Serial Endings

Things have finally calmed down at work, and not a moment too soon. My stress level has returned to something closer to normal, though things are still quite busy. As I've been joking, all my critical issues are handled, and now all I have left are pressing issues.

Meanwhile, a replacement mirror casing for my car had to be ordered, and it should be in by tomorrow, I hope. I'll call if I don't hear anything. With luck, it will be installed by Saturday, even if I have to take it in on Saturday. It really sucks not having a driver's-side mirror; if it were the passenger-side mirror that would be okay. But there just isn't a substitute for the driver's-side mirror.

Long weekend coming up. And not a moment too soon. Sadly I won't be attending WisCon as I'd originally hoped, due to our schedule at work. Hopefully next year. We don't have any special plans for the weekend, but I suggested to Deb that we should go up to the city - maybe see some sights we haven't seen before. And finally go on the bike ride we've wanted to go on for a few weeks.

This month for some reason marks the end of a few comics runs I've been following.

Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan was a five-year series which concluded a couple of years ago, and this week saw the publication of the last trade paperback collection, One More Time.

Transmet is the adventures of Spider Jerusalem, an outlaw journalist in a near-future dystopia. Working a beat in "the City", the Hunter Thompson-esque hero gets involved in the campaign and presidency of Garry Callahan, the Smiler, backed by his editor, Royce, and his assistants, Channon and Yelena.

Ellis' story is outlaw journalism, little guy against the machine, triumph of the individual all the way. Deliberately over-the-top, it's full of swear words, scatological humor (Spider's main weapon is a bowel disruptor), mutants, brutally oppressed underclasses, ridiculously graphic violence, it's sometimes so gross you have to laugh because it's just so audacious. (It's definitely not a series for children, or adults who suffer from offensensitivity.) But through it all it's Spider's essential humanity, and - ironically - his throwback sense of morality which carries the book. Despite being an unlikeable individual, you have to root for him.

It wouldn't work without Robertson's artwork, which zigs between realistic and cartoonily overblown. Ellis drives Spider, but Robertson makes him real.

It's not all great, and there are many episodes which feel superfluous, but it all comes together over the last couple of volumes and has the perfect ending. While it's hard to say it was overlooked - it's been moderately popular, through it all - Transmet is one of those minor gems of recent comics.

Completely different from this is the conclusion of Dan Jurgens' lengthy run on Thor, which climaxed this month in the monthly series. Jurgens began the current series by having Thor merged with a dying human, Jake Olsen, a paramedic. Later in the series, Odin split them back into two people, but unfortunately this left Thor with all the power and Jake with all the humanity and moral sense.

Following Odin's death, Thor inherited the power of the All-Father, and brought Asgard to Earth to use the power of the gods to help mankind directly. This brought him into conflict with governments and other heroes, culminating in a battle in which Asgard was blasted out of the sky and onto New York City. Following this, the gods went to war to bring peace to the world, and eliminated all opposition.

170 years later, Thor rules the world in the story titled "The Reigning". Thor fervently believes he has prevented humanity from destroying itself. Naturally many humans don't see it this way. An old friend of Thor's appears from the mists of the past, groups of rebels oppose him, and Thor's son Magni, the God of Strength, is conflicted about the world in which he lives.

It hasn't been a deeply profound story, but it's been thoughtful and at times moving. Unfortunately, the ending felt horribly rushed, and I have a suspicion that Jurgens was rather unceremoniously ousted from the book when the new editorial regime came in at Marvel this year. Obviously, the future we see could not truly be allowed to come to pass, but the ultimate resolution of the story is quite heavy-handed and disappointing.

I've always looked at Jurgens' work a bit strangely. His characters' motivations often seem a little hard to believe, and his dialog rather stilted (look no further than his run on Superman for examples of this, particular the "Death of Superman" story). He acquits himself better here than he has in the past, possibly because he wasn't drawing the book himself. (The art varied widely during the current story, but Scot Eaton did a good job on the future storyline.) It felt like if Jurgens had pushed a bit deeper to delve into the thoughts and motivations of characters like Loki that "The Reigning" would have been a stronger experience.

Still, considering it's rare that I pick up any Marvel comic books these days, Jurgens is to be commended for keeping me buying this series for over a year.

Lastly, there's the John Byrne/Chris Claremont/Jerry Ordway story in JLA entitled "The Tenth Circle", which concludes its 6-issue run this week. Largely the brainchild of Byrne, there's no gentle way to put this: It's not a good story. Unsubtle and unsurprising, it serves mainly as a way to introduce a new incarnation of the Doom Patrol, about as pointless a reintroduction as I can imagine at this juncture in comics history.

The story involves a cadre of vampires trying to break out of a prison in another dimension so they can rule the world. The Tenth Circle is entirely capable of taking on the most powerful members of the JLA, and the Doom Patrol has been on their trail for reasons not entirely clear. The plot feels slapped-together at best, and it's terribly mundane overall. Mostly it consists of characters running around trying to figure out what's going on, and finally fighting a big battle at the end. Yee-awn.

Byrne's work at this stage of his career is very erratic. Next Men was very good, and his Generations series has been a lot of fun (although Generations 3 was mostly an exercise in Byrne's bizarre fascination with Jack Kirby's Fourth World characters, who are about as cheesy as they come). But Wonder Woman and X-Men: The Hidden Years were frivolous and tedious, respectively, and Doom Patrol is looking like it will be cut from the same cloth, if "The Tenth Circle" is any indication.