Transmetropolitan Vol. 4: The New Scum

This is an amazing series. It continuously gets better and better as you go along. At this point in the saga of Spider Jerusalem and his filthies I knew I was reading a work like no other, and that I was going to love it forever. This particular volume also includes a little bonus at the end, with the winter/Christmas shorts that were released in a separate compilation from Vertigo. If you're new to Transmetroplitan then start at the beginning. If you've got the backbone, then you'll read them all.

Spider Jerusalem's got a problem: The Smiler survives. After almost destroying his candidacy in Volume 3, Spider Jerusalem saw The Smiler perservere by riding a wave of sympathy from the brutal assassination of his political aide Vita Severn, a woman that the city adored, and Spider Jerusalem counted as a personal friend. Seeing one of his admittedly many, hated enemies riding her corpse onward toward electoral victory drives him even further over the edge. Spider Jerusalem finds himself chronicling the lives of the New Scum, as the Smiler calls them; the outcast, the downtrodden, ignored and thoroughly weird humans, and posthumans, that reside in The City. He's become their archivist, their voice, and against his will and better judgment, their hero. Now he has a bigger challenge: to become their champion. In this volume Spider deals with the strangeness of the people he's trying to save, the thoroughly deranged machinations of The Smiler, and the tiny moments of beauty and clarity that only he could find in the middle of the City as it slides toward self-annihilation in the Election. Can Spider save The City from itself? Can anyone? Find out in Transmetropolitan Volume Four.

Transmet has established itself as the greatest comic of all time by blending sci-fi, black humor, generally excellent storytelling, political commentary, and fabulous artwork. This is just another chapter in the fabulous sweeping saga that is Transmetropolitan. It really is a shame that not enough people are reading this stuff and dismiss it simply as another brain damaged comic book. Look just because the X-Men are god awful doesn't meen that comic's can't tell good stories. I really have been reading too much Warren Ellis (if that is possible.)

This is the most disappointing Transmetropolitan offering so far. Which doesn't mean that it's that bad, it's just not as good as the other novels in the series. Spider loses his edge. He goes around doing good deeds, and generally being pushed around by the people he hates the most. After the manic whirlwind of first three novels, it makes for disappointing reading.The story focus in a peripheral manner on the election, but since Spider has been removed from the streets by fame, he's too far away to really get at the heart of it.Lastly, the artwork seems to have taken a turn for the cartoony. It's a lot more '4 color' than previous efforts and just doesn't fit with the world of Spider Jerusalem as previously depicited.The most interesting thread focuses on the relationship of Channon and Yelena. Which is, while interesting, not what I buy Transmetropolitan for.Overall, if you liked the first three novels, this is still worth reading. If the first three novels were too offensive, you might find this one tolerable, but since so much of it is built on the first three, it's not that good a story in its own right.

One word fits this collection of Warren Ellis' violence and drug filled merryment: AMAZING.The story of Spider Jerusalem and his Hunter S. Thompson style gonzo journalism in a futuristic world that at its core is not too different from ours really takes off here as we see Spider take on the lowest scum of his career so far and do many drugs, use his bowel disrupter, and bash a lot of skulls in the progress.Warren Ellis is one of the few writers in comics today (with Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, and Kevin Smith) who is trying to show the world what comics readers have been saying for years: That Comics are not just kids stuff. And if my review so far has not proven this to you yet, then this warning will. THIS IS NOT THE X-MEN! IT IS FOR SMART ADULTS WHO KNOW THAT IT IS ALL MAKE BELIEVE! So, in closing, buy this and the rest of the Transmet library. If not, Spider might get mad and shoot a poor virtual puppy.