Line #9 Characters/Transmetropolitan


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	[[folder:Spider Jerusalem]]
4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spider_4.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:This ain't a press briefing anymore. It's journalism.]]
6	A famous outlaw journalist. He was called down from [[{{Arcadia}} the Mountain]] after a five year hiatus due to a book contract. He quickly reestablishes himself as a chaotic journalist and columnist.
7	----
8	* AxCrazy: A rare heroic example. While a journalist, Spider is a vicious, hot-tempered madman who will not hesitate to beat the living shit out of a man with a broken chair leg. He's proven himself to be so batshit insane that he overwhelms opponents in most of the fights he ends up in, even those with better training.
9	* BackInTheSaddle: After years of being a famous journalist, he had had enough with his fans, fame, and celebrity life. He went up to a private residence in a mountain to retire away from people, presumably, for the rest of his life. He only went back because he still owed an old publisher 3 books and had already spent the advanced money. Even when he goes back and begins writing again, he's just going through the motions and trying to just get the books done so he can go back up to his mountain. Then the Smiler has a friend of his Vita Severn murdered and vows to fuck over Spider, anyway he can. Suffice it to say, [[ItsPersonal this made things personal]] for Spider and the Smiler unknowingly [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant forced Spider to become]] [[HesBack the passionate journalist he once was]], the bane of everyone in authority and a man who wouldn't be [[TheDeterminator deterred even from threat of death.]]
10	-->'''Spider:''' I wouldn't want to touch you unless I was wearing a spacesuit. You kept the contacts. You knew they were going to kill Vita Severn. You decided you were going to make some money off of it. What I want to know: Who did you get the word from?\
11	'''Kristin:''' Can I get you some pills Spider? On the house. Anything you want. Let's relax and talk a little her. There's some rare stuff coming out of old Vilnius. I have some. It's yours.\
12	'''Spider:''' ''Speak.''\
13	'''Kristin:''' Come on Spider. We can do business here. This isn't like you.\
14	'''Spider:''' You've never met ''me'' before.
15	%%* CheshireCatGrin
16	* DoesntLikeGuns: ZigZagged; he owns quite an impressive arsenal, it's just that he rarely ''uses'' it for anything besides intimidation. One of his first actions in the comic is to ''blow up a bar close to his mountain with a bazooka'' (though apparently no one was inside), when he charges into the Word to ask Royce for a job he's swinging [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo's blaster]], and he's often seen with something that looks like a chrome Desert Eagle. However, if his life's not in danger he prefers to humiliate people rather than kill them, and eschews firearms in favor of bowel disruptors and snowball throwers for the majority of the comic. Late in the series, after a lot of death threats and a few assassins, he [[BatmanGrabsAGun begins blowing mooks away, much to everyone's surprise]]. [[spoiler: It turns out in the end to be misdirection; the BigBad is so worried about him having a gun that he only searches him for weapons, and Spider instead swathed himself in nanotech microphones, something that they didn't bother to look for.]]
17	* ExperiencedProtagonist: He's introduced already having built up his career as a celebrity journalist over decades, and hiding from his rabid fans in the mountains.
18	* GonzoJournalism: He's essentially the TropeNamer in the filthy transhuman future. Spider is extremely passionate and violent, he'll wade into an armed conflict with his bowel disruptor in hand and and get his story personally come Hell or high water and spit in your face just for good measure and if he has an opinion, you can be damn sure he's going to share it whether you like it or not; reference his most infamous article when the Beast was re-elected.
19	* GoodIsNotNice: He's deceptively compassionate and is firmly opposed to any form of corruption. He's also a giant, incredibly violent asshole who's not above beating a story out of someone using a broken chair leg.
20	* HeroWithBadPublicity: Spider's fans either love him and more often hate him, and most public personalities hate him to an extreme. It was so bad that there was once a petition to put a mark out for Spider's life that reached ''500 signatures''.
21	** Spider seems to actively cultivate the hate towards himself, in order to draw inspiration from the constant conflict. In Royce's words, Spider can't write unless he's hated.
22	* IconicOutfit: Though he has access to any clothes he can think of, he's usually wearing at least some of his trademark clothing (or nude), which consist of black pants, shoes, jacket, no shirt, and his shades.
