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A review by vimcenzo
Transmetropolitan, Vol. 3: Year of the Bastard by Warren Ellis
5.0
Fuck.
I really hovered on if this was a four-star or five-star book but honestly, it earned the five.
The thing I wanted—for Spider to focus on something to give the series a throughline—has come in the form of a nasty election. The incumbent president is a conservative called The Beast—a deliciously vague name coined by Spider himself that lets you find whatever reflections you can find in our world onto him. But the vague democratic party has only a gawking soulless “Smiler” assuring everything will be alright when his only winning trait is not being his opponent. And he’s got skeletons of his own in the closet—collusions that make him no better than his opposition, that Spider vows to reveal at all costs—even if the Beast is re-elected.
And all this is tied to a personal story. Of course Transmetropolitan is a political/urban commentary, but we never feel preached to because it’s in service to Spider’s personal narrative. He can’t do well with praise—he hates when his iconic glasses become cheap cosplay merchandise, but when he headbutts a Neo-Nazi just for screwing with him, he is visibly and actively disturbed when others clap him on the back and applaud his American machismo. He is bad with his personal relationships, but for one non-bleak moment it all seems like it will turn around, that in spite of everything Spider will not only get his justice but the world might turn around to be less bleak. And that world will instead spit on him, and all of us.
As a self-contained volume, Year of the Bastard may be the strongest series of Spider Jerusalem’s story yet. I ordered Absolute Transmetropolitan next and will be continuing there, though I believe the thing I asked for—the throughline—may be gone by this point. But who knows? The vignettes of reasons the future/our real world suck are not bad, and Lord knows I want more, so why not. Long Live Spider Jerusalem.
I really hovered on if this was a four-star or five-star book but honestly, it earned the five.
The thing I wanted—for Spider to focus on something to give the series a throughline—has come in the form of a nasty election. The incumbent president is a conservative called The Beast—a deliciously vague name coined by Spider himself that lets you find whatever reflections you can find in our world onto him. But the vague democratic party has only a gawking soulless “Smiler” assuring everything will be alright when his only winning trait is not being his opponent. And he’s got skeletons of his own in the closet—collusions that make him no better than his opposition, that Spider vows to reveal at all costs—even if the Beast is re-elected.
And all this is tied to a personal story. Of course Transmetropolitan is a political/urban commentary, but we never feel preached to because it’s in service to Spider’s personal narrative. He can’t do well with praise—he hates when his iconic glasses become cheap cosplay merchandise, but when he headbutts a Neo-Nazi just for screwing with him, he is visibly and actively disturbed when others clap him on the back and applaud his American machismo. He is bad with his personal relationships, but for one non-bleak moment it all seems like it will turn around, that in spite of everything Spider will not only get his justice but the world might turn around to be less bleak. And that world will instead spit on him, and all of us.
As a self-contained volume, Year of the Bastard may be the strongest series of Spider Jerusalem’s story yet. I ordered Absolute Transmetropolitan next and will be continuing there, though I believe the thing I asked for—the throughline—may be gone by this point. But who knows? The vignettes of reasons the future/our real world suck are not bad, and Lord knows I want more, so why not. Long Live Spider Jerusalem.