Spider Jerusalem

Taking place some time in the distant future (so far ahead in the future, that the general public no longer knows exactly what year it is), a renegade journalist and prominent drug addict named Spider Jerusalem comes back from 'retirement' to battle corrupt political scum and serve up honest accounts to his readers: of whom he actually detests (for bowing to political power, of course).

He grew up as the product of delinquent parents, working as a prostitute and part time male stripper. Being a heavy drug user, Spider enjoys regular doses of mood and ability enhancing drugs (this is the distant future, after all), as well as heroin and cocaine. He's a chain smoker and avid drinker, but has become immune to their adverse affects.

He's moody, ingenious, hateful, bitterly sarcastic, violent, and a nudist. He drops the F-bomb on a regular basis, and invents his own variations of it. He's an anti-political, anti-religious liberal who is completely unpredictable and capable of doing something erratic at a drop of a hat. He sometimes wears costumes.

Spider Jerusalem is heavily armed, and never goes anywhere without his bizarre and uniquely mis-shapen glasses, and his trusty laptop computer.

Spider's pet is a mutant cat with two faces...it smokes cigarettes.

Those distinct glasses Spider wears serve an alternate purpose -- they enable him to take a snapshot. The mis-shapen lenses (a green rectangle and a red circular lens) were the product of a drug addict crafter. Upon clasping the red circular lens, he can snap photographs for his journalistic exploits.

Spider Jerusalem is rarely ever seen taking his glasses off - makes you wonder how much of a headache seeing through different colored lenses would create on a constant basis.

From time to time, replica Spider glasses can be seen on eBay - they'll only grow in popularity with the revival of the Transmetropolitan series, especially if it becomes a live-action movie!

Transmetropolitan uses a famous three-eyed smiley face throughout its volumes and pages, and it's also seen as a sticker on Spider Jerusalem's laptop. It's a symbol of the transient movement: a subculture of people who modify their bodies with alien DNA, of whom Spider assists in his journeys. It's often accompanied in print with famous Transmetropolitan slogans, like "Have A Nice Day" and "I Hate It Here."

One of Spider's most distinctive features are his many tattoos:

...Two striped bands going across his chest, brick and swirl designs (similar to forearm guards), an angry sun tattoo on his left deltoid, a moon and star within a circle on his left deltoid, a circular logo similar to the old "Pepsi" logo on his right shoulderblade with the term "POTI," tribal bands across his femur bone areas and ankles, crossed barbed wire surrounding his left bicep, a Celtic cross on the side of his left leg, four directional arrows surrounding each nipple, a cartoon devil face over his right kidney, the term "KISS HERE" on his right buttock, and his famous spider insignia on the right front part of his scalp.

There's literally no talk of a Transmetropolitan movie, although, any fan of the series would undoubtedly say that one would be inevitable at some point, especially with the boom of graphic novel and comic book movie adaptations.

When approached in 2003 about the idea of a Transmetroplitan animated series (which had been scrapped), Transmetropolitan co-writers Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson stated that they'd like to see actor Tim Roth play the part of Spider Jerusalem. You may remember Tom Roth as the main villain Emil Blonsky or "The Abomination" from 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," amongst dozens of other films.