23	* IntrepidReporter: His profession. He's gone so far for a story as to use an experimental teleporter to interview the Smiler's wife.
24	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: 99.9% of the time he's an asshole through and through. He'll cuss at you, assault you and brag about how he can get away with it because he's Spider Jerusalem. But he is capable of genuine empathy, remorse, or gratitude, which particularly comes out in his columns (the non-political ones anyway. The political ones tend toward just repeating the word "FUCK" over 8000 times).
25	* KnightInSourArmor: The key to his Jerkass facade. The reason he's so pissed all the time is because he's been [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy Maddened Into Misanthropy]] at how the powerful abuse the powerless for money, power, votes, or just for the hell of it, and all he can see is how ''pointless'' all that is in a world full of wondrous technology that could cure all ills but somehow hasn't managed to do so. His entire reason for being an IntrepidReporter is exposing such actions, praising human achievement, and asking why the latter is necessary in light of the former.
26	* MakingASpectacleOfYourself: Spider Jerusalem's trademark camera shades [[FashionableAsymmetry with the mismatched lenses]]. Bonus points by being created more or less by accident, by a sentient fabricator that was ''stoned out of its goddamned mind''. Even he came to think they were so cool that when he lost them, another set was made for him with the same mismatched lenses.
27	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
28	** He's based on Creator/HunterSThompson.
29	** His long brown hair and beard during his initial appearance on the Mountain was inspired by Creator/AlanMoore.
30	** Whereas his later, bald and sunglasses-wearing incarnation bears no small resemblance to Creator/GrantMorrison.
31	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: For most of the story, Spider has two settings: "anger" and "smug satisfaction". It means a ''lot'' when his expression changes to something else. One of the first examples is [[spoiler:when Vita Severn is assassinated]] - and there's a splash page of Spider looking ''utterly horrified''.
32	* PhraseCatcher: "I like your column." By a proportionally small amount of people.
33	* SirSwearsALot: A lot of his dialogue consists of swearing or creative insults. ''A lot.'' The most epic one would be the column he wrote when The Beast got re-elected. It consisted of the word FUCK. Typed ''EIGHT THOUSAND'' times.
34	* TeenyWeenie: If Yelena is to be trusted.
35	* UndiscriminatingAddict: Spider, being a future version of Hunter S. Thompson, will take any and all drugs he can get his hands on, especially when he's having a bad day, which is often.
36	* VitriolicBestBuds: His only friendly relationships that don't fit this trope are with Vita Severn, Mary, and Oscar Rossini. However, his relationship with Mitchell Royce is a standout. The two have yelled at, bullied, threatened, and degraded each other over many years (we know that Spider has gotten Royce infected with at least one extremely painful STD, and Royce at one point forced Spider to write a column at gunpoint), but when Spider slips off the net to avoid the police, knowing they may never speak again, his last words to Royce are:
37	--> You take care of yourself, man. You only ever did right by me.
38	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Only dons any kind of clothing that covers his full upper body on very rare occasions, usually when he's either getting very serious or very crazy. [[spoiler: Or feeling cold from Info-pollen degeneration.]]
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Channon Yarrow]]
42	[[quoteright:194:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charrow.jpg]]
43	[[caption-width-right:194:I don’t believe I just stopped someone from shooting you. A few months ago, I’dve paid good money to see it.]]
44	A former stripper, she is Spider's first assistant. Later she works as his bodyguard.
45	----
46	* ActionGirl: After her sabbatical.
47	* AmazonianBeauty: Channon is very tall and cut, but she's also drop-dead gorgeous.
48	* BarbieDollAnatomy: Zig-zagged. When she first appears on page, it looks like she has barcodes on her breasts instead of nipples, but later she is shown with actual nipples. That said, it's joked about in a TV movie made about Spider and the Angels 8 riot, where the Channon expy asks if having sex with her would help "Spider" write, to which "Spider" responds that he's "married to his work, and besides, you have no nipples."
49	* BodyguardBabes: It shouldn't require more explanation than stripper-turned-bodyguard.
50	* DeadpanSnarker: You've GOT to be one of those to be able to stand working with Spider for any given length of time.
51	* HeroicBSOD: Following her boyfriend dumping her, aided in part by the fact that immediately afterward he went Foglet, trading in his human body to become a sentient cloud of nanomachines.
