Kate’s Review: “Transmetropolitan (Vol.7): Spider’s Thrash”

Book: “Transmetropolitan (Vol.7): Spider’s Thrash” by Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson (Ill.), and Rodney Ramos (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Vertigo, November 2002

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it!

Book Description: The hammer has come down on him but outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem has managed to stay one step ahead of his detractors – I.e. the President of the United States and his authoritarian lackeys in publishing and law enforcement.
After losing his byline, bank account, and apartment, Jerusalem and his Filthy Assistants have legged it underground, the better to implement his plan. What plan, you say? Why, the plan to bring down the President of course!

Review: Back in 2016, in the wake of the devastation of the Presidential election I decided to start a re-read of “Transmetropolitan”, the dystopian cyberpunk comic about corruption in Government and society and the tenacious and bonkers reporter who wants to take it all down. Then I let it fall to the wayside for reasons I can’t really figure out, outside of having so much to read and so little time. But now it’s 2020, our Government keeps pulling awful bullshit, and I’m getting very scared about what the next Presidential election could possibly bring. So, I decided to pick back up with Spider Jerusalem, his filthy assistants, and The City.

Spider Jerusalem had made a quasi comeback after being silenced by the incredibly evil President Callahan, aka The Smiler in Volume 6. In Volume 7, he has moved beyond his own personal voice and has once again found a publication that will take him on, even if it’s a small press with perhaps not as much reach as before. But once Spider has a platform again (which is the first part of this volume), he starts to use his voice for causes that until now we haven’t seen much of within these pages. True, Warren Ellis has always been very political in the “Transmetropolitan” stories, but in “Spider’s Thrash” we get to see direct parallels to our own grievous political decisions in the late 20th century, laid out in The City and a cyberpunk dystopia. Spider’s aim isn’t directly at The Smiler and his administration, rather it’s at the callous policies it has quietly started implementing. One of the most glaring is that more and more mentally ill people have started ending up on the streets, and have become more and more relegated to dangerous and impoverished areas. The Smiler has decided that spending money on mental health social services isn’t his problem and that he trusts citizens to take care of the less fortunate rather than having any social safety nets in place for them through the Government. Gee, where have we heard this before?

But along with the upsetting and biting social commentary that is reflective of past and present political quagmires (as the press is still being stifled and vilified, with Spider having a target on his head), “Spider’s Thrash” also starts to peel back some character truths that are harbingers of more issues down the line. Most importantly, Yelena, Spider’s personal assistant and reluctant confidant, has started to notice that Spider may not be doing well, physically. This is when the series takes a heartbreaking turn, for multiple reasons. The first is that Yelena (and Channon to a lesser extent) has always acted as though her affiliation with Spider is burdensome and frustrating, and that she’s there just to make sure he doesn’t totally fuck up and/or kill himself and her in the process. But when there is the possibility that he could be sick or dying it becomes clear that they mean so much to each other. Channon, too, is worried about Spider, but right now this is Yelena’s beast of burden, as the possibility of losing Spider is too much for her to think about. The other reason that this is a bit sad in hindsight is because Spider Jerusalem is very clearly based on Hunter S. Thompson, whose own ailing health and medical problems are thought to have played a role in his suicide in 2005.

But Spider can’t be kept down. And by the end of this volume, we have started hurtling towards a final showdown between Spider and The Smiler. 2020 is the year that this country is going to have to once again choose who is going to run our country, and what direction we want that choice to take us. God I wish we had Spider here to help us. I’m not leaving him by the wayside again, because he may be the only thing that gets me through this uncertain and terrifying future.

Rating 8: After a far too long break I’ve once again been reminded that Spider Jerusalem is incredibly relevant to today’s society.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Transmetropolitan (Vol. 7): Spider’s Thrash” is included on the Goodreads lists “Best of Cyberpunk”, and “Bibles for the Revolution”.

Find “Transmetropolitan (Vol.7): Spider’s Thrash” at your library using WorlCat!

Previously reviewed:

• “Transmetropolitan (Vol.1): Back on the Street” Nov 22, 2016
• “Transmetropolitan (Vol.2): Lust for Life” Dec 8, 2016
• “Transmetropolitan (Vol.3): Year of the Bastard” Jan 3, 2017
• “Transmetropolitan (Vol. 4): The New Scum” Feb 28, 2017
• “Transmetropolitan (Vol.5): Lonely City” Mar 23, 2017
• “Transmetropolitan (Vol.6): Gouge Away” Aug 8, 2017