Transmetropolitan
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Transmetropolitan is a postcyberpunk comic book series written by Warren Ellis with art by Darick Robertson and published by DC Comics. The series was originally part of the short-lived DC Comics imprint Helix Comics but upon the end of the book's first year, the series was moved to the Vertigo imprint as DC Comics cancelled the Helix Comics imprint. It chronicles the battles of Spider Jerusalem, infamous renegade gonzo journalist of the future who is an homage to gonzo journalism founder Hunter S. Thompson.
Spider Jerusalem dedicates himself to fighting the corruption and abuse of power of two successive United States presidents; he and his assistants strive to keep their world from turning more dystopian than it already is while dealing with the struggles of fame and power, brought about due the popularity of Spider via his articles.
The monthly series began in 1997 and came to its conclusion in 2002. The series was later reprinted in a series of ten trade paperback volumes. The series also featured two "specials" (I Hate It Here and Filth of the City) with text pieces written by the Spider Jerusalem character and illustrated by a wide range of comic artists. These were later collected as part of the book's trade paperback program.
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[edit] Story synopsis
Spider Jerusalem begins the story as a long-haired hermit living in a fortified hideaway on the side of a mountain, who has been retired from the City life, and from writing for a living, for five years. When he runs out of money and is threatened by his publisher (only ever referred to by Jerusalem as "whorehopper") to whom he owes two books, he is forced to pack his car and drive south back into The City, a twisted amalgam of pervasive consumerism, sex, violence, and drugs. The City (never named, but a monument resembling the Statue of Liberty appears to give it away as New York) is the largest in the world, and the center of the political and social culture. Jerusalem returns to working for his old partner and editor Mitchell Royce, who now edits The Word, the City's largest newspaper. The first assignment he attaches himself to is an attempted separatist secession by followers of the Transient movement (a group of people who use genetic body modification based on alien DNA to become a completely different species, forced to live in the Angels 8 slum district) led by Fred Christ, a former rock group manager and impresario similar to Malcolm McLaren. Jerusalem manages to stop the (secretly staged) riots and police brutality that follows, only to be beaten brutally by police on the way home for his troubles.
The first of the two main storylines centers on Jerusalem's relationship to the current president, the man commonly nicknamed "The Beast." Spider soon picks up two sidekicks, Yelena Rossini and Channon Yarrow (known collectively as the 'filthy assistants'), who become his full-time partners in his journalistic battles.
The second storyline involves the election and corrupt presidency of Gary Callahan, nicknamed "The Smiler," soon revealed to be even worse than The Beast, whom Spider had badly wanted to see leave office. Jerusalem's investigations delve into the new president's well-cleansed background, immoral campaign tactics, and the assassination of Vita Severn, the Smiler's campaign manager, to whom Spider had taken a rare liking.
The storyline culminates in Spider's triumph over Callahan and his forced retirement due to ill health, returning to his beloved Mountain as he struggles with a degenerative neurological illness with similar symptoms to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. By this point, having achieved what he set out to achieve in life, and secure in the knowledge that The Smiler and The Beast will no longer bother him, he attempts to resign others to the fact that he will probably never write again, and that his chances of stabilization (compared to progressive symptoms) are slim at best (in the 2% region), while chances of recovery are even less likely (slightly under 1%). He is taken care of by Channon and Yelena, who remain with him as live-in assistants.
At the conclusion, once everyone has gone and he is alone in his garden, Spider puts an unlit cigarette in his mouth and pulls out a gun, putting it close to his head, as if to shoot himself -- and uses it to light his cigarette. Then, as he laughs maniacally and yells "One Percent!" the comic ends, which, after Spider's earlier statement that he is completely unable to light his own cigarettes, leaves the reader to assume he is in that one percent of people who recover, and has dodged the bullet once again.
[edit] Characters
See List of Transmetropolitan characters.
[edit] Politics
The comic is reported to be an expression of Ellis' views on politics and consumerism. Ellis has described it as the comic where he can finally get a few things off his chest.
Some of the characters and events in Transmetropolitan seem to be loosely based on reality. Spider Jerusalem (named after science fiction author Spider Robinson) himself is clearly a futuristic re-imagining of previous "muck-raking" or "gonzo" journalists such as H.L. Mencken and Hunter S. Thompson (as well as an author surrogate for Warren Ellis). In this respect, Jerusalem is figuratively a half-brother to Uncle Duke from Trudeau's Doonesbury. Similarly, both the Smiler and the Beast are identified with Thompson's nemesis, President Richard Nixon, through caricatures of key moments in Nixon's career, such as the Checkers speech and his helicopter departure from the White House. Indeed, both characters paraphrase Nixon's comment, "When the President does it, that means it's not illegal." With his fixed grin, penchant for spin and self conscious "man of the people" image, the Smiler also bears a passing resemblance to Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when the series was written. The mass uprisings and clashes with police forces that occur in the series may be inspired by the social unrest of the 1960s and early 1970s. The Smiler also closely resembles Robert Kennedy, as well as sharing his favourite poem (Ulysses).
