When one thinks of comic books, the usual names crop up in their heads; Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Axotolman and Geesewoman. They're all synonymous with a media outlet that -whilst having it's fair share of detractors- remains popular and commercially fecund.

However, whilst the popularity continues, other aspects have changed considerably. No longer the preserve of 'the geek', comic books have found themselves being read by an ever expanding audience.

But this isn't due to the conventional heroes of yore. Speaking personally, the exploits of Superman were never something to set the pulse racing, and if I wanted a fix of Batman, the Tim Burton movies were at my beck and call ( and even the Adam West classic in my darkest moments).

If the biggest names in the comic industry aren't sucking me in, just what is?

Basically, a new type of hero has emerged. And it's not a particularly heroic type. With Batman, Spiderman et al, it's a cut and dry case of black/white and good/evil. More recently though the distinction between identifiable moralities has blurred considerably.

Let's take two examples from the last 20 or so years. Firstly there's Spider Jerusalem from the cyperpunk 'Transmetropolitan' series. An incendiary, foul-mouthed drug-chugging Journalist in a dystopian version of America, Jerusalem is one of the most guiltily entertaining characters in the world of comic books. A man capable of extreme cruelty (as evident by his treatment of his assistants, associates, and generally everybody else who happens to find themselves in his way), and filled to the brim with relative immorality, he is a world away from the likes of do-gooding Clark Kent.

Yet he is no less of a hero.

Whilst Kent is a hero for stopping bad guys and saving the world, Jerusalem is a hero for simply living in a corrupt world and surviving. Comic books are particularly prone to echoing the times they're in, and often display socio-political allegory within their pages. With this fact in mind, Transmetropolitan seems to highlight the follies of our own world through the context of this hyperstylised future, where everything is preprocessed, Tony Blair's spirit lives on (in the form of 'The Smiler') and plastic surgery can extend as far as turning into a dolphin. Jerusalem (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Hunter S Thompson in appearance and philosophy) is our eyes and ears into this world, and only he seems to eke out all the corruption and stupidity in a world

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