TRANSMETROPOLITAN #51 (Best of the Week!)
"Two-Fisted Editor"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Darick Robertson
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Nathan Eyring
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Heidi MacDonald
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
One time, I saw my editor (I'm current employed as a staff reporter at a newspaper) tear a strip off a guy on the phone in the middle of the newsroom because he wouldn't stop calling one of my co-workers, harrassing her about a nothing story. Until that moment, I had always thought of my editor as a soft-spoken, soft teddy-bear of a man who doled out some of the fluffier assignments at the paper and toed the company line. I saw a different side of him that day.
In this issue of Transmetropolitan, we see a different side of Mitchell Royce, Spider Jerusalem's one-time editor at The Word. Ellis spotlights this supporting character in one of the most fun and focused issues of the series in some time.
Mitchell Royce is the city editor of The Word. He's responsible for story lists, budgets and assignments. He reports to the newspaper's publisher and board of directors. But he has other responsibilities resting on his shoulders as well... unwritten ones that urge him toward something other than circulation numbers. Royce wants the truth to come out, and he sets out to give his one-time columnist the ammunition he needs to bring it to light.
This was one of Robertson and Ramos's strongest issues in a while as well. There's a greater sense of definition and focus in the art in this issue. Visually, the City bears a much greater resemblance to the Real World, too. It's set, for the most part, in an office. Overall, things look much cleaner. It shows us that Royce still walks in a different world than Spider, but his actions also show us that they're not so different after all.
Ellis offers up an issue of Transmetropolitan that stands well on its own... impressive, given that the title has been more focused lately on the building climax and ending that's less than a year away. However, Ellis doesn't suspend the plot either, and instead uses this character-driven issue to move it along. This issue stands out as one of my favorites of the entire series, and given the high quality of Transmetropolitan, that's saying something.
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