Transmetropolitan V.1-10

By Warren Ellis

This series seems to parallel another character and future dystopian time: Tank Girl in attitude, but also brought to mind Steppenwolf, the lone wolf mentality, (which I was reading at the same time) Jerusalem inhabiting this persona so well. In any case, this future Earth is interesting with it's strange new fad fashions, including: human half-alien people who need their own diets due to the voluntary operation which becomes the hype in the city.

The new America is getting more garbage-ridden (human and otherwise) and it's highly focused on the political aspect, which is fine, since we get to see Spider go off, usually violently at everyone involved, including some who befriend and help him in some ways, but normally they're on the left side of the law already, themselves. Then, Spider finally pisses off more people who would rather take revenge than grin and bear his blatant face-slapping writing. He and his assistants become more armed than with just a bowel-disruptor gun. On top of this, it shows heart, as well. It suits those looking for righteous justice by any means possible.

The plot only continues to thicken with more violence and wild rides of story-telling, which breeze by due to Ellis' uncanny talent of weaving his idea of politico-vigilante journalism into something worthy and easily consumable for the layman (I don't follow politics and this was easy even for me to grasp). Ellis succeeded where Total Recall fell short when it comes to naked alien chicks, as well. There are also sharp turns down the dark road of child prostitution and other dirty areas of society, fictional and real alike which all cycle back to the President who was elected, and Spider's mission to get him out of office. After, the President sets up an opportunity for a natural disaster to ruin the city and endanger people's lives by having the paper district (where everything news-related is churned out) quarantined and no one can be helped.

Then we learn Spider is going through a hidden severe physical ailment and we're plunged into mysteriousness again. So now his goal of getting the President out of office must be done before Spider's possible expiration! I can only hope this finally is made into a movie. It gets more and more wild and sickly violent as I go, which I love to hate sometimes, and it's safe to say Ellis is going to be hard to stop reading. Lucky for me I haven't read his novels yet. Those who prefer graphic novels should check FreakAngels out, here.

**Warren Ellis should be held accountable for his decades long power-wielding grooming tactics, listed here: www.somanyofus.com. If someone is showing these signs, I can only hope the person is able to get themselves away from the behavior as quickly as possible, since some people don't have to answer for their actions, and hopefully he has learned not only how to evade, but truly develop in a healthy way from rape culture. Anyone can get stuck in bad situations, but if it’s being hidden or brushed aside, one can easily be gaslit. He’s still a talented artist, but being aware helps context with any art.