Cover to Cover: Transmetropolitan Part 10 – The Finale

Cover to Cover is a weekly column in which you’re invited as I read through the entirety of a comic series, starting from the beginning and following through until the end. Each week I’ll bring you a new book in the series (or a complete story arc if the series isn’t in trade paperback yet).

This Week’s Issues:

Volume 10: One More Time, which collects issues #55-60.

What Happened This Week:
This week opens up with Spider and the Filthy Assistants viewing the fallout from his article about the president. After Callahan’s declaration of martial law, they are trying to find Spider. The police raid the place where Spider and the assistants are hiding; they escape with the help of Liesl, the woman who published Spider’s latest story, as she distracts the cops while Spider and the Filthy assistants sneak off.

Once they make it back to Yelena’s father’s apartment, Spider and the assistants watch on television as the police storm onto a university campus. As the students mount a protest, which is peaceful in nature, they are fired upon by the police officers. None of the major networks are covering the event, only The Hole. As police move in on Yelena’s father’s house, he and Qi stay behind to distract the police so Spider and the Filthy Assistants can escape (noticing a pattern here?).

Eventually, the other news channels start to air the footage of the police massacring the students. While this is all going on, the shit finally hits the fan for Callahan. He makes his way to the city, where Spider and a large crowd of people are waiting for him. Spider confronts Callahan one-on-one and gets him to admit that he had his wife and Vita killed. Just as he admits it, detectives break into the room and arrest Callahan.

While Callahan manages to avoid going to jail, he does get kicked out of office and is no longer president. His Vice President (who is now the President) is not going to grant him a pardon though. All things considered, he gets off lightly.

The series ends with Spider and the Filthy Assistants heading back to his mountain cabin. As he is sitting outside, admiring his peaceful surroundings, Spider draws a gun from his coat and puts it to his head. He slowly lowers it and pulls the trigger, using it to light a cigarette. It’s not a gun, but a lighter. He settles into life in his cabin once again.

Best Spider Jerusalem Quote:
As Spider is sitting outside of his cabin, with the fake gun drawn to his face, he remarks, “One Percent.” He is now fully recovered from the disease he has been fighting lately and part of a group of just one percent of people who survive. At this point, he is merely faking the disease so that he can live in peace. It’s a glimmer of hope that Spider hasn’t changed too much.

Favorite Frame:
When Spider is leading the crowd to confront Callahan, there is a two page spread of all the people marching behind Spider and his Filthy Assistants and photographers snapping pictures of Spider. This marks the turning point, where Spider and his crusade for justice start to take hold of everyone else in the city. They are tired of being treated like garbage and lied to by Callahan and they all rally around Spider. It’s a nice moment. It also signifies the point at which I knew Spider would eventually triumph over Callahan. It’s also a great piece of artwork.

My reaction:
So we get a nice happy ending, after all. I wasn’t sure if Ellis would end the series on a sour note but he manages to keep it upbeat. I was a bit disappointed that Callahan got off so easy, but I get why he chose to do it that way. After all, that’s what would happen in the real world.

The way the story goes full circle, with Spider returning to his mountain hideout, was a nice touch. Except that the Spider who returns to the cabin is much different than the one who left in the first issue. He’s still crazy, ready to go off at any moment and despises modern society; he isn’t alone though. When he returns to the cabin, he has Yelena and Channon with him. That seemed especially important, a signal that Spider might still hate society, but that he is tired of being alone.

I would definitely recommend the series to anyone who is serious about comic books. It’s a bit of a madcap ride, but it’s certainly a ride worth taking.

Coming Next Week: Nothing! We’ve reached the end of our journey.