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Transmetropolitan: The Cure

Creative Team: Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson,
Rodney Ramos
Publisher: Vertigo

Reviewed by Rob Manuel

I would like to start out this review by admitting that it is a bit unfair that I am reviewing the newest Transmetropolitan. The point is I believe that Transetropolitian is one of the best comic series on the market right now. You can keep your spandex-wearing wussies and your gun-toting vigilantes. Transmetropolitan has none of that. Spider Jerusalem is a chain-smoking, pill-popping, black trench-wearing journalist telling the truth no matter who he has to hurt to get it. Accompanied by his filthy assistants with a couple of "Bowel-disrupter" guns at their sides, they search a sometimes disturbing futuristic city for a good story. Needless to say, I am a bit biased towards the comic. I will try my best to stick to the facts and keep my fanboy down to a minimum.

Warren Ellis rules!!!

Sorry.

If you are just now jumping on the Transmet-wagon, you have a bit of catching up to do since this is the 9th volume of this series. Callahan, the President of the United States and number one enemy of Spider, is not about to cut our favorite journalist any slack. By tampering with the national weather system, a Super Storm has just hit the city, completely decimating nearly a quarter of the area. While Spider and his assistants are looking for shelter, Callahan has men to wipe the information district's computers clean. Just like the rest of the journalists in the city, Spider keeps his more important information in those computers, including information to send Callahan to jail. Spider also learns that his brain is beginning to deteriorate from a strange medical disease.With Spider's condition getting worse and informants disappearing, it looks as though Spider may have met his match.

Mitch Royce, Spider's former editor and Uncle to one filthy assistant, comes bearing gifts, saved files from Spider's records on Callahan in this new issue. With renewed hope, Spider again begins the task of collecting evidence against the evil President by visiting an old friend, Fred - former leader of a transient cult. With the help from the "Chair Leg of Truth", the former leader admits to supplying Callahan with three Alien-altered prostitutes. With two already murdered, the race is on against Callahan and the crippling disease to find the last prostitute and another piece of the puzzle.

There are few comics out there like Transmetropolitian which can fuse together drama, humor, and intelligence into a seamless symphony. At the helm is always Warren Ellis. Warren is just one of those writers where if I see his name on a comic, I know it will be something I like. Planetary and Authority are just two examples of his other work. Unlike Authority, which is all about action, Warren's work on Transmetropolitan is mostly about words... a lot of well thought-out words. The series is coming to a close, and it's questionable if Spider will make it to the last panel. The Cure begins to tie up a lot of loose ends as well as touch on some old people, like Mitch and Fred, whom we haven't seen in awhile. While there's a lot of story to deal with, one of the disadvantages is the story itself. In the earlier series, I used to read the volumes out of order. My campus bookstore would only carry a couple at a time and not always in sequence. After reading this, I have a hard time seeing anyone just jumping in and understanding everything. Don't read The Cure first. That's my point. Read the rest of them and then come back to The Cure. Warren is just about ready to close the doors on this series and you don't want to miss the final comics coming out soon.

Rating: (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)