History Comicbook / Transmetropolitan

* SubParSupremacy:

** Oscar Rossini, Yelena's dad, is Creator/PatrickStewart, a BigNameFan who wrote a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/2vr5ow/patrick_stewart_really_likes_transmetropolitan/ glowing introduction]] to the Volume Five trade paperback. Heartwarmingly, though Stewart wrote the introduction fully expecting to appear in the comic as some "fucked-up, mechanics-addicted, feces-smeared background character", Oscar Rossini is essentially [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Jean-Luc Picard]] as a foul-mouthed UnclePennybags who enjoys baiting corrupt cops.

A [[Characters/{{Transmetropolitan}} Characters Page]] is currently under construction.

** The Smiler is somewhat based on UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, with elements of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon... and SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker. And, jarringly, physically resembles Bobby Kennedy.

* ImAHumanitarian: Cloned human meat is socially acceptable and available in chain restaurants called "Long Pig," which is itself a joke name for human meat. Beyond that, cannibalistic murders come up more than once: [[CannibalClan a family of crazed cannibals]] that eats election canvassers, and Spider makes an off-handed comment about once getting hit with an [[HorrorHunger auto-cannibalism meme]] that left him unable to eat pork to this day. Also, the Beast [[EatsBabies eats Chilean Baby Extract]]. Spider also describes a jar of [[Literature/AModestProposal powdered Irish babies]] as perfect for mixing into a jug of vodka for summer afternoons on the balcony.

* PedophilePriest: Spider beats one up for info on a politician, which inspires a PaedoHunt since pedophilia is one of the ''few'' remaining sexual taboos (the presence of the X-rated children's show "The Sex Puppets" raises questions on this, but there are also hints that it tries to present itself as Sex Education).

* UsedFuture: Some parts of the city.
* VillainousBreakdown: Callahan succumbs to one as Spider ''really'' starts kicking his ass.

* ActionGirl: Channon, once she returns to Spider's side.

** [[NoodleIncident The Prague telephone incident]] before the series began, where Spider drove six politicians to suicide using only a telephone.
** The last thing we see in the comic is Spider, [[spoiler:quite likely on the verge of going insane from I-pollen poisoning]], putting a gun under his chin. [[spoiler:It's a lighter. "ONE PERCENT!"]]

* BrownNote: Spider carries a bowel disruptor most of the time, which shoots a beam that causes the target to crap his pants with variable intensity.

* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe example. The porn movie about Spider references him getting turned down on a live feed.

** Spider's shades hold 2 gigs of memory and can take pictures and interface wirelessly, which was pretty futuristic when written. [[http://www.zioneyez.com/#/specs/ There are now sunglasses cameras]] that hold 8 gigs of memory, take pictures ''and'' film video with HD audio. Complete with [=WiFi=] and Bluetooth capabilities[[note]]However, the series doesn't say "gigabytes", just "gigs". It's entirely plausible that this far in the future, people are using something other than the byte as the base of electronic storage measurement[[/note]].

** Spider's shades hold 2 gigs of memory and can take pictures and interface wirelessly, which was pretty futuristic when written. [[http://www.zioneyez.com/#/specs/ There are now sunglasses cameras]] that hold 8 gigs of memory, take pictures ''and'' film video with HD audio. Complete with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities.

* MoodWhiplash: Most notably, the hilarious and cathartic "Monstering" chapter is immediately followed by the horrific "Lonely City" arc, which ''starts'' with a gang of violent thugs savagely beating an innocent man to death solely because [[HomophobicHateCrime they used a G-Reader to determine that he had recessive traces of the Sexgang trait in his DNA]], (the same gadget Spider had just used to expose an anti-porn politician's infidelity) and [[FromBadToWorse only gets worse from there]].

* MoodWhiplash: Most notably, the hilarious and cathartic "Monstering" chapter is immediately followed by the horrific "Lonely City" arc, which ''starts'' with a gang of violent thugs savagely beating an innocent man to death solely because [[HomophobicHateCrime they used a G-Reader to determine that he had recessive traces of the Sexgang trait in his DNA]], and [[FromBadToWorse only gets worse from there]].

* AuthorAvatar: [[http://www.innocence.com/transmet/images/royce.gif This]] is Mitchell Royce. [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Warren_Ellis_3308.jpg This]] is Creator/WarrenEllis. Royce's job is to take Spider's work and deliver it to the people. Ellis spent five years taking the unchained id which is Spider and winding it into a coherent narrative. Ellis inserted ''himself'' in the comic as Spider's ''[[LiteraryAgentHypothesis editor]]''.

* NecessaryEvil: Of all Spider's epithets, the only one which gets The Beast's goat is being told that he "doesn't believe in anything." Sneeringly, he responds that he's no nihilist; he's simply accepted that the President doesn't have the power to ''change'' anything -- only maintain the status quo with brutal efficiency. Contrast with a wacko like Callahan, whom The Beast warns is out to refashion the state in his image because he "doesn't believe in shit."

* SmellPhone: Spider once got asked to test out a TV that uses a small MatterReplicator to add scent. The image shows him standing over the wreckage of said TV with a machine gun.

** Spider overturning tables and chasing the religious leaders out of the shopping mall brings to mind a certain famous event in the Bible, particularly given the outfit Spider's wearing at the time.
** A blue dress stained with Presidential semen.

** Eventually {{Deconstructed}} in that the conversions are mostly sought out by disturbed individuals who are prime for recruitment into cults.
--->'''Fred Christ:''' You know where most transients start? In the psychiatrist's office. High incidence of dissociative identity disorder. High incidence of self-mutilation. Suicide attempts. Alienation. I mean, fuck, look at us. We're fucking walking alienation. For every transient who wants to explore a new genome, I can give you ten who thought all their problems would be solved by getting another body. Compared to 95% of transients, I'm a god. And you know, when the change gets hold, it gets into your visual cortex and your sex center. You might see skinny grey things, but in my perception, I'm fucking Marilyn Monroe nine times a day.

* {{Nanomachines}}: "Makers", matter-rearranging engines that can produce almost anything from trash. There's even a whole community of people who download their entire consciousness into a colony of floating nanobots.

* NighthawksShot: A panel in issue #32 is a homage to Edward Hopper's ''Nighthawks''. The diner Spider's sitting in is even named "Hopper's".

** The chapter "Nobody Loves Me" features 3 TV shows supposedly based on Spider's life ("[[AdjectiveNounFred Magical Truthsaying Bastard Spidey]]", a bizarre anime-style gag cartoon; "From the Mountain to the City", a crappy and over-the-top action/drama movie [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory Very Loosely Based On The First Arc]]; and "[[ParallelPornTitles I Hump It Here]]", a porno) and 2 drug-induced dreams of Spider's ("The Heroic Revenge Fantasy" and "The Ugly Paranoid Dream"), all drawn by different artists.

* BadassMustache: Robert [=McX=]'s ([[AwesomeMcCoolName yes, really]]) is quite magnificent.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Spider exposes the Smiler/forces him from the office of the Presidency and is apparently in the 1% who successfully beats his terminal illness. But the Smiler's wealth and army of supporters are trying (and succeeding) to keep him out of prison, though Royce notes that his wealth will run out someday.]]

* PunchClockVillain: The secret service, in general, doesn't really like either president, but it's still going to do its job. [[spoiler: At least until the ending, where even they can't be bothered to keep supporting the Smiler.]]

* {{Nanomachines}}: "Makers", matter-rearranging engines that can produce almost anything from the trash. There's even a whole community of people who download their entire consciousness into a colony of floating nanobots.