Transhuman

Transhuman #1-4

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), J.M. Ringuet (Artist)

Jonathan Hickman and JM Ringuet present a mockumentary about the future, where genetically engineered humans are created by rival companies in an attempt to corner the market under the guise of bettering the world. Transhuman is an irreverent view of the origin of a new technology, the starting of rival companies, the piles of cash made from taking them public, and the marketing wars that end with one company dominating the other.

Collecting: Transhuman 1-4

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Comic Book, Sequential Art, Graphic Novels Comics

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2009

About the author

Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Done in a mockumentary style, the art consists of static talking heads for 95% of the book. The story of 2 rival corporations who spearhead the evolution of mankind. This was hard to read, only because it was really boring. There's no character progression or story to speak of more than what you'd find in a fake documentary.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Hickmans early creator owned work, nightly news and Pax Romana are amazing books, but this was a real chore to get through and not very fulfilling when I finished it.

It's done as almost a talking head documentary, with a presenter like character talking to the reader throughout the book, explaining what it is we're reading. And then there's the science, but because it's Hickman it's quazi-weird science fictiony science.

If this had focused on the evil plotting monkeys and the people wanting super powers and it going horribly wrong for them, it might have been a better book.

But, while there are some good ideas, the overall result isn't great. Took me 4 separate sit downs to read the whole thing. I'd recommend for Hickman completists only (even then I'd try and find a cheap copy)

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mockumentary, done badly.

There is a reason good documentaries aren't just a series of talking heads jabbering about a timeline of sequential occurrences. The documentary maker looks at her subject, records interviews with the participants and then writes a script, following interesting storylines that present themselves in the material.

About 60% of this mockumentary are shots of the presenter talking at the camera. The man has one expression, so that's fun. Then the rest are panels of interview subjects, a couple of test subjects and not much else.

You can basically show anything you'd like, and have a voiceover explaining what happened. I don't understand why you'd show endless panels of talking heads.

And you can feel there's an intent to be satirical, and an intent to be funny, and neither is achieved. For true satire you shouldn't rely so much on clichéd jokes about dot-com businesses (even in 2008), and really go for it.

The idea of two companies fighting over who will create the next step in human evolution, is a good one. Just imagine what you could do with that - showing the effects on society alone could be so fascinating and funny.

It doesn't help that the art isn't stellar either.

So many missed opportunities, here.

(Read as four single issues)

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off with a catchy hook: documentary style storytelling, talking to the audience as if they already knew all the salient details of the story about to unfold. It's damned addictive, because Hickman tantalises the reader with hints and tidbits of massive changes to human history that he's deliberately withholding from us.

This book also surprised me with something I'm not used to from Hickman: emotional undercurrents and "dirty" art. Hickman has an ear for smarm and other passive-aggressive emotional tone, and he's sarcastic and dry enough to bring out some genuine belly laughs from me.

And the art is a nice departure for what Hickman allows/directs: Ringuet does the clear cues as well as other Hickman artists, but he also has a more organic and definitely "spattered" style in this book's art that lends an extra layer of "verite" to the documentary format.

The book conveys a virile sense of petty emotions, veering careening jealousies and overall bad behaviours. It's quite an indictment of all those with whom Hickman must've worked in his pre-comics career, because this sure reads like an up-close-and-personal examination of personalities and egos that I sure wouldn't expect to be able to invent out of thin air.

[Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting story. The "documentary" style added to the opportunities for humor in this sci-fi drama. The art and design, on the other hand, is definitely not up to the level of Hickman's other works. And they are an integral part of his style(just look at "The Nightly News" or "Pax Americana").
As much as I liked it, and I did enjoy the story, this is among the lowest rated of Hickman's amazing body of work, for me. That aside, you should definitely give this one a read if you're into sci-fi, graphic novels, or anything by Jonathan Hickman.

[Joe Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Hickman - Writer
Jim Ringuet - Illustrator

A very interesting story told as a documentary examing the rise, competition and decline of two companies responsible for the development of technology that led humans to the next level of evolution - hence the title "transhumans."

Gripping writing and fascinating ideas by Hickman carry this story. The art by Mr. Ringuet is mediocre and rather static. Still, if you're in the mood for a wordy, idea-rich comic this is right up your alley.

Recommended for people who like words.

4/5

[Thom Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book uses gorgeous artwork to tell an original story about the rise of Transhumanism as a corporate pissing match, and it embodies everything that is wrong with Jonathan Hickman as a writer.

