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A review by molokov
Transmetropolitan, Vol. 10: One More Time by Warren Ellis
4.0
2022 Reread: This is a review for the series as a whole, not just this volume.
So... I decided to re-read Transmetropolitan, to see how it holds up in 2022, given that it came out in 1998-2004, and was decidedly political - obviously somewhat based around the 1996 or 2000 US elections. The writer, Warren Ellis, has also come under fire in recent years for sexual misconduct claims - but I am trying to divide art from artist in this review (and I mean writer, the actual artist Darick Robertson, is supremely talented).
So: Does Transmet hold up after all these years? I'm gonna say: yes, it does. It's still as offensive and sexist as it was originally intended to be, but the writing is sharp, the art is incredibly detailed, giving The City a lot of life, and the political satire is still biting - even more so, as you can certainly see the USA moving *more* towards a sadistic President like The Smiler given what happened in the last 5 years. Some of the tech seems dated - are newspapers even relevant today, yet alone in some far distant future? - but there's some very interesting concepts which form the framework for a story about speaking the ugly truth to people in power, and trying to lift up the disenfranchised to protest the corruption and doublespeak of politicians, police, and the corporate media. Comics often champion the idea of the moral, truth-saying, well-researched journalist which does seem to be more and more of a fiction in the real world these days - and one only hopes that this archetype inspires some real-world imitators who will indeed call out the lies of those in power making the lives of the poor and disenfranchised more miserable, just because they can. Of course, hopefully without the use of a bowel disruptor.
2014 Review: And with that, it's over. The climax is satisfying, and the resolution a little disappointing but still realistic. However, I'm still not sure how a sex scandal in the world of Transmet could help to bring a politician down - it seems such a sexually-free world. The /murders/ he was responsible for, sure, that's enough to get the man arrested and impeached...
The supplementary material isn't all that good, to me, but at least it bulked out this final volume.
So... I decided to re-read Transmetropolitan, to see how it holds up in 2022, given that it came out in 1998-2004, and was decidedly political - obviously somewhat based around the 1996 or 2000 US elections. The writer, Warren Ellis, has also come under fire in recent years for sexual misconduct claims - but I am trying to divide art from artist in this review (and I mean writer, the actual artist Darick Robertson, is supremely talented).
So: Does Transmet hold up after all these years? I'm gonna say: yes, it does. It's still as offensive and sexist as it was originally intended to be, but the writing is sharp, the art is incredibly detailed, giving The City a lot of life, and the political satire is still biting - even more so, as you can certainly see the USA moving *more* towards a sadistic President like The Smiler given what happened in the last 5 years. Some of the tech seems dated - are newspapers even relevant today, yet alone in some far distant future? - but there's some very interesting concepts which form the framework for a story about speaking the ugly truth to people in power, and trying to lift up the disenfranchised to protest the corruption and doublespeak of politicians, police, and the corporate media. Comics often champion the idea of the moral, truth-saying, well-researched journalist which does seem to be more and more of a fiction in the real world these days - and one only hopes that this archetype inspires some real-world imitators who will indeed call out the lies of those in power making the lives of the poor and disenfranchised more miserable, just because they can. Of course, hopefully without the use of a bowel disruptor.
2014 Review: And with that, it's over. The climax is satisfying, and the resolution a little disappointing but still realistic. However, I'm still not sure how a sex scandal in the world of Transmet could help to bring a politician down - it seems such a sexually-free world. The /murders/ he was responsible for, sure, that's enough to get the man arrested and impeached...
The supplementary material isn't all that good, to me, but at least it bulked out this final volume.