History ComicBook / Transmetropolitan

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Spider routinely causes collateral damage and even destroys lives in revealing his truths. In one specific case, he brought a film student along for an investigation into a club using libido enhancers to incite orgies that are then filmed and sold. Spider protected himself but didn't even warn the student, resulting in her participation that destroyed her reputation and family - leading to a [[BatmanGambit years/decades-long plot to get hired at Spider's newspaper, work her way up, and try to murder him via assassins]]. He doesn't remember her name, and only that she volunteered to carry his stuff into the place, and has absolutely no idea she's behind [[GambitPileup half of the assassination attempts on him during that arc.]]

* 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. The highest setting will likely require hospitalization.

* ACupAngst: Yelena. 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.

** Also one of the guns Yelena considers buying... it requires "two backup spines" to fire safely.

* BigBad: President Callahan.

* ChekhovsGun[=/=]ChekhovsGunman
** [[spoiler: Source Gas.]]
** [[spoiler: I-Pollen.]]
** [[spoiler: The Hole.]]

* CityOfAdventure: The City.

* StealthPun: Bottles of "Sin Gin" are occasionally seen in various panels. "Sin gin" is the phonetic pronunciation of the surname "Saint John."

* OurShowersAreDifferent: It takes less than a second for a "Voice-Keyed Physical Cleaning Unit" to turn Spider Jerusalem from hairy mountain man into a completely bald person. Given that he ScreamsLikeALittleGirl while it emits a blinding flash of light, it apparently does so with ''lasers''. It also appears to have been permanent, as he is never again shown with a single strand of hair. [[AluminumChristmasTrees Not as crazy as it sounds]] - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_hair_removal Laser hair removal]] was developed in TheNineties.

* MainliningTheMonster: A character injects molecularly [[MatterReplicator replicated]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice Hitler pee]].

** The President's speech (which is summarized for us by Spider) about his kids' dog is Nixon's Checkers speech TurnedUpToEleven.

Well-known outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem (basically, Creator/HunterSThompson [-[[InSpace IN THE FUTURE!]]-]) begins the series "up a goddamn mountain", free from the constraints of dirty politics, toxic culture and his book deal. Until one day, his old publisher ("The Whorehopper") calls him up, reminding Spider that he still has two more books to turn out. Spider very reluctantly moves back to [[CityOfAdventure The City]], a bastardized future version of New York City. He manages to get his old job back, and ends up picking up two "filthy assistants": first Channon Yarrow, his stripper-student-turned-nun-turned-bodyguard, and then Yelena Rossini, his editor's niece. For a while, he wreaks havoc upon The City with a keyboard and a [[BrownNote bowel disruptor]].

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Fred Christ's luck finally runs out as he tries to, one last time, commandeer the transient movement and set himself up as a hero. It turns out that standing up to corrupt police doesn't work when there are no cameras. He gets shot ignominiously]].

Well-known outlaw journalist [[AwesomeMcCoolName Spider Jerusalem]] (basically, Creator/HunterSThompson [-[[InSpace IN THE FUTURE!]]-]) begins the series "up a goddamn mountain", free from the constraints of dirty politics, toxic culture and his book deal. Until one day, his old publisher ("The Whorehopper") calls him up, reminding Spider that he still has two more books to turn out. Spider very reluctantly moves back to [[CityOfAdventure The City]], a bastardized future version of New York City. He manages to get his old job back, and ends up picking up two "filthy assistants": first Channon Yarrow, his stripper-student-turned-nun-turned-bodyguard, and then Yelena Rossini, his editor's niece. For a while, he wreaks havoc upon The City with a keyboard and a [[BrownNote bowel disruptor]].

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Spider Jerusalem. He states in a later issue that he was originally going to be named Django Heraclitus Jerusalem, but he was a spidery baby and his mother was a bit crazy. Also a ''literal'' [=McCool=] name in Robert [=McX=]. The most honest journalist in The City apart from Spider, he's frequently the only one ''defending'' Spider in his commentaries.

* GreyGoo: Nanotech, in general, is widespread but deliberately hardcoded to prevent this, but it's mentioned that it can be circumvented. We see the results twice - once was a man without legs, who lost them preventing an entire block from being wiped out by it. [[spoiler: The second is when it's revealed that a contained version was used in Vita's assassination.]]

-->'''Maker:''' ''Why'' did I give up drugs today?

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

* OurShowersAreDifferent: It takes less than a second for a "Voice-Keyed Physical Cleaning Unit" to turn Spider Jerusalem from hairy mountain man into a full-body BaldOfAwesome. Given that he ScreamsLikeALittleGirl while it emits a blinding flash of light, it apparently does so with ''lasers''. It also appears to have been permanent, as he is never again shown with a single strand of hair. [[AluminumChristmasTrees Not as crazy as it sounds]] - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_hair_removal Laser hair removal]] was developed in TheNineties.

* BaldOfAwesome
** Spider.
** Oscar Rossini.

* FriendToAllChildren: As with PetTheDog, despite his hatred for the "squalling brats" and causing mental trauma to some via bodily fluids and going on naked rampages, he buys back a poor child's toy when her mother was forced to sell it to help support themselves (if only for a photo opportunity), befriends the child prostitutes from "Business" and takes the time to hear their stories, when most adults are too frightened or disgusted to hear about it, and saves a child from a PedophilePriest when he goes to war against the Smiler.

* BadassMustache: Robert [=McX=]'s is quite magnificent.

** The entire run was a big, long, spiel about the importance of standing up for the truth and speaking out for what you believe in, regardless of the personal consequences; and the evils of complacency and blindly accepting authority. Making the character who most embodied these principles a self-proclaimed bastard further emphasizes the already subtle-as-a-sledgehammer point.

** The entire run of ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' was a big, long, spiel about the importance of standing up for the truth and speaking out for what you believe in, regardless of the personal consequences; and the evils of complacency and blindly accepting authority. Making the character who most embodied these principles a self-proclaimed bastard further emphasizes the already subtle-as-a-sledgehammer point.

* MilhollandRelationshipMoment: Yelena ends up ghost-writing one of Spider's columns for him after he is knocked unconscious and unable to write it. Given Spider's {{jerkass}} nature, Yelena seems to prepare for the worst when she tells him... Spider kisses her forehead and tells her "thank you", in what is probably one of his most humanizing moments in the comic.* MirrorCharacter: Spider gets this with many people

* MilhollandRelationshipMoment: Yelena ends up ghost-writing one of Spider's columns for him after he is knocked unconscious and unable to write it. Given Spider's {{jerkass}} nature, Yelena seems to prepare for the worst when she tells him... Spider kisses her forehead and tells her "thank you", in what is probably one of his most humanizing moments in the comic.

* NotSoDifferent: Spider gets this with many people
** Yelena - as the series progresses their similarities become more and more visible. Royce and Channon even discuss if she's becoming more like Spider, or just more true to herself.
** Yelena's father at first seems to be the antithesis of Spider, being respected, mild-mannered former political adviser, but at the end of the day, he's just as much motivated to do the right thing as Jerusalem.
** Even Smiler gets this - compare some things Spider says with his famous speech about why he wants to be the president and you'll see they both are just tired of how stupid and easy to manipulate the masses are. The difference is that Spider tries to make the world a better place, while Smiler just wants to abuse the power and screw people over for fun.

* UsedFuture: Some parts of the city look much like modern-day, except overgrown and overused - many mutants and hicks live in these parts. There's also the issue of [[HumungousMecha several abandoned giant robots around the city]] that no one knows how they got there - people think they were made for defense, and then forgotten about.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: "So we've got a deadline. We can do deadlines."