52	* StatuesqueStunner: Channon towers head and shoulders above her boss, and is stacked and drop-dead gorgeous.
53	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Quite often. The white dress with nipple- and navel-cutouts she wears for Spider's New Year's party is a standout. And then there's the fact that when she is first seen on page, she is working as an actual stripper.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Yelena Rossini]]
57	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/telena.jpg]]
58	[[caption-width-right:350:I really thought you’d killed yourself. You suckered me, I admit it. I thought about throwing a party. But then I remembered I don’t have any friends.]]
59	Spider's second assistant and Royce's niece ([[spoiler:only not really]]). An aspiring journalist and writer.
60	----
61	* ACupAngst: She claims that for her to fill out the kinds of dresses that look good on Channon she'd "need to be shot in the back by two cruise missiles" first. Which, given Channon's rather more spectacular figure, doesn't necessarily mean much. Still, Yelena seems to have a preference for wearing clothes that understate her figure, seemingly so as not to call attention to it.
62	* CoolShades
63	* DeadpanSnarker
64	* HasAType: It's implied a few times that Yelena's type is older, bald men [[spoiler:like Spider]].
65	* SarcasticDevotee: As Spider puts it "You really do moan at an olympic level, don't you?"
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Mitchell Royce]]
69	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/royce_0.png]]
70	[[caption-width-right:350:Where’s my fucking column?]]
71	Spider's constantly troubled editor.
72	----
73	* BadBoss: Besides his general vitriol with Spider ([[HeroWithBadPublicity which is a given]]), it's generally averted. However, he does have at least three interrogation cells in the office building, which does raise some concern.
74	* CatchPhrase: "Where's my fucking column?!"
75	* CrazyPrepared: [[spoiler:He keeps a personal backup of nearly ''all'' of Spider's evidence, just in case.]]
76	* DaEditor: For the newspaper ''The Word'', which Spider worked at in the past, and which rehired him as a columnist when he came back down from the Mountain. As it stands, he's the best in the business.
77	* DeadpanSnarker: When you work with Spider Jerusalem, you need to be able to trade blows with the best of them.
78	* HonoraryUncle: Even after Yelena reveals she's not really his niece and he only told Spider she is to stop him messing with her too badly, she still sometimes calls him "Uncle Mitch".
79	* MouthFullOfSmokes: Has a tendency to shove as many cigarettes between his lips as he can fit whenever things go south.
80	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: How Spider knows something has gone down? Royce misses his trademark CatchPhrase in a phonecall.
81	* PrecisionFStrike: He generally reserves them for his calls with Spider, when he demands to know where his column is.
82	-->''[[{{Angrish}} My. Where. Column. Fucking. Is.]]''
83	** Inverted once, when Royce opens a phone call without asking for the column or swearing, foreshadowing that things have just gone FromBadToWorse.
84	* TookALevelInBadass: After "Two-Fisted Editor", you will never look at Royce the same way again. [[spoiler: To sum things up, Spider's sources get knocked out after a (man-made) natural disaster. Royce turns out to have seen it coming and made private back-ups, and then beats, threatens and blackmails three people to fill in the gaps. Then he plonks the copies down in front of Spider, laughs in his face and goes on a bender of epic proportions - [[RefugeInAudacity charged to his company expense account]].]]
85	* VitriolicBestBuds: With Spider.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:President "The Beast"]]
89	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beast_0.jpg]]
90	[[caption-width-right:350:I said before: Just because you don’t like what I believe doesn’t mean I have no beliefs.]]
91	The President of the United States. Despite being corrupt, he managed to maintain the presidency well into his second term at the start of the comic.
92	----
93	* AtLeastIAdmitIt: He fully admits to being an awful human being, but compares himself favorably to Callahan, because Callahan is at least as bad, but tries to hide it.
94	* BerserkButton: The Beast puts up with a lot of shit from Spider with an almost admirable amount of restraint, but when Spider continues to insist he doesn't believe in anything, he loses his temper (apparently he hates being called a liar when he's actually being honest).
95	-->'''The Beast:''' I said before: just because you don't like what I believe in doesn't mean I have no beliefs.\
96	'''Spider:''' Don't give me that. You don't-\
97	'''The Beast:''' Shut up. You call me a liar to my face again, I'll fucking glass you.
