Every review of Transmetropolitan on Start Narrative Here is going to be a 700 word love letter to the series and antihero Spider Jerusalem. Well, would you continue reading 11 volumes of a series you felt only mildly about? It’s quite bewildering to think that I’ve only just finished Transmetropolitan: Volume Two Lust for Life and already the characters, the world and the issues portrayed seem so vivid and that I’ve formed such a deep attachment to Spider Jerusalem, despite all his faults. Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s vision of the future is one that is quite easy to get lost in. If I were so inclined, I think this would be the type of series I’d write fan-fiction about.

Even within the introductory pages, with an example of Spider’s column “I Hate it Here” in place of the usual introductory essay, Ellis manages to show Spider’s complicated relationship with his reading public. He fights for truth, against the sickness and hate that drove him away from the City in the first place, and yet seems almost powerless to stop it. And he fights for the people that read his column, at the same time despising them for believing and perpetuating the lies and not taking action: “If you loved me, you’d all kill yourselves today.”

Volume Two: Lust for Life opens with another three short stand alone issues that elaborate on the technological advancements of the future society of the City, and the problems these cause for humanity. In “Boyfriend is a Virus” Channon, Spider’s assistant, has been dumped by her boyfriend Ziang who plans to “download” himself. Urging her to use journalism to work through her grief, Spider takes her through the downloading process – a concept that explores a post-biological body and pushing the limits of the idea of what is human. Ultimately though, even in a different bodily form, betrayal is still betrayal. For all the technological advancements and new possibilities, the same base emotions and instincts still dominate.

The other two stand alone issues “Another Cold Morning” and “Wild in the Country” show how the City has willfully neglected the past. People from the twentieth century who chose to be cryogenically frozen and re-birthed into a new century are shunned by contemporary society: they are the shell shocked veterans of a time that is ignored by the present. Spider takes the time to visit the Reservations, closed off communities that were built to preserve the cultures of the past. Their purpose is to preserve and educate, but how effective are they when people are too busy to visit them? All these detailed short stories work together to create the larger vision of the City, and adds to our understanding of the psyche of the people.

Spider: You want to go out to dinner sometime?
Hannah: Sorry, no. I’m married, not hungry, infected with seven unknown diseases, gay, pregnant with lizards and clinically dead.

Yet, after those three short issues I was a bit concerned that the development of Spider’s character was going to be overshadowed by these short and sharp pieces of world-building storytelling. Then the second half of Transmetropolitan: Volume Two is a story arc – “Freeze Me With Your Kiss” – that gives us insight into Spider’s previous persona and professional life as he battles against a beyond the grave threat from his vicious ex-wife. Spider has accumulated a glut of enemies – those who he knows are after him, like the suited up vigilantes who storm his apartment intending to kill him or the headless assassination agent, and those he is blissfully unaware of, like a one-eyed police dog intent on retribution for an unwanted neutering. Sometimes the structure in these issues felt a bit stilted, told in shifting perspective mini-strips but nonetheless the storyline is involving. Spider not only comes off as the badass, threat evading journalist that he is but we slowly become more aware of his vulnerabilities.

This story arc also builds his relationship with other characters, as Royce, Spider’s editor, become more wary of Spider’s journalistic approach. It seems that Spider’s scruples and dedication to the Truth may fall by the wayside in his ruthless pursuit of the story. But, we’ve known from the start that Spider is a less than perfect individual, and I think that’s half of his appeal. And with another nine (!) volumes to make it through, I’m really looking forward to seeing where Warren Ellis takes the series and the characters.

Previous Transmetropolitan review: Transmetropolitan: Volume One, Back on the Street.