A more explicit reference to political events from 1970s America was in a much later volume, where martial law has been declared in The City. A group of students protest against the CPD officers present on their campus; their protests include slapping Transient smiley-face stickers (the traditional smiley-face with an extra eye on it, and an emblem of the comic) on the helmets and body-armor of the police. One student reaches into his jacket to get a "mini-Maker". For a moment, he appears to potentially be reaching for a weapon (although it is obvious that he was simply going for his mini-Maker); the response of CPD is to violently slaughter most of the gathered students. This is an almost-direct retelling of the Kent State massacre, where four unarmed students where shot dead by National Guardsmen in response to anti-Vietnam War protests. In fact, one of the pages shows a student kneeling over one of her dead friends and wailing, a clear reference to the famous photograph depicting Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller. In the story of Transmet, as in real life, the shooting led to massive protests, riots, and in the case of The City, near civil war.
Also in one episode, Ellis brought in the controversial race killing of Stephen Lawrence that happened in England in 1993, where the accused walked free without charges. Instead of race killing, it became a genes discrimination killing in the comic. It could also be a potential reference to Matthew Shepherd, a gay man who was brutalized and left for dead in America (the issues regarding the "sexgang sequence" murders taking place after Shepherd's murder in 1998). That one of Shepherd's killers was a Mormon priesthood-holder, and one of Lockwood's killers resembled a stereotypical Mormon (including wearing a shirt with the letters "LDS" on it) is notable.
In volume 9, President Callahan's trysts with transient hookers, specifically Liesl, are confirmed when Spider is able to read Callahan's unique genetic profile from her blue dress, a clear reference to the Monica Lewinsky affair.
In addition, a campaign poster for the Smiler has the heading "there ought to be limits to freedom", a direct quote from George W. Bush. Bush made the remark during the 2000 presidential race in response to a website parodying his campaign when attempts to shut down the website through a lawsuit were frustrated.[1]
Not all of the references in Transmetropolitan are purely political: One of the more prominent posters for the Smiler's campaign, a smiling face set against a background of bright rings, is similar to the logo for Batman's villain The Joker, as featured in the Tim Burton film adaptation. Other non-political references include several references to the music of The Pixies. The song "Wave of Mutilation" is referenced in the Year of the Bastard volume and again in Spider's Thrash when Spider includes the line "You thought me dead but I sailed away on a wave of mutilation" during his first feedsite report. Gouge Away is also the name of a Pixies song.
[edit] Publishing
The series was originally published under DC Comics's then-new science fiction Helix imprint. When the Helix line was discontinued, Transmetropolitan (the only ongoing series of the line which had not been canceled) was switched to the Vertigo imprint, starting with issue #13. The entire set of paperback collections are now published under the Vertigo label.
[edit] Continuity
Transmetropolitan contains a number of continuity errors. The most noticeable (and the hardest to explain away) occurs when the photographer Mary produces a picture supposedly taken with a camera that she did not receive until well after the event she had photographed.
Another notable glitch occurs in the same storyline, in which the name of a hotel, originally reported as the Hotel Avalon, has changed to the Hotel Fat. The confusion apparently arose because the Avalon (the hotel at which a minor character works) has the same style and dress codes as the Fat (the hotel in which The Beast is staying when he grants Spider what proves to be his final interview). Fred Christ incorrectly claims that Callahan was staying at the Hotel Fat, and claims that this is where the aforementioned character, a desk-clerk-cum-pimp, works. In a later issue, a "verbatim" retelling of Christ's testimony quotes him as referring to the pimp's place of work as the Avalon. While this is technically correct, it adds to the confusion, as it apparently conflicts with Christ's previous statements.
[edit] Collections
- Vol. 1: Back on the Street - #1-3:
We join our hero, the God-King of Journalists, Spider Jerusalem. He has resided for five years on The Mountain, a tranquil and relatively unspoiled retreat, unmolested except for the odd murder attempt, where he has had time to grow his hair long and devote his attention unadulteratedly to exploring new drug experiences. Unfortunately, he is contacted by the 'Whorehopper', an editor of the Driven Press group, who Jerusalem still owes two books out of a five book deal. To avoid lawsuits, Jerusalem returns to The City, where he finds work at his old workplace, The Word, as a newspaper journalist, loses all his hair in an incident with the shower unit, and manages to stop a major riot. And this is just the beginning...