98	* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: While the Beast is clearly a terrible person, once Callahan takes power, Spider realizes that compared to the psychopath of the Smiler, the Beast is practically a saint. It helps that the Beast feels obligated to help ''some'' people, while Callahan cares about no one but himself.
99	* BrokenBird: There are sparks of a once-optimistic politician still smoldering in there, but by this point, the Beast has long since given up on trying to fix the broken, rusted-over ruins of American society.
100	* CassandraTruth: As awful as he is, the way he describes Gary Callahan? If anything, he's actually restrained in describing how amoral and ruthless Callahan is. Nobody pays attention.
101	* TheCynic: Incredibly cynical about the role of the President and appears to be in it only for his own gratification.
102	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Beast believes that the president cannot be reasonably expected to do anything more domestically than make sure 50-plus-1% of the population are doing all right. As long as that's true, then he's done his job. However, he at least claims to believe in that much; he claims Callahan believes in nothing but that he should be president.
103	* {{Foil}}: He's an obvious one to Gary Callahan, being openly corrupt and uncaring but ultimately not malevolent. When The Beast says [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon "if the president does it, it is not illegal"]] to Spider, he adds that [[JustJokingJustification it was a joke]] and probably even means it.
104	* HatedByAll: He's been subjected to so many assassination attempts that the Secret Service started charging him for protection. Presumably he ''has'' supporters, but the comic never shows any of them.
105	* HiddenDepths: To Spider's shock, as much as everyone thinks he is, the Beast is no avatar of pure evil, for all his corrupt behavior, he's just an incredibly cynical - yet surprisingly eloquent - man who recognizes that [[CrapsackWorld society has fallen so far into debauchery and madness]] that his only remaining responsibility is to keep it from violently imploding. Not unlike Spider himself.
106	* KillThePoor: His administration heavily cut welfare systems and let people live in truly ''horrific'' public housing rife with diseases. When accused of it by Spider, The Beast simply laughs in his face and tells him the poor shouldn't expect to live on "his money" since they don't vote for him anyway.
107	* LazyBum: As Spider at one point comments, The Beast seems to have no interest in actually ''being'' President and simply holds the office for his own self-interest while not doing anything to actually help anyone. The Beast more or less confirms it directly afterwards in his MotiveRant below.
108	* MotiveRant: An uncommonly well thought-out one during his interview with Spider when he explains his beliefs:
109	-->'''The Beast:''' Look, my job isn't to make everything beautiful. My job isn't to make living life a good time. My job is to keep the majority of people in this country alive. That's ''it.'' If fifty-one percent eat a meal tomorrow and forty-nine percent don't, I've done my job. That is the absolute fucking limit of what can be done. Anyone who says otherwise is a con artist. My job is just to keep things the way they are. Everyone stays the same. I do the job. I keep the money coming. I provide the television and a few spare dollars and space for a fuck or two. You might not like that. You might not think that's the way a President should behave. But, you know... that's fucking ''tough.''
110	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Very clearly based on UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.
111	* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Spider saw the man as pure evil. What he finds is a man who is in no way a paragon (he is a lazy, venal bastard on a good day). He is also, like Spider, incredibly cynical about the system and the individual's role in it. However, unlike Spider, he sees no way to buck or change the system.
112	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Thanks to Spider, everyone calls him "The Beast" - even his own children.
113	* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: President Corrupt. He uses campaign funding as his own private slush fund and there are a lot of minor news stories about theft, corruption and prostitution involving him or his administration.
114	* PresidentEvil: Downplayed. He's not all a role model and is guilty of corrupt behavior. But he's mainly a burnt out human being who thinks the only possible thing he can do is ensure the majority of the population can survive, even if, in his own words, it's only 51%.
115	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Incredibly, he appears to be capable of being this at times; when Spider completely loses his temper during the interview with the Beast and attacks him, one of the Secret Service bodyguards comes in and stops him at gunpoint. The guard is about to take Spider down the hall and summarily execute him for attempting to kill the President, but the Beast tells him to leave Spider alone, even though he could easily get away with having Spider killed under the circumstances[[note]]although admittedly he'd lose the interview[[/note]].
116	-->'''The Beast:''' No, really. It's OK. He's ''little people.'' You have to allow the little people their shot sometimes.
