These final issues are always bittersweet. We've gone through it before, with Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher. These Vertigo series that run for years but always with an eye toward a proper ending... I think the recognition of a need for an ending helps to make them stronger stories. But then that strength means we're sorry to see them come to an end.
Here, Ellis provides an ending that no Transmetropolitan fan will expect. It's quiet. It takes the reader into an everyday scene, into a moment to which we can all relate... a moment in which one is the master of all one surveys, when one feels like the world has fallen into place, almost adapting to suit him as opposed to the other way 'round. It's a... joyful ending.
Spider has once again retreated up to his mountain hideaway, far from the City. His one-time editor Mitchell Royce comes to visit, and he learns that Spider's assistants -- Yelena and Channon -- have been caring for him. They have to, as Spider's neurological disorder is progressing. Royce doesn't buy it, though. Spider can't help but be who he is -- a journalist. Spider insists otherwise, though. Now, he's just a gardener.
Robertson's art here is... lush. Throughout this series, we've seen him bring the madness of the City to life, seen him inject the insane but natural evolution of society and science into the backgrounds of Spider Jerusalem's adventures. Here, we see trees, plants, grass so thick it could be shag carpeting. It looks so real, and it serves to remind us of the real lessons that he and Ellis have tried to share over the course of the series. I also enjoyed how Channon and Yelena have clearly changed. The differences tend to be subtle, and that makes them far more believable.
Surprisingly, this final issue doesn't dwell on wrapping up little loose ends or what not. Someone who came into this series cold with this final issue will still find plenty to interest them. It opens with the irreverence and madness that was an integral part of the title's appeal. But the quiet story of one man's serene acceptance of his fate holds up pretty well on its own. We learn a lot about Yelena and Channon as well.
Spider as a gardener? Hardly seems plausible, I know. But he's cultivating more than tomatoes. We see that though he no longer writes, he's nurtured two promising writers in Yelena (the "new" Spider) and Channon. And I think it also points to what Ellis has been trying to do throughout this series. The book celebrates journalism and writing, and has inspired many readers. It incites the reader to awareness and even action about the real-world corruption from which the story of the Smiler took its cues. Transmetropolian and Warren Ellis had Something Important to Say, and I'm pleased I got a chance to listen to every word.
