The Concept of Redemption in Cerebus - Part Two

"What would have constituted Cerebus (the character) *redeeming* humanity?"

I said that I find the question irrelevant, but that's probably an exaggeration. While not an important buried theme underlying the entire work or anything like that, one can look at the overall plot structure as an answer to this question, as we shall see. Besides, when Larry said that "yes, he really did" want to get me started on the subject of redemption, that was the question he posed, so I would feel remiss if I ignored it altogether.

During the chess game in "Flight," Suenteus Po speaks of Cerebus being a "Reformer," and during that section also says that Bishop Posey believed in him as "the Redeemer." The first time I read this, I was completely thrown for a loop. Cerebus a reformer? Cerebus was a greedy little shit who didn't care about anyone or anything -- except possibly Jaka. He certainly didn't seem to be someone who want to reform the world.

And yet . . .

At the end of "High Society," Cerebus says to the Elf, "For a while there, Cerebus thought he could . . . make a difference."

Earlier, when Astoria explains to him the precariousness of the city's financial condition and how it's all about to collapse like a house of cards, his first impulse is to try to fix it:

ASTORIA: If you're the last one of the city before the collapse, there's a good chance of getting out with a king's ransom.

CEREBUS: No! There has to be something we can do . . . some way to keep Iest solvent.

It's true that he immediately changes his mind:

ASTORIA: You COULD donate all your future earnings to the treasury . . .

CEREBUS: On the other hand, there's no point in financing a lost cause . . .

(Dave is very, very fond of the ellipsis, I've discovered after years of transcribing dialog)

That last panel has Cerebus staring out a window, brooding. he is obviously not happy about the situation. Indeed, I'd say that his expression here (page 196 of the first printing) combined with the comment to the Elf at the end, suggest that despite his flip remark he had *not* in fact resigned himself to the collapse of Iest, and was going to try to save it.

And of course, while we might be horrified by the society the Cerebites bring about in "Latter Days," there is no doubt whatsoever that Cerebus is responsible for "re-forming" the social structure. So Suenteus Po's analysis of Cerebus' character turns out to be quite accurate. Especially if we lose our normal sense of the word "reform," in the sense of "make things better" and think of it as making things *different* -- of course the reformer will think they're better, but it may not actually be so. Hitler was a reformer.

"Reformer" and "redeemer" are not quite the same thing, of course, but there are essential similarities.

Christian culture has come to think of "redemption" in spiritual terms, and a "redeemer" as one who teaches people to live better lives, rather than one who alters their material well-being, but this has not always been the case. At the time Jesus was born, many Jews were expecting a Messiah who would "redeem" them by bringing an end to the Roman Empire -- not just freeing them from oppression, but in fact starting a New Age in which the world would be run from Jerusalem. Although transliterated into English differently, Jesus' real name was the same as that of the Old Testament's Joshua, who slaughtered the inhabitants of Jericho and went on to do the same with the rest of Canaan, conquering in the name of YHWH and providing land and wealth for his people.

In almost exactly the same way, Hitler was trying to be the redeemer of the Aryan people.

If you wanted to outline the plot of the whole 6,000 pages of Cerebus in less than 25 words, you might say: "A would-be redeemer is blocked at every turn, gives up, then years later almost by accident becomes one and changes the world." Of course it's incomplete, but it's one way to look at the story.

After failing to redeem Iest, after failing in two Ascensions to redeem humanity, after giving up entirely on the dream of being Cerebus the Redeemer or Cerebus the Conqueror (not necessarily antithetical goals, as we have seen), in "Latter Days" Cerebus "redeemed" the men of Estarcion by getting them to throw off the yoke of the Cirinists. But in the end the forces of Yoohwhoo were stronger, and his reforms languished and the New Joannists, which were different in details from the Cirinists and Kevillists, but at root driven by the same wrongness of putting women in power (I'm speaking from Cerebus' -- and Dave's -- point of view), ended up in control.

Is that a redemption story or a failed redemption story?

Of course, this is looking at the words "redeemer" and "redemption" in a decidedly different way than we usually do, saying almost nothing of spiritual matters and little or nothing about personal redemption as opposed to bringing about change on behalf of the society. It is also speaking strictly in terms of plot, the surface details of the events in the long saga of Cerebus' life.

Next time, I'll talk about Cerebus in context of the personal redemption stories of the type outlined in Part One.