The First Few Issues: Early Writings of the Giant Box of Comics

(This is the last of my old writings that I've found so far, so probably the last of the First Few Issues until I find something I wrote in crayon about my old Doctor Who Weekly magazines.)

Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis and Darrick Robertson
Overview and review of issues #28 - 30, by Tom Miller
Rating: 5/5 

The first thing you ought to know is that I'm not going to give anything away here. Not a thing. I hate reading reviews that tell you the entire plot of the (insert medium here ) that you're interested in, thus negating any reason to bother with it. That's what I'm going to try to do: give you a reason to bother with Transmetropolitan.

What you should know: Transmet has been going for 30 issues, 12 under the Helix imprint, and the rest in Vertigo. At the outset we meet Spider Jerusalem, a journalist of the near future and apparently some great fame. He is called back from a self-imposed exile on a mountain under threat of contractual breach, just the first thing to piss him off. And therein lies the key to Transmet. Things piss Spider off. Lots of things. However, unlike the majority of human beings, he does not let them slide off his back like water on a duck.
He says all the things you ever wished you could say, or thought of an hour after the fact, or were just too damned polite to utter aloud. And he says them better than you or I ever could. And he says them to all the people who've ever deserved it. The police, the government, the fanatically religious and just plain idiots. Along the way he manages to step on toes he perhaps shouldn't have, the ramifications of which are just now being felt. The early issues are collected in trade format. Back on the Street (issues #1 - 3) chronicles
a race riot in the city. Lust for Life (issues #4 - 12) is a series of stand-alones and one short multi-parter and includes my personal favourite issue, in which Spider spends the whole day watching television. Year of the Bastard (issues #13 - 18, Winter's Edge 2 story) is the beginning of a particularly ugly presidential campaign, and contains some truly chilling sequences. These books are followed by the six-part "The New Scum," the
ending(?) to the presidential arc, and a series of stand-alones that lead to .....

Lonely City: This story arc stands out for me as the best of 1999. I kid you not. I read a lot of comics, too many perhaps. When I finished issue #30, the last part of the story, I had chills. The same goes for the previous two issues. #28 makes a perfect jumping-on point for a new reader as we are given brief introductions of the main players in the series. It shifts into high gear with the most savage beating this side of Preacher that explodes into another race-related story. Determined to find out why the police insist on covering up this crime, Spider and his assistants harass officers of the law and attend volatile demonstrations. Anyone familiar with Ellis' writing will understand what kind of witty banter this involves. And it's always a treat to see Spider pull out the old Bowel Disrupter. The arc in general is perhaps not quite as verbose as the majority of Transmet, and has plenty of action and intrigue, another reason it makes such a good place for a new reader to start. "Lonely City" is an overview itself, a taste of things that have been and things to come, a brief glimpse into the world of Spider Jerusalem and the madness that surrounds him.

A quick word on the art. In Vertigo books you can generally count on some weird, pseudo-surreal art in a story that sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense. And that's what we like about Vertigo, but it's not so in Transmet. Darrick Robertson's art is deceptively simple. The characters look like comic-book characters, in a style that could easily fit into The Flash or JLA. My opinion is that Robertson's true genius lies in his backgrounds. I spend hours (seriously) pouring over his city shots,just to see what he's crammed onto the
billboards and ads. Amazing.

So now you're thinking "Damn, if I'd wanted to read an essay, I'd have stayed in school," but fear not, I'm done. If you're a fan of Warren Ellis and you're not reading this book, you should be, if only so you can gain a little more insight into the cool character that Jack Carter transformed into in Planetary #7. If you're not a fan, read the book anyway. It ranks as one of the most thought-provoking, touching and hilarious comics this addict has ever read.

The First Few Issues: Early Writings of the Giant Box of Comics

(Another old piece of writing. I honestly don't remember who I wrote this for, or where it was originally posted. It's online out there, somewhere.)

 

The Doom Patrol Volume 2
Review by Tom Miller 

I've tried three or four times to start this review, each time coming up with something less than satisfactory. I tried the history lesson approach. I tried to break the series down into a number of short paragraphs that would give you an idea of the highs and lows of the series. Nothing worked. So I looked back at the series, and realized what I needed to tell you. 

I remember the feeling I got when I finally bought the last issue I was missing of the series. I had long ago purchased all of Paul Kupperberg's mediocre run, and all of Rachel Pollack's much-maligned run. Grant Morrison's issues were understandably the hardest ones to find. But find them I did. Once I had them all (87 issues, 2 annuals and 1 special), I sat down and read them all. Start to finish, Upon reading number 87, I was taken with a profound sadness. No more would I see the wonderful interaction of Cliff, Jane and Rebis, the machinations of Niles Caulder. There would be no more of those chilling moments, no more surreal villains (including God Himself if you can believe itl), no more of the innocent romance between Cliff and Jane. This, then, was what I needed to tell you. Not the plots, devices, characters or stories. I needed to tell you how Doom Patrol made me feel. 

