Search didn't turn up anything (except a forgotten fan-fic in the writing forums) which is odd. I thought we had a thread. Anyway...
I'm about 8 issues in right now, and enjoying it. Even in a setting I wasn't thrilled about, and about a writer with no special abilities other than being a perceptive *******, it's keeping me hooked. And also solidifying Warren Ellis as possibly my favorite writer in a comic medium.
Not his best work, and certainly not transcendent like Planetary. Some of the 'melting pot' tropes that pop up are a bit dated (the comic was from the late 90's) and feel cliche, but I loved some not-so-subtle references to the protagonist being likened to both Batman and Jesus (while simultaneously disliking the heavy-handed religion conference, granted).
But even when not firing on all cylinders, Ellis manages to mine some gold, and has some forceful moments (like a brilliant one-off issue about a "fish out of water" story of a woman who was cryogenically frozen in the late 20th century).
I DL'd Transmetropolitan a while ago, just never got around to reading it. I've heard great things, though. I'm curious to hear your opinions once you've gotten deeper in the story.
Think I might have to flip through it pretty soon...
__________________
"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
So I purchased the first 3 trades, and it may be a while before I get to more. But...
I'm torn. Because, on the one hand, you have some brilliant writing with an engaging anti-hero protagonist. Who, among many questionable practices and even 1-2 overtly questionable acts, is the most principled character in the comic and is also masterful at destroying hypocrisy in the world.
My issue is with the world he exists in. It's an amalgamation of every fear, possibility, stereotype, and cliche that cynics like to ascribe to our culture. Drug addiction is practically championed, the politicians are all corrupt, the conservative elements are played up as overtly stupid, the masses are treated like dog sh*t, and everyone has some ulterior motive which apparently ONLY the main character can uncover. At one point he even talks about how no news journalists do actual investigating, they only read or watch news feeds. So when he actually spends a couple hours researching a story, he uncovers more dirt than years worth of reporting has before him.
It's a dumbed-down world that exists for the sake of constant real-world allegory. It does nothing to hide the Spider's (and I assume Ellis's) thoughts on certain things, and few issues go by without references to modern religion or politics. Which, mind you, is a veritable playground for anyone from conspiracy theorists to simply the vaguely cynical. It's easy to fall into the "yeah, we're right!" liberal mentality with Spider, because Ellis makes it so easy for us to jump on board. Which is part of the undeniable appeal, I think it's just a bit overdone at times.
The violence and graphic imagery are also notable, but actually become part of the background. Once it's established as the status quo not just for Spider but for the City, what initially seems sensationalistic is actually the most fitting depiction of Spider and the dystopia he rails against.
I want Ellis to rise up and give himself more of a challenge, which I hope he does in subsequent arcs. Because the world he's created is easy pickings for Spider's rage and bluster. It's when he creates situations with more moral nuance that the series shines, as with his first assistant's relationship struggles, the unfreezing of a woman that becomes an anachronistic cautionary tale, or when he gives the reader - and not just the constant stream of sundry antagonists - reason to question Spider.
Worth a read. It's not normal comic fare. And while it bears Ellis's trademark style and devil-may-care attitude toward social taboos, which seem to be at the forefront of a lot of his work, it's an example of him letting himself go that none of his other work quite matches. So I suppose if you don't like Ellis, stay the hell away, because this is him unplugged. But for the sheer dizzying ride he takes Spider on, it's entertaining.
I enjoyed the series although I should warn you it starts to drag towards the end. And yes Digi I agree despite how I enjoyed Spider Jerusalem as a character , the cliched world he lives in is over the top. Although this is not really suprising considering Ellis carried that same theme to comics like black summer and no hero.
It's been a while since I've read Transmetropolitan, but I still thinks it's a solid read. It doesn't get better as it advances in my opinion, because there is a simple mindness to the propose that makes it entirely a caricature, which is part of its charm but also it's most objectable weakness.
I've decided to read it on a metatextual level in which Spider is not a comic book hero, but a cultural one, and by challenging that same notion of our culture through. It's easy to build a hero like Spider Jerusalem, and precisely because it's so simple it has to be seen as a cautionary tale. One shouldn't buy one-ticket messianic tales like Transmetropolitan, because it's implicitly accepting the over-the-top world view that such position suggests. Fatalism and cynism belong just into a fantasy dimension where things no longer make sense and that there is only one form we can recognize, satirical values can be easily undone into themselves and become meaningless.
The emptiness of Transmetropolitan is also the self-deluded attack of a pointless quest, because we have admitted that the universe is pointless, it has been reduced to the same-tale-of-always with no twists at all.
This sounds a lot like the fatalism you disagree with. Though I'm not 100% sure, your sentence involving fatalism was confusingly constructed.
Also, what's the "same tale-of-always?" There's a couple ways that could be reasonably interpreted. And is it the comic that admits the universe is pointless, or you as a reader? Because you use "we" in an odd sense.
I basically meant that Fatalism was constructed as a very fiddling value, it makes it seems as some kind of mirage. As if it said "this is not happening, it's just a magic trick, but if you believe this is really happening then it becomes real, for you", I don't think Transmetropolitan makes much sense in a literal sense. It doesn't challenge the reading by some misguided crystal clear metaphor, instead it tries to be the kind of muddled entertainment that the story itself may suggest. Transmetropolitan is the kind of fiction you would see inside it's own universe, but for us is not really meaningful. That's the point I was trying to make.
Of course, I admit and assume the fact that I'm rising a very partial view on the comic, but it's not meant to be demeaning. I truly think that it is better to grasp Transmetropolitan as a contradictory narration in order to fully enjoy it. It is good that Transmetropolitan has that dimension and I'm pretty sure Ellis knew about it after finishing it.
I'm continuing this series, and beginning to discern a central theme. The world around Spider is a hyperbole of our own. An information-drowned, technological paradise that has broken down the barriers of human acceptability. We are now fully capable of being fully aware of our own worst nature, and the more we become truly self-aware, the more desperate the situation seems. We recognize corruption and apathy in any government or party, philosophical or religious movements get lost in an endless shuffle of competing narratives, etc.
And Spider, an utter bastard, but still essentially a moral compass in the madness, is left pondering the futility of his own crusade. When he's not enjoying tearing down a religious or political figure, or on a drug high, he is left with the crashing weight of the burden he thinks he bears - trying to bring Truth to a world that has forgotten how to discern fiction from reality. He hates the people he is trying to liberate just as much as those he's trying to liberate them from.
It's not a new theme. But it's powerfully, and entertainingly, driven.
I still have a ways to go. But that description, I think, can accurately summarize the moral thrust of the comic so far (without going into individual narratives and details).
I still think the world makes it too easy for him to be "right." Everyone seems to be corrupt and loathsome to some extent except Spider and his assistants. But by making it at least partially about Spider's internal struggle with the world around him, rather than simply Spider vs. the World, Ellis manages to give voice to a host of disillusioned fears many of us harbor about our place in the world.
KMC Community Forums
Apr 28th, 2012 10:39 PM