117	* StatusQuoIsGod: The Beast believes this and that the President has no actual power to change things and that his job is just to keep things the same.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Senator Gary "The Smiler" Callahan]]
121	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/smiler_4.jpg]]
122	[[caption-width-right:350:I want to be president because I hate you. I want to fuck with you.]]
123	One of the candidates running against The Beast for president.
124	----
125	* AxCrazy: Besides his irrational paranoia, which caused him to order the needless massacre of a peaceful protest of college kids, he's also incredibly capricious with his dictations.
126	* AwfulWeddedLife: As Spider's interview with Mrs. Callahan reveals, their marriage is decidedly unhappy. Rather than go to Washington as First Lady, she chooses to stay secluded in California just to get away from him. [[spoiler:And then Callahan has her killed for sympathy points.]]
127	* BeneathTheMask: He presents himself as a man who holds America's best interests as the highest priority, but in reality, he's a weaselly, morally bankrupt psychopath who loathes everyone around him. Spider catches a glimpse of his real personality early on when he briefly stops smiling before he learns what kind of person Callahan really is.
128	--> '''Spider''': "His smile dies. Inch by inch, he abandons the room, his bickering fixers trying so hard to make each other bleed without looking bad for the press. He goes inside himself, sets his mind in motion. When the smile dies, he is utterly alone. He's not all there. Head full of bad wiring and a hidden bleakness... there's hate in there. This is what I needed... to get up close and see if he's really got the brain damage to fight the Beast. The smile. The Smiler. The obviously broken personality, when you get up close."
129	* BigBad: The primary antagonist through most of the series.
130	* BitchInSheepsClothing: ''Bitch'' would be putting it nicely, as underneath his kindly facade lies a sick monster.
131	* CardCarryingVillain: In private, he happily admits to Spider that he hates everyone and wishes to become President so he can actively oppress them.
132	* CheshireCatGrin: In his first in-person appearance, he quotes [[Creator/AlfredLordTennyson Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] without much prompting. Most of the entire following passage is the same unnerving panel of the Smiler doing what he does best. He does not move his lips, blink, or emote at all:
133	-->'''Spider:''' Does he move?\
134	[{{Beat}}]\
135	'''Smiler:''' ''The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: / The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep / Moans round with many voices. / Come, my friends, / 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.'' "''Ulysses.''" Tennyson. My favorite poem. A new world. New opposition. New campaign. New politics. New president.\
136	[{{Beat}}]\
137	'''Smiler:''' ''(Extends hand)'' Gary Callahan. Nice to meet you.\
138	'''Spider:''' ''(Recoils)'' '''AAH!''' It moved!
139	* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: He is willing to do just about anything to become President and to stay in office. Unlike The Beast, he actually uses the position as well, such as implementing press censorship with his "D-notices" and implying he wants to cut things out of the U.S. Bill of Rights to empower himself.
140	* FauxAffablyEvil: Don't be fooled by this man's grin: under it lies a depraved monster.
141	* {{Foil}}: He's this to the Beast. The Beast is a corrupt jerk, but he's ultimately a bitter person who doesn't believe the President is capable of changing anything. Callahan ''does'' believe the President can change things, but the things he wants to change are entirely destructive to everyone else. When Callahan says [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon "if the president does it, it is not illegal"]], it's said fully in earnest [[spoiler:right before he's about to shoot Spider during the climax.]]
142	* HateSink: A corrupt scumbag of a politician who will do literally anything, no matter how horrible, to secure power for himself, the Smiler is an ''utterly vile, irredeemable piece of shit.''
143	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Discussed in the epilogue, where nobody's quite sure what's going to happen to him. On the one hand, he's buying off most of the charges against him, and some especially depraved souls are actually funding him. On the other hand, there's so many people out for his blood that he may well eventually run out of money, at which point all signs indicate that he will be subjected to Very Bad Things. Even if he does survive, he doesn't get to be President any more, which is the only thing he ever desired.]]
144	* KillThePoor: Unlike The Beast, who only did it figuratively by cutting welfare, the Smiler goes one step further: Not only does he order The City to demolish public housing he also goes literal [[spoiler:when he has government troops burn down city blocks of poor people in the City's reclamation zone in the last arc.]]