This is not a normal comic book, by any stretch of the imagination. Really, you don't need issues 1 - 18 or issues 64 - 87. They are good in their own ways, especially Rachel Pollack's latter issues, but it is Grant Morrison's run that will forever be the definitive Doom Patrol. While his characters were based in the DCU, never did they encounter the likes of Darkseid or Lex Luthor or any of the multitudes of heroes that seem to infest DC Earth. (Well, there was that one time in Paris, but I'm not telling!) The true magic of this particular series, issues 19 - 63, is that in showing a group of individuals who skirt the edges of sanity and normalcy for their entire lives, Grant Morrison manages to tell a compelling story about human beings. In their own strange ways they search for fulfillment, love and belonging. Few super characters can claim to be as well-defined and multi-faceted, as human, as Cliff Steele. The story begins with Cliff in a mental hospital, having trouble dealing with the death that has recently surrounded him and his own robotic shell. The series, while a team book, seems to focus on Cliff. In appearance he is the most inhuman but he acts as an Everyman, a point of reference for the reader to view this strange world through. Over the course of the series, he is the character that experiences the least overt change, but by the end of the run we see that he has indeed changed, in accepting his inhumanity, he has become more human. I don't think I've given anything away by saying that. The stories of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol are magical and frightening. They grabbed hold of my mind and have still to let go. From the initial threat of the City of Orqwith to the malevolent menace of the Candlemaker, the adventures of the DP are at once mythical and subtle, full of majesty and meaning. 

This all seems flowery language to review what is essentially just another comic book. The truth though is that no other kind of language could come close to doing justice for this series. If The Invisibles is every conspiracy you've ever heard coming true, then the DP is all of them, and then a few you've never heard of. It is the sort of series that permeates the consciousness of the reader, a story that leaves you thinking long after you've finished it. For years in my case. I'll probably never get over it. And that's a good thing. 

The Particulars: Issues 19 - 25 are collected in the "Crawling From the Wreckage" trade, and the rest of the issues are likely available for no more than $5. They're not easy to find, but well worth the search. I can't say what kind of reader will like this book. If you like a great story, read it. 

A small ray of hope for any who've read and sorely miss the DP. Warren Ellis' Planetary is looking to be every bit as amazing and wondrous as The Doom Patrol was. There's a trade of the first issues coming in March. I highly recommend it. Maybe my next review.

The First Few Issues: Early Writings of the Giant Box of Comics

(This is something that I give to people when I present them with volume one of the Morrison/Case Doom Patrol. I don't give this comic to everyone, because I think there's people who just would not like it. But I love it, just about more than any other superhero comic I've ever read.)

What do you need to know before reading Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol?

There are two answers to this question.

The first is “Nothing.”  Just jump in and read this weird shit.  It’s amazing.

The second is this:

The Doom Patrol were formed in the early 60s.  The three main members, Cliff Steele (Robotman), Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl), and Larry Trainor (Negative Man) were all victims of accidents that left them outcast from society.  Brought together by a benevolent genius known as “The Chief,” in actuality a man named Niles Caulder, they became the “World’s Strangest Superheroes!”

After battling oddities such as the alien Garguax, and The Brain, Monsieur Mallah (a sentient, talking gorilla) and the Brotherhood of Evil, these four disabled superheroes selflessly gave their lives to save a small fishing village in Maine.

Except that, aside from poor Rita Farr, Elasti-Girl, they all survived.

Cliff re-surfaced first, had his body rebuilt, and joined a new Doom Patrol, formed by Arani Caulder (Celsius), who claimed to be the wife of the late Niles Caulder.  They were joined by Joshua Clay (Tempest) and Val Vostok (Negative Woman), and they had adventures.  Eventually they recruited some younger members: Rhea Jones (Lodestone), Wayne Hawking (Karma), Scott Fischer, and Dorothy Spinner, the ape-faced girl.  Somewhere along the way, Larry Trainor showed up, sans powers, as did Niles Caulder.  All in all, however, it was pretty mediocre, and that’s being kind.

And then a bunch of them died again, during an alien invasion.  And some more of them left when they lost their powers, or when incoming writer Grant Morrison decided that the characters were just too goofy.

As it stands just before you are about to start reading, Arani Caulder and Scott Fischer are dead, victims of the alien attack.  Wayne Hawking has run off to avoid the law, while Val Vostok has vanished much as her Negative Woman powers have.  Rhea Jones is in a coma as a result of the alien attack.  The others?  What of Cliff, Larry, Josh, and Niles?  What of young Dorothy?

You’re about to find out.

Oh, but poor Rita is still dead.