Customer Reviews

Transmetropolitan Vol. 5: Lonely City

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I highly recommend this new Transmetropolitan TPB. My favorite TPB so far has been the second (Lust for Life), because the first has that new-comic unevenness and the third and fourth had a little too much pointless vulgarity for my taste. But this fifth one really impressed me. Like the others, it's grim, bitter, and funny, and Spider says utterly disgusting and shocking things in that sardonic way that makes him fascinating. But the graphic novel also takes up the issue of the human condition again, makes you remember that the reason Spider is fascinating is that he's not -just- a rat bastard -- he actually cares about the state of the world, and is equally sensitized to both its beauty and its horror. Spider has learned, essentially, that the best way to pursue the truth and fight the Man is to be an evil ****. And that's why we like him.

Special bonus: an introduction by Patrick Stewart, who's apparently a big fan. I would have never guessed.

I'm in love with this series! I'm not sure how this works, but this series has both reaffirmed, and destroyed my faith in humanity, all while giving me a good number of laughs in each volume. As with Preacher, I would love to see a movie made from this, but would be terrified that something aweful would happen, like the X-men movies, or Daredevil, or the first Hulk movie that had Eric Banna attempting to act as Bruce Banner. Not sure who would act as Spider either (Johnny Depp? Credit where it's due, the man acted very well as Hunter S Thompson in Fear and loathing in Las Vegas)...for some reason, when I read this comic I keep imagining his voice having an english accent. Maybe that's because I read what Patrick Stuart had to say about the comic. Always kind of intrigued me that I could never quite figure Spider out. While reading, I would try to imagine what would happen next, something I've become fairly good at as I continue to fill my head with as much fiction as possible, but with Spider, I never guess right. The bastard really is insane, and never does what's expected of him. Entertainment at its best! I forcefully recommend this series to anyone and everyone I meet. Heaven help them if they show any resistance to it. I know no mercy. Kidding aside, in my review of Preacher, I made mention of my advice, that anyone considering buying a book online should first read a little bit of what they're thinking about buying before doing so. This series is the exception to that rule. I think every household in the US should have at least one copy of this series. Buy it!

Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan: Lonely City (Vertigo, 2001)

Lonely City starts out with much the same problem The New Scum had, in that Ellis has sacrificed a good deal of the series' humor in order to amp up the social commentary. That said, he makes up for it in spades in the latter half of the book, which gets us back into the plot, and the convulsive humor germane to the series. I'm back to my slavish adoration of Transmetropolitan with the second half of Lonely City, with Spider and his assistants actually doing something as opposed to Ellis hand-feeding us Spider-written columns. *** ½

Warren Ellis is the man! Transmetropolitan is the best. Collect the entire series. They are all great!

There are a couple of standalone type issues in volume 5. However, the main thrust of the plot is still the election. Spider uncovers police brutality and other nastiness in the election campaign, and is still looking for a way to use what he knows to bring down Gary Callaghan, The Smiler.

The way he goes about some of this is very entertaining.