Isaac Vanduyn 2006-12-27
0 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
I don't know why, but Transmetropolitan never really GRABBED me and held on. I read the entire series based on an overwhelming amount of recommendations from friends, and now that I've finished it, I can't say I'm extremely impressed. Warren Ellis creates a character that is often amusing, but never very realistic or human. I stuck with it through all ten volumes hoping there would be some sort of change towards the epic, but it never materialized for me.
I am a big fan of many other long-form comic series, which is why this came so highly recommended to me. My favorite comic series is definitely Garth Ennis' nine-volume Preacher epic. Transmet and Preacher share a lot in surface commonality. They are both profane, they are both violent, they both explore the extreme boundaries of culture. The difference is that Preacher has heart, and I am left unconvinced that Transmetropolitan has anything besides an amusing main character and several phrases the author evidently thinks are extremely catchy ("filthy assistants" being the main example). The storylines never evolve beyond the episodic, and the authors attempts to force the transformation do not work well.
Definitely give Transmetropolitan a chance, as there is a lot here to love, but if you aren't immediately hooked by the thin first volume, don't expect yourself to like it more as the series progresses. It doesn't change, and that, I think is why for me it is imperfect.