Keith Aiken

The more I revisit “Transmetropolitan”, the more I see and deeply feel parallels to our current legal situation, and in turn the more I mourn the lack of a Spider Jerusalem to jump in and start speaking ten kinds of truth. This re-read is both cathartic and upsetting, but the good news is that at least I’m finding myself laughing hysterically at many points of these comics. Because Spider, Yelena, and Channon are all so perfect and filled with snark.

We pick up where Volume 3 left off. show more Spider (and the world, really) is mourning the assassination of Vita Severn. She’s become a martyr and a symbol for the Callahan campaign. Spider, however, isn’t convinced that Callahan (aka The Smiler) is actually in mourning for Vita. In fact, he has a pretty good hunch that murdering Vita was a political move on the Callahan’s part. And with the election coming up, Spider wants to get the truth out in the only way he knows how. The problem is, there’s no way to win. Because the choices are The Beast, or The Smiler. And either way, Spider, and the country, is screwed….

And along with that we get a Christmas story and a story about the joys of Winter!

Ellis continues his masterful and deft political satire that continues to feel just as relevant today as it felt back when it was first written. While this collection does have a few off shoots and off story vignettes (more on that in a bit), the meat of it is about The Campaign, and Spider’s not so slow realization that there is no good solution. You either get stuck with The Beast, who has driven the country into the ground with oppressive and totalitarian policies, or you end up with The Smiler… Who has managed to prove himself far, far deadlier and menacing than his opponent behind closed doors. There are two moments in this book where Spider confronts both candidates. We get a swift reminder that The Beast is still basically the worst (and he even kind of looks like a certain presidential advisor), but at the same time you see the portrait of a man who is less beastly, and more pathetic and complacent. It was a truly unsettling moment for me as a reader, because it shows that what’s coming is going to somehow be WORSE than the worst. It was a very interesting and kind of pathos ridden final confrontation between Spider and President Beast.

And then there’s The Smiler. It is here that we get full confirmation that he is a full blown psychopath who just kind of wants to watch the world burn. So while The Beast may look like that certain Presidential Advisor, The Smiler shares ethos with him. And it is in this volume that we see Spider, wily, truth pursuing and clever Spider, is bested. Spider had an enemy in The Beast, for sure. But The Smiler is full on intent of annihilating him and wiping him from the Earth. “The New Scum” kind of feels like an “Empire Strikes Back” moment, where almost all hope has been lost and the Empire has won (even more so than Vol. 3, which ended with Vita being assassinated on live TV, and THAT was pretty dismal). Finishing that arc before the next left me feeling drained and in need of chocolate cake.

But along with these painful and ‘oh no it’s far too true to life’ moments, there were small moments of pure hope and joy in this collection. In one of our offshoot stories, Spider finds himself meeting up with Mary, his friend who was frozen from the 20th Century and woke up in a scary and completely different future. As she talks about how different it all is, there are still the little joys that make her happy, even if the world is overwhelming and sometimes scares the crap out of her (and then Spider gives her a camera, as she was a photographer in her old life, and that just made my heart sing). In this same story Spider meets a little girl whose Mom had to pawn her favorite doll…. So Spider buys it back for her. Because he recognizes that “… all we’ve actually got is each other. You decide what that means.” And the other story that really affected me is Spider’s rumination on Winter. Winter means change. Winter means a rebirth is coming. Winter means that we can always look forward to the next one, and maybe next Winter will be better. It was a poignant and stunning one off that, true, feels a little harder to swallow these days. I don’t feel like I’m better off this Winter than I was last Winter. But the point is that Ellis knows that even when there’s all this garbage and terribleness, you can always depend on a couple things: the small joys and kindnesses that you will encounter, and that hope for change and rebirth is always there. In these moments, I was able to feel at least a little calmer.

Thanks for the hope, Spider. And thanks for staying inspirational when it comes to truth and journalism. show less

The fourth volume of Transmetropolitan continues the plotline started in volume three but raises the stakes – this time, it’s all about the actual presidential election. My favourite episode in this volume was I think Spider Jerusalem’s interview with the President – Ellis and Robertson turn that into a really great portrait of a villain: They give him the occasion to justify himself, to demonstrate that he has his reasons for doing what he’s doing – and that for all that he is show more not one bit less of a bastard and not fit to rule a dungheap, much less the United States. In contrast to that, the companion piece of the interview with Callahan was a big disappointment – he comes across as your average cardboard villain who does bad stuff for the sole reason that he’s so very evil. Even the drawings seem flat and uninspired in this episode, and I fully expect Callahan to grow a moustache for the next volume of the series that he can go around twirling while indulging in diabolical laughter. While this not bode well for the future of the series, the election night makes up for some of the shortcomings – in particular Robertson’s artwork is nothing short of brilliant there and captures both Spider’s frustration and his rage in dynamic, evocative panels that grip the reader by the throat and don’t let go. show less

Having seen rants from both Spider Jerusalem and Planetary’s Elijah Snow, I think I can put my finger on a quality I admire in Warren Ellis. For all his rude and uncouth ways, this is a man who loves this big, marvelous, diverse world we live in and is deeply pissed off by the short-sightedness with which we screw it up. And when he gets into one of his occasional rants about how fucked up this world is and how much better it could be if we took a moment to think about the way we share it show more with our fellow humans, I know exactly how he feels.

This volume gives us more coverage of the politics of the Transmetropolitan future, in an anonymous huge City in future America, right up through a presidential election. It’s a future full of wonders and horrors, and it’s all too believable that we could get there from here. Unless, of course, we take a moment to think about the way we share the future with all our fellow humans. show less

So, here it all picks up once more. It's the day before the elections (and the actual elections) and both the Beast (the incumbent) and the Smiler Callahan ask Spider for interviews prior to the vote. The interview with The Beast is surprising, and like some of the best comics, shows how the adversarial relationship between him and Spider is necessary for both of them to perpetuate their given roles. The interview with Callahan is just plain creepy.

I'm normally not one to enjoy political show more fiction, but this series is riveting to me. The writing is consistently vibrant and practically jumps off the page and down your throat. The art is dynamic, and rewards those who look at it closely. This is one series that I'll be remembering long after I finish it. show less