- Vol. 2: Lust for Life - #4-12:
Spider is once again famous after his success in stopping the Angels 8 Transient Riot. He gains (and loses) his first assistant since returning to the City, begins work towards finishing the first of two books he owes the Whorehopper, espouses on television (hates it), religion (hates it), and preservations of other cultures (actually doesn't hate it for once), and has a contract placed on his head by his ex-wife...who is currently a head frozen in a jar...even as he is simultaneously stalked by a sentient (and castrated) police dog who wishes revenge on Spider for the loss of his genitals. Just another day in the City.
- Vol. 3: Year of the Bastard - #13-18 + Story from Vertigo: Winter's Edge II
The story really gets rolling as Spider starts to write in politics again, is forced to take on another assistant, resumes his drug binges of mythic proportions, and arouses the ire of various presidential candidates, one of whom orchestrates the assassination of someone Spider is growing to love...
- Vol. 4: The New Scum - #19-24 + Story from Vertigo: Winter's Edge III, "Next Winters"
Spider's efforts to bring down Gary Callahan, aka 'The Smiler', before he can become president end up being in vain. Meanwhile, Yelena finally admits during a party at the apartment that she had a one-night-stand with Spider and that she is not really Royce's niece.
- Vol. 5: Lonely City - #25-30
Following a Rodney King-esque acquittal of a gang of race-hate thugs, and the police riot that emerges because of it at Dante Street police house, Spider realises that The Smiler is systematically silencing anything that could discredit him.
- Vol. 6: Gouge Away - #31-36
Having gathered his evidence in secrecy, Spider releases a blistering attack on the President. However, when the Preisdent retaliates and gets him fired from The Word, Spider manages to evade forced eviction and promptly disappears in to the milieu of the City.
- Vol. 7: Spider's Thrash - #37-42
Newly independent of The Word, Spider begins publishing articles exclusively through the Hole feedsite, but things are not as they seem.
- Vol. 8: Dirge - #43-48
During a huge 'ruin-storm' that hits the City, Spider is incapacitated, and on revival, is diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease. Once the storm dies down, Spider and his assistants discover that someone has destroyed the records and proof they needed to fight The Smiler.
- Vol. 9: The Cure - #49-54
Spider's brain may be shutting down, and professional assassins sent by the President may be on his ass, but Spider is content, because he's back on the case and finally finding the nails he needs for the Smiler's coffin. But even armed with such things as the Chair Leg of Truth, Spider's enemies, outside in the chaotic streets and within his own head, may yet win the day...or perhaps Spider's crusade will finally inspire others to seek the Truth...
- Vol. 10: One More Time - #55-60
The Smiler declares that the City is now under martial law, and Spider's posse narrowly manage to avoid assassination before taking refuge at Yelena's family home. After they expose a massacre by the National Guard detachment, (resembling the same one that occurred at Kent State University,) and causing the media to finally stand up against the President, Spider has one final confrontation with Gary Callahan at Dante Street.
- Vol. 0: Tales of Human Waste (containing I Hate It Here and Filth of the City)
A collection of Spider's 'columns' during his time with the Word that were not 'examined' in the series, with a varied series of artists providing pictures for said column's contents in a long line of brief one or two page stories/rantings/musings. Also contains a short story from a Vertigo collection where Spider gives his opinions on the Christmas holidays (he, as with many things, utterly hates them).
[edit] Merchandise
- Products have been made with relation to Transmetropolitan. Robertson himself produced two t-shirts, both in black. One involves an image of Spider with the text "Spider Jerusalem. Cheap. But not as cheap as your girlfriend". The other has the three-eyed smiley face with the text "I Hate It Here" printed in yellow on the back.
- DC Direct has produced four products. An action figure in the early stages of Spider wearing nothing but his trademark boxer shorts to show off his tattoos. The second is a statue of Spider, in the same state of near-nudity, sitting on the toilet growling into his cell phone. The third is a wristwatch with the three-eyed Transient smiley as the watch's face. The fourth is arguably the most sought after, a replica of Spider's trademark glasses.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Transmetropolitan web site.
- Complete list of Transmetropolitan issues.
- "Exit Transmet", Wired Magazine (December 2002)
- "The Transmetropolitan Condition", interview with Warren Ellis, conducted by Melanie MacBride (28 October 2002)
- "Paradise Bar & Grill", Spider featured in action figure fumetti serial
- "Debut-Induced Flashback", retrospective interview with Darick Robertson about the series
- Free download of issue #1 from DC Comics (PDF file)
