"Borgia. Anniversary Edition": Shameless Rome

The comic "Borgia. Anniversary Edition" is lauded as a visually stunning and unashamedly bold work, rendering it "troublingly fascinating." This publication transcends a mere historical account, instead offering what the review calls an "opera of sin."

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This comic is beautiful, lavish, shameless – and precisely because of that, troublingly fascinating.

Writer Alejandro Jodorowsky reimagines the saga of the Borgia family, a name synonymous with ecclesiastical decadence, transforming their story into a brutal spectacle. The narrative focuses on the birth of modern power, characterized by cynicism, familial ambition, and a mafia-like approach.

The depiction of Rome in 1492 deviates sharply from its image as the center of the Christian world. Jodorowsky's Rome is a city consumed by lust, corruption, and pervasive fear. Within this arena, Rodrigo Borgia's ascent to the papal tiara is portrayed with the ruthless determination of a gangster, underpinned by a chilling pragmatism.

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"Borgia" is not a history lesson, but an opera of sin.

Rodrigo Borgia is presented as someone who has long abandoned faith in God but possesses a keen understanding of the symbolic power of religion. The artwork by Milo Manara complements this vision, contributing to the comic's "beautiful, lavish, shameless" aesthetic. The review suggests that it is precisely this audacity that makes the comic so compelling.

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Rome in 1492 does not resemble the center of the Christian world here. It is a city of lust, corruption, and fear, an arena where Rodrigo Borgia climbs to the papal tiara with the determination of a gangster and the calm of a man who long ago stopped believing in God but perfectly understands the value of religious symbols.