Don't get me wrong, Hickman is incredibly creative and kind of a mad genius — he's just a terrible storyteller. I've come to accept this fact. TRANSHUMAN is told as a "documentary" about the rise of the 3 largest Transhumanist corporations, which I guess is a clever conceit, except (1) why make a fictional documentary as a graphic novel? Why not, ya know, write a screenplay? and (2) the nature of those "60 Minutes"-style factual reporting documentary is, by nature, a summary, and therefore not a story. The story is told through interviews with a narrator and the people involved in the story, but they are literally just TELLING the reader what happened. It's almost remarkable that a graphic novel — a medium which is visual by nature — could rely so much on telling and not showing, and therefore breaks one of the cardinal rules of fiction writing.

Sure, there are some interesting characters, and probably some cool dramatic, personal moments between them — namely, the divorced couple who end up working together on the Transhumanist project despite their mutual hatred for one another, who ultimately backstab each other again — but frankly, it's not very interesting to just see someone tell you that. I want to see it happen, I want to witness their interpersonal relations. If these were a real-life documentary from 50 years from now, and it aired on 60 Minutes or whatever, it would probably be great, because investigative journalism can get away with digging deep and just reciting facts (although I'd argue that most award-winning works of investigative journalism still manage to find a compelling human angle, something for the audience to emotionally engage with that makes them follow the story through to the end). In TRANSHUMAN, we just get a bunch of talking heads telling us what already happened, and a narrator / director to steer us away from any unreliable sources. There is literally nothing compelling or human to pull you through the story.

When Hickman first broke out onto the comics scene, I thought he was fantastic, but the truth is, he's good at creating the ILLUSION of good story telling. Everything he writes is done in summary, with a few cool moments in between to make it feel human. A friend of mine summed it up well as citing the difference between "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion" — one is a story about characters that we care about, the other is a play-by-play history book, and Hickman writes the latter. I think Hickman would be better off as an idea man, leaving other people to actually execute these epic stories of his. Because the worlds he creates are always unique and fascinating, full of complex politics and otherworldly visions. But saying "HERE'S THIS CRAZY WORLD I CREATED AND THERE ARE THESE GUYS AND THEN THESE TWO FOUGHT AND THEN THIS GUY BETRAYED THIS GIRL AND THEN THIS PERSON WON, THE END" is really not a fun story to read.

[Tanja L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evolution of humans shown through the rivalry of two corporations. Interesting concept, but I wanted more about the evolution and less about the corporate world. However, it did have some great commentary on capitalism and what it takes to succeed as a start-up company, about ethical research, etc. The problem was the tone, it's told in a documentary style, but then there's this grotesque scene à la Garth Ennis that comes out of nowhere, presumably there for shock value, and it completely throws you out of the story. The ending was also weird and the whole thing left me with mixed feelings, but it did keep me reading.

[Nuno R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite so far, from Hickman. Less of his paranoid, conspiracy theory atmosphere and a lot of his dark humor. This reminded me of a movie that I watched a couple of years and was never able to remember its title again. (I would forever be grateful if anyone knows the tile). It's a horror mockumentary (fake doc/found footage-esque) movie about an event in a facility where weird experiments had taken place. And we know about what happened documentary style, mixed with the found footage. Does anyone know what that movie is?

[Paul W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was entertaining but a little too wink and nod for me. Hickman tries to mix some humor with an interesting subject, but instead ends up with less of both. He does some X-men analogues and but it doesn't show his usual cleverness and verve. Without any clear heroes or villains, it just seems somewhat flat. It could have and should have been better.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Hickman eats hot-button issues and shits out comic book brilliance.

[Michael Bertrand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I thought it would have something to say about transhumanism. The comic uses the name and does explain some of the relevant terms, but...

It's mainly about American corporate business practices.

The plot:

Two scientists achieve breakthroughs in the science around human development. One figures out how to enhance a person's genetic structure. This scientist focuses on the biological side of human development.The other figures out how to reliably interface machines with the human body. This scientist focuses on the artificial side of human development. The differences between the two scientists occupies about a page, maybe less.

The main plot focuses on the companies that develop around their breakthroughs. There's a discussion of venture capitalism and the difficulties of managing the pressures of bringing new, innovative technology to the marketplace.

There's an awful lot of talk.

The author tries to inject some action by introducing sidestories about test subjects, but it's too little.

The art's good enough, but it's mostly wasted illustrating talking heads.

Overall, this is a boring work that has nothing to say about transhumanism.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those expecting an escapist superhero saga can move on. This mockumentary interview format was a perfect foil for commentary on market dysfunction and win-lose selfish economics. And that just a backdrop for the main story (which I won't spoil.) These themes were even mirrored in the mindsets of the volunteer human test subjects.

