain, essentially re-did the events of the movie through the titular character, though without a redemption art: Cain is full-on cursed to be the evil biblical figure of yore. The book ends with the passing of the brothers’ mother; an event that suggests the duo will be reunited.

Volume two, Abel, does bring the two together, but the bulk of the story is otherwise a massive conceptual regression: as though the Bible framework, and being linked to a 70s movie, has encouraged Jodo to jump right back into his most problematic, tunnel-vision mode, using some religious framework (a busty, always-nude temptress named Lilith appears) to make the men into horny dullards, and the women simple-minded or, y’know, Lilith. I think some of the Jodo representative concepts definitely still work – a war between a convent of all male nuns, and bandits who all have angel wings; the bandits’ leader who thinks that he’s a dog – and there is a higher level framework that puts Abel in a place to lose his innocence, and Cain to re-gain his, but there was a more organic (even within the surreal) way to achieve that. Instead, there’s a ton of rape, and Cain doubles down on being an outright bastard, and the woman who loves him just keeps crawling back for me. I’m perhaps being triggered by this, but it just felt like an incredible regression, narrowing the expansions Jodorowsky has made to his ideas in some of his more modern writings and films. Less that it was triggering, and more that it was lazy. And I’d say we already established any of what those sequences could tell us with some events in volume one, making the potential depth of any additional symbolism prevented from standing on its own.

José Ladrönn’s artwork is, as ever, masterful. …However, between some potentially wonky line translations (Edwad Gauvin) and the very jumpy narrative, which inserts some select character interactions in momentum-breaking moments, mainly just so Jodo can have another religious allusion, the panel-to-panel storytelling can sometimes be a bit too widescreen, skipping beats that a more traditional comic might allow for.

Archaia’s oversize hardcover looks and feels great, and I’m sure I’ll be buying the next volume. But I do hope Jodorowsky has some surprises in store that allows the story to feel a bit more modern, or at least to offer something that wasn’t already present in the original movie.