145	* MisanthropeSupreme: His desire to be President (which is stated to be his only desire) is motivated by two things, both originating from his hatred of people: 1) Because he thinks so little of people that he feels like he should be above them by holding a position of power, and 2) Because this position provides him with enough power to oppress people without them being able to fight back. See MotiveRant below.
146	* MotiveRant: Like The Beast, he gives one in his interview with Spider. [[spoiler:Unlike The Beast, he disables all Spider's recording equipment because he doesn't want it to get out.]]
147	-->'''The Smiler:''' [[MisanthropeSupreme I hate people more than anything.]] And I'm going to be President. I really need [[RightHandCat a white cat to stroke]], Alan. Like a Franchise/JamesBond villain. Can you arrange that? 'course you can. You're my political director. You can arrange ''anything,'' can't you, Alan? I hate you all, you know? All you scum. I want to be President because I hate you. I want to fuck with you. I want to make you shut up and do things properly. Get through your doomed little lives quietly. I want to be President because I think I should be.
148	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: What the Smiler does to gain back popularity every time Spider manages to expose something sick and evil about him. Callahan simply has someone close to him killed, usually in a gruesome way, and enjoys the public sympathy which bolsters his popularity right back. It's the evidence of his orchestration of all the killings which Spider gathers and uses to finally bring the Smiler down.
149	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: More subtle than The Beast, but his 'new way' politics and consistently grinning public figure alludes to UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, who became Prime Minister just as the comic began. American readers will probably interpret him as a Kennedy, given his vague physical resemblance, good publicity in spite of a sordid personal life, and opposition to the Nixon-like Beast. (He also quotes the same passage from ''Ulysses'' that Robert F. Kennedy did on the campaign trail in 1968, before his assassination. Which Spider lampshades.)
150	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The Smiler's trademark grin is looks to be perpetually stuck to his face. The very few times he loses it it's because someone has really gotten to him, [[spoiler:especially when Robert X grills him about his affair during a live press conference.]]
151	* PresidentEvil: He has people killed to promote his own image and then invents a pseudo-religion based on them to further aid his career, and later, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he masturbates into the American flag]]. Definitely evil.
152	* SlasherSmile: As the wheels begin to come off his [[spoiler:presidential administration, largely because of Spider's interference, he graduates to one of these.]]
153	* TheSociopath: That's putting it ''mildly''. He has absolutely no moral compass to speak of and he has no guilt or shame for any of the horrible things he has done. All he cares about is securing power for himself; everyone around him, even his own wife and children, are nothing more than stepping stones to that goal.
154	* StepfordSmiler: It's where his nickname comes from.
155	* UnderestimatingBadAssery: For once, the usually cynical Spider is completely naive on just how bad Callahan is, thinking he's just another creepy politician to take down. Their first interview has Spider rocked when the Smiler reveals he's a complete sociopath...and then revealing he took precautions so no evidence of his confession to that was recorded and thus, for once, outplays Spider.
156	** Spider figured the voters would easily see through Callahan's act and is appalled he wins the election in an epic victory (though it's noted that the election has the lowest voter turnout in the history of recorded presidential elections, [[{{Foreshadowing}} so it's not as big a landslide as it appears]]).
157	** Even after that, it takes several brushes with death for Spider to realize Callahan is a true monster who is genius at playing both political and media games and willing to do anything to destroy his enemies.
158	* VillainousBreakdown: As his sanity vanishes and any support he has evaporates, he gets angrier and angrier at Spider, ultimately resulting in him attempting to outright murder him.
159	-->'''The Smiler:''' You have fucked with me, [[IntrepidReporter Jerusalem]]. You have fucked with me and ''fucked'' with me and finally made my life ''difficult''. You don't get to go [[spoiler:and be ill]] and ''get away with it''.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Fred Christ]] [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3adc39bd_47ff_4866_88bf_d42e69b46c20.jpeg]]
163	[[caption-width-right:350:I’ve told you people, it’s vital to the cause that I get uninterrupted sex at least every six hours…]]
164	The leader of a cult of Transients who gets involved in the election.
165	----
166	* ConArtist: Fred doesn't really care about his followers, he's just in it for the fame and women.
167	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: He leads the charge against the police during the riots, and is first to fall.]]
168	* HalfHumanHybrid: Like most Transients, but it's especially notable on him, since half his head is alien.