Excellent use of layout and dialogue to carry through a sardonic dystopian tale, that for all its pseudoscience, had plenty of forthright commentary about our actual world.

While some may find the documentarian format 'boring' I feel this highlighted the impact.in the sections where the story had violence. The pacing of how much was shown vs. narrrated was, in my perception, as masterfully deliberate as the panel design choices. Overall, it's a good reset on the overindulgence and lessened impact of wall-to-wall gore graphics.

I appreciate the willingness to push boundaries in art direction in a way that makes the story shine. To be willing to pace differently, and exposit so sharply on facets of modern culture and resource drivers.

This was my first book by Hickman and Ringuet, and I will heartily look for them both again.

This is one worth talking about.

[Ramon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably closer to a 2.5, but man, what a weird fucken book. It's a heavy handed satire with broad gags, all done up in a talking head documentary style, and it works, but barely. I think it's better to think about this as storyboards for a 45 minute short film, because as a movie it would all work better. The broad stuff would blow by quickly, and the stuff that worked would get more chances to hang around and really work.

As a piece of satire, I think it's great, it's just really clumsy and juvenile. For every good laugh, there's at least one good brutal moment, but also maybe three eye rolls.

I will say this: for all its broad, clumsy depiction of the near future, it feels very, very possible.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light and amusing, Transhuman is a brief documentary-style look at the future of transhumanism. Two companies duke it out to see who can make a better human - one German interviewer monologues the backstory to the reader. Documentary-style comics aren't exactly hot to read or look at, but Transhuman at least tells a neat story in a unique way. I chuckled once or twice, though I was never really surprised by events. Not Hickman's finest effort; certainly one of his most accessible, though.

[Aidan]

While I didn’t much like the story, characters, or humor, this was interesting as a piece of Hickman’s development as a writer. His dedication to breaking the show don’t tell rule by telling instead if showing is pushed to the limit here in having every character tell the story through talking head interviews, with almost no character interaction. It’s an interesting experiment in how to tell a story when you remove one of the keys of traditional “good storytelling”. While it didn’t work great for me, I always find Hickman’s writing immensely readable, and this was no exception.

[RatGrrrl]

I'm not entirely sure a mockumentary works as a comic, especially one as wordy as this. Perhaps passages of text between images would have been more effective that filling panels with speech bubbles. I also thing parody and satire are wonderful when done right, but this just felt very dry with a few comicbook references thrown in.

I wouldn't say it's bad and I may well really pick up, but it's just not for me. Just as with books, there's an infinite amount of comics out there I want to read, so if I'm not enjoying something and actively resisting coming back to it, I just have to DNF.

[Ben Shee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hickman seems to have a tendency to explore the petty side of humanity - perhaps it is the nature of humanity. This particular series (including pokes at superheroes/Xmen and the Steve Jobs / Wozniak story) was quite entertaining, and the format of the story telling was interesting too. Some of it is a little on the nose, but overall it was an enjoyable story.

[Rebekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept and story idea; however, found it difficult to concentrate and become fully immersed inthe world due to the documentary style story-telling. Felt like I was always on the outside; maybe that's what they wanted. More to come but those are my initial thoughts.

[Jason Mays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I’d rather give this a 3.5 over a 4. I rather liked the ending and there are some quotable lines.

The main detractor is the attempt to incapsulate the worse things about humanity...even though I understand that’s kind of the point of the mockumentary.

[Avani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting framing, but there isn't enough exploration of the ideas underlying it (e.g. "why would people cut their hands off so readily? What happens when people live forever?") and the ending of monkeys dominating the world (and don't even get me started on monkeys vs. apes...) is boring.

[Trevor Durham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ffs Hickman, just write this as a novel. The visuals barely matched and the art did distaste to your already convoluted tale.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol that ending

I like that it had more to say about capitalism, ethical research, and contentment of the status quo than it did "nature vs. technology whooaa."

[Adrik Kemp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in light of the latest X Men comic, has a nice grungy 90s futurism feel to it as well.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mockumentary of the long process of giving people superpowers in this day and age. The problem was it wasn't terribly funny and it takes a little too long to get to the fun superpower stuff.

[Christopher Funk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it. Or don't. Doesn't matter. Nihilism, baby!

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book where Hickman puts it all together.

[Laissez Farrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half, if pressed

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stop 3 on the Hickman readthrough. This had some interesting ideas but just never hit the target. This is more tongue-in-cheek than his other works. You can see him growing as a writer.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

At moments very interesting at others dry. One of my least favorite Hickman stories, but even the worst Hickman story is decent.