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Comic Review: Transmetropolitan (Volume 2)

I guess this is Warren Ellis's dream comic - he gets to write about an obnoxious, opinionated writer named Spider Jerusalem that hates the world. What an... interesting idea. I usually have difficulty with writers who write about writers - they seem to put more importance on writing than it probably has for most people. And some of the stories in Volume 1 fell victim to that - a writer stops a riot? Ummm, I'm sure that is a writer's fantasy, but it is a bit of a stretch for the rest of us. I guess it feels a little fake to have a world that has so many things wrong with it, but still has enough people that like the column he writes to make him famous. But it isn't supposed to be realistic, it is supposed to be more of a satire, so the set-up isn't too important. The stories usually take some crazy idea about the futuristic setting and allow us to draw our conclusions about how it is reflected in modern society. And it is weird how something so preachy on the exterior - Spider's rants and raves about the world - doesn't get too preachy with its actual themes. Sometimes the technology is good, sometimes it isn't. Different characters make different choices that work for them. And it is very entertaining - lots of ideas and stories and crazy things in the background. But it is hard for me to think of it as a classic - although maybe if later volumes start building up a more coherent storyline, it could go somewhere. But, until the final three issues reprinted in volume 2, each story was a one-off, occassionally referenced in later issues. And less of a reliance on the comedic side stories that don't go anywhere, like the dog cop, would be nice. And not keeping Spider as an invincible protagonist, who is always right, or at least never directly confronted by someone who has an equal say. But volumes 1 and 2 only make up the first year of the series, and there was a lot of world to establish, so I am interested in seeing where it goes from here. But it didn't make me a Warren Ellis zealot, so I don't think anything will. Oh well. I'll find comic heroes somewhere.