Blue Rhino Review
Well, it’s time for some more reviews. Unfortunately, monetary obligations have prevented me from the purchase of anything new lately. Fret not, though, loyal reader, for thanks to a friend, I was recently able to read the entire run of a series I’ve been waiting years to get into. So, here we go…
Transmetropolitan #1-60
I don’t know.
Given an overall impression, I’d guess I’d say I liked it (despite the impression you may get from what you are about to read). I don’t know that I’d ever read it again, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (although quite certainly not a good thing). But there are highlights, and the story has a genuine feel of a coherent beginning, middle and end. Warren Ellis definitely knew where he was going with this story, or at least where he wanted to go, and he created an environment where that could happen naturally and, I don’t know, efficiently? That doesn’t sound very complimentary, but it’s meant to be. The story never feels forced, even though I get the impression that it definitely has its own deadlines to meet.
But enough with the compliments, let’s get to some criticism, right?
This book suffers more than anything else he’s written from being just too much Warren Ellis. Honestly, if I had read it from the start, he would have lost me in the first year. And although some throw-away comments in later issues kind of “justify” the first year of the book, if I had been there running along with it, I’d have never made it. It’s just Ellis spouting off, which, granted, can be interesting, but isn’t always so. It’s like an old friend of mine once said about Prince when he signed that 6 record deal, the guy was just putting out everything he wrote to get through it, and sure, some of it was brilliant, but most of it was just drivel. You should see some of the crap I write on a day-to-day basis (yeah, sorry, you’re actually getting the best of it. I know, I know, I’m sorry, ok?).
So you spend twelve issues just listening to Ellis bitch and moan. Wait. Shit. That’s all Blue Rhino Review is, isn’t it? Crap. Anyway, if you know Ellis, then you know it’s just all cyber-punk psycho-babble and half of it is undecipherable. It just gets old, fast. And you never get to meet our titular character, Spider Jerusalem, through almost all of it. Sure, he’s there, but not the Spider that eventually enters the pages of the book. We don’t once see the Spider that mourns the loss of Vera (a loss he never really gets over) or the Spider that thanks and kisses Yelena on the forehead (quite possibly the best moment in the entire run) or the Spider that leaves Liesl behind (quite possibly the saddest moment). It’s just “funny”, “wacky”, “gonzo” Spider that I’m sure caused Ellis no small amount of personal amusement as he vomited the frenzy of words out of his mind, onto the page and into Spider’s mouth.
Maybe some people think this is brilliant. I just find it kind of annoying and irrelevant, for the most part. It’s interested when incorporated into a story in some way, as Ellis often does in the brunt of his other work, but taken just straightforward and on the page, I found my mind wandering while I waited to get through all the fluff and into the heart of what I was reading.
But Ellis does all the right things you need in a story. Like I said above, there’s a definite beginning, middle and end. All of the characters grow. There’s conclusion for everyone. No one ever breaks mold. They all act, sound and react the way you’d think they would. There’s some definite twists, but you can also kind of see the layout of the land before you get there.
And none of those things make this book worth anything. Don’t get me wrong, because without them the book would not have been nearly as good. But what makes this book good is those odd nuggets when Ellis forgets story and plot and the big picture and gives us the little things that make everyone human. The moments I mentioned above and a handful of other ones, scattered throughout its sixty issues, are what really makes Transmet worth reading. You need all the rest so that they mean that much more, but it’s those moments that are worth the price of admission.
And so I’ve gone against every other Warren Ellis fanatic alive by deciding that what I liked about Transmet were the quiet moments, when we got to slow down for a minute and meet each character for a minute, instead of just reading about them.
Transmetropolitan #1-60
I don’t know.
Given an overall impression, I’d guess I’d say I liked it (despite the impression you may get from what you are about to read). I don’t know that I’d ever read it again, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (although quite certainly not a good thing). But there are highlights, and the story has a genuine feel of a coherent beginning, middle and end. Warren Ellis definitely knew where he was going with this story, or at least where he wanted to go, and he created an environment where that could happen naturally and, I don’t know, efficiently? That doesn’t sound very complimentary, but it’s meant to be. The story never feels forced, even though I get the impression that it definitely has its own deadlines to meet.
But enough with the compliments, let’s get to some criticism, right?
This book suffers more than anything else he’s written from being just too much Warren Ellis. Honestly, if I had read it from the start, he would have lost me in the first year. And although some throw-away comments in later issues kind of “justify” the first year of the book, if I had been there running along with it, I’d have never made it. It’s just Ellis spouting off, which, granted, can be interesting, but isn’t always so. It’s like an old friend of mine once said about Prince when he signed that 6 record deal, the guy was just putting out everything he wrote to get through it, and sure, some of it was brilliant, but most of it was just drivel. You should see some of the crap I write on a day-to-day basis (yeah, sorry, you’re actually getting the best of it. I know, I know, I’m sorry, ok?).
So you spend twelve issues just listening to Ellis bitch and moan. Wait. Shit. That’s all Blue Rhino Review is, isn’t it? Crap. Anyway, if you know Ellis, then you know it’s just all cyber-punk psycho-babble and half of it is undecipherable. It just gets old, fast. And you never get to meet our titular character, Spider Jerusalem, through almost all of it. Sure, he’s there, but not the Spider that eventually enters the pages of the book. We don’t once see the Spider that mourns the loss of Vera (a loss he never really gets over) or the Spider that thanks and kisses Yelena on the forehead (quite possibly the best moment in the entire run) or the Spider that leaves Liesl behind (quite possibly the saddest moment). It’s just “funny”, “wacky”, “gonzo” Spider that I’m sure caused Ellis no small amount of personal amusement as he vomited the frenzy of words out of his mind, onto the page and into Spider’s mouth.
Maybe some people think this is brilliant. I just find it kind of annoying and irrelevant, for the most part. It’s interested when incorporated into a story in some way, as Ellis often does in the brunt of his other work, but taken just straightforward and on the page, I found my mind wandering while I waited to get through all the fluff and into the heart of what I was reading.
But Ellis does all the right things you need in a story. Like I said above, there’s a definite beginning, middle and end. All of the characters grow. There’s conclusion for everyone. No one ever breaks mold. They all act, sound and react the way you’d think they would. There’s some definite twists, but you can also kind of see the layout of the land before you get there.
And none of those things make this book worth anything. Don’t get me wrong, because without them the book would not have been nearly as good. But what makes this book good is those odd nuggets when Ellis forgets story and plot and the big picture and gives us the little things that make everyone human. The moments I mentioned above and a handful of other ones, scattered throughout its sixty issues, are what really makes Transmet worth reading. You need all the rest so that they mean that much more, but it’s those moments that are worth the price of admission.
And so I’ve gone against every other Warren Ellis fanatic alive by deciding that what I liked about Transmet were the quiet moments, when we got to slow down for a minute and meet each character for a minute, instead of just reading about them.