Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781563897221
ISBN: 1563897229
Label: Vertigo
Manufacturer: Vertigo
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2001-07-01
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: 2001-07-01
Studio: Vertigo

Nobody ever accused Warren Ellis of lacking imagination. The latest collection of the Spider Jerusalem saga, Transmetropolitan: Lonely City, is packed with laser-guided satire and neo-adolescent wish fulfillment in the form of a bowel disruptor. Sliding his story of government manipulation and counter-manipulation between moments of reflection and observation makes Ellis's downbeat ending a bit less nihilistic than it could have been. Despite the gulf separating us from Jerusalem's City, it's not hard to draw parallels between his milieu of police-run riots and state-maintained misery and our own less colorful environment. Lonely City drags the man who's more "anti" than "hero" out into the world he professes to hate and forces him to do something about it, while never descending into the boring comic-book morality he fights daily. --Rob Lightner

Customer Rating:
Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Bitter, vulgar, in-your-face, yet meaningful
Comment: 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.

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