169	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler:When cornered by the police, informed that there are no cameras watching him, Fred's response to the impending death of himself and his followers is not to ditch them to save his own skin. It's "RUSH THEM!"]]
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder:Oscar Rossini]]
173	Yelena's father, a rich, upper-class man formerly heavily involved in politics.
174	----
175	* CoolOldGuy: So cool he's one of only two characters in the series Spider never shows anything other than absolute respect to (the other being Mary).
176	* DeadpanSnarker: One of the things that makes him cool; despite looking like a stuffy, upper-crust gentleman he knows when not to be so serious.
177	-->'''Oscar:''' ''<fondly>'' So like her mother, my Yelena. She was an awkward bitch too, you understand.
178	* GoodFeelsGood: When Spider asks Oscar why he wants Spider and his assistants to use his home as their new base of operations, the first reason he gives is "Because I miss doing the right thing."
179	* GoodParents: The third reason is "Because it keeps my daughter close by.
180	* SlasherSmile: He's wearing a hell of a good one while delivering the end of the speech immediately below, daring the police to arrest him. The smile is even mirrored by the end of chapter smiley button in the corner of the page.
181	* SophisticatedAsHell: Supremely talented at it, as he proves when the police come to his front door:
182	-->'''Oscar:''' Hello. I am Oscar Rossini, noted city philanthropist, a supporter of the party in government, active on a dozen political committees and a substantial donor of financial gifts. I have no criminal record, several awards, three of which were given to me by presidents, and a medal. I am also, finally, a television star. I'd like it if you could arrest me now. Because it will ensure that in a week's time you will be in a most unpleasant prison with the mutant erection of a career dog rapist deep in your colon.
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Officer Stompanato a.k.a. Stomp]]
186	A sapient, talking police bulldog. He holds a grudge against Spider for emasculating him some years ago.
187	----
188	* BestialityIsDepraved: Inverted. In this case, it's the dog's attraction to humans that's an indicator of his depravity.
189	* BrownNote: Spider's actions traumatized him so badly, just hearing his name causes him to go into a seizure. Oddly, he's immune to this when he himself says Spider's name.
190	* DirtyCop: When Stomp encountered Spider, he was trying to extort some strippers for protection money. Prompting Spider to, well...
191	* TheDogBitesBack: More literally in this case. His entire motivation is that he had a [[BiggerIsBetterInBed "huge wanger"]], and Spider had it removed for trying to extort strippers.
192	* FacialMarkings: He has a pattern of the CPD badge shaved or branded into his forehead
193	* GroinAttack: Courtesy of Spider paying a shady vet to have him emasculated.
194	* {{Phlegmings}}: He's constantly drooling.
195	* PragmaticVillainy: Not by his choice. His superiors decided not to press charges on Spider for his actions, knowing that if it went to court, they would be pressured into charging Stomp for corruption.
196	* RasputinianDeath: Before he even finds Spider: he's hit by two cars, giving him a concussion, blood loss, and possibly a fractured skull; gets mauled and blinded by a group of cats; and doused in "holy water" (whatever it was, it burned). It comes to a head when he attacks Spider, [[spoiler:misses completely, and ends up jumping off of a roof to his death]].
197	* RedRightHand: The FacialMarkings and the rings sealing up his left eye socket are all you need to see to know he's not one of the good guys.
198	* SanitySlippage: As his story goes on, he's clearly becoming more desperate for revenge as the plot goes on. It's clear he's already gone down this road a bit before his story even starts.
199	* ShaggyDogStory: Again, more literal in this case. He has a subplot spanning three issues trying to track down Spider for revenge. It doesn't end well.
200	* TalkingAnimal: Possibly as an uplift or a genetic experiment.
201	* UnknownRival: He gets called in to "check on" Spider, after the latter had to kill three hitmen who break into his apartment. Stomp spends three issues tracking down Spider, and Spider doesn't know about him until [[spoiler:he chucks his ex-wife's head off of a roof. Stomp, blinded, jumps at Spider from a blind angle, only to miss entirely and precedes Spider's wife's head off the roof by a few seconds]]. The most warning Spider gets is [[spoiler:a crunching sound before the "splooshing" sound of his wife hitting the water. Spider walks away, never aware that Stomp was trying to kill him]].

Context Characters / Transmetropolitan