The Knights of Heliopolis

[cornerofmadness]

The Knights of Heliopolis by Alejandro Jodorowsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Let's be clear Jérémy's art was five star and the only reason I gave this three stars. This is some of the most beautiful sequential art I've seen in ages. The story on the other hand is problematic at best.
C.W. misogyny, rape, some gore, lots of naked people.

There will be spoilers in this, the really big ones I'll put a warning on it.



This should have been a showcase for Jodorowsky's interest in alchemy and surrealism and it sort of was. It opens with the titular knights who are alchemists who have found the elixir vitae (immortality) and the nameless apprentice Seventeen is undergoing their trial to be a knight but they're actually Louis XVI (in theory bouncing off the Man in the Iron Mask legend), the lost dauphin, the son of the king and Marie Antoinette, hidden so he wasn't beheaded like his parents.

Minor Spoiler - Aslamar, as they name the dauphin upon acceptance into the knighthood is the Rebis, the great hermaphrodite (it's a long explanation not in the story as to why this is an important figure in alchemy) It's strongly hinted that the group did some kind of magic/alchemy to insure Aslamar was born this way, a true hermaphrodite with fully functional bits for both sexes. We also get a weird why Louis XVI and Marie are both incapable of sex ....and then Louis deciding hey sex is fun, let me rape the baker who also has a son that is used to replace the true heir.

This part of the story wasn't bad but then it transitions into some alt history with Napoleon and here we start seeing the misogyny creeping in. Now I can handle the knights being female given the time period. I'm not surprised by kings/rulers thinking all women should be theirs. But there is something that is hit time and again in this story, the idea that you flash a little power at a woman and she can't help but fall instantly in love with the dude. WTF?

The Napoleon thing went on forever, went on a weird path including him leaving one of the insta-love women and hands her the sword to kill herself with when she threatens to do so....

The final chapter was baffling and frankly down right ugly so major spoilers from here out.

Aslamar was sent to kill Napoleon and fell instantly in love with him for literally no reason. They failed their task and naturally blames their female half for being pathetic and weak. They ALL do (um, didn't you say Aslamar being a hermaphrodite was crucial? In fact that's never revisited and Aslamar's emotional ties to their condition are shallower than a teaspoon).

Later they're sent to kill Jack the Ripper who is actually a female, and the daughter of an alien from Sirius who is the group leader and they worship him...since when?!? She's mad at dad because he sterilized her because she's female. In fact, ALL women on his planet were killed because of reasons that made no sense (apparently we're problems to be eliminated) and once they were all gone men lived in paradise without women distracting them. They came exploring on this planet and human women distracted them and they died all but him but now he can't get home.

Aslamar is meant to kill her too but during their fight they kiss for no reason and then are screwing . So Aslamar has their second bout of insta-love with a truly gross character and they leave the group for her as she's not carving out ovaries for funsies but rather she's resurrecting these women from their ovaries down the road to make an army to beat up dad and omg what even is this? Aslamar is sure she'll forgive dad because that's what women do... (well they did forgive Napoleon for the horrible things he did to them. Must have been her feminine side overlooking the fact Napoleon amputated her arm trying to murder her)

You know I'm fairly sure we're not going to forgive the genocide of one sex and forced sterilization but she does because of course she does.

I'm at a loss to explain this horrifically misogynistic final chapter in this but it's stupid as hell and ruins the entire thing taking it from weird to distasteful.

And we are never told why Beto looks like a giant gorilla. Reasons I guess...






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