A few weeks ago, David and I sat down to discuss the Top 10 Vertigo Comics currently being published. It was fun, but it reminded me of some of the classic Vertigo titles that we’ve all read and loved. We’ve covered classics like Y: The Last Man, Preacher, The Invisibles, and Animal Man before, not to mention the amount of times we’ve recommended Fables out the wazoo (currently ongoing, yes, but still a book already in the hall of classics in most people’s minds).
But there’s one book that I’ve always adored that was missing from that list. Somehow, someway, we’ve never recommended this title. Today, I correct that.
Today, I’m here to tell you about 100 Bullets, an Eisner and Harvey Award winning comic book by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. This is a comic that’s just so damn good, it should be in every collector’s collection and under every readers belt. I’ll explain why, after the cut.
The premise is simple: an older man in a nicely pressed suit approaches you with nothing but an attache case. Inside the case is a gun, 100 bullets, and photographs and evidence that someone you know has ruined your life. The evidence given to you proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that what it says is true, and it could even be someone that you’ve never met. The gun and the bullets you’re given are absolutely untraceable, and you have full carte blanche to react in whatever way you want.
In other words, you are able to literally get away with murder. The choice is yours.
The book starts off simply enough, with a premise that is both intriguing and very rewarding in it’s presentation. It’s awesome to read all these different tales of revenge, and it leaves you pondering what you’d do with your own attache. The stories all represent different styles based around different ethnic groups, all of which are written and drawn differently to represent who the story is about. We have pulp stories, noir stories, stories infused with jazz and culture, all of which come down to the simple choice given with the attache. Every person has different reactions, but the stories all remain meditations on the nature of human reaction.
Of course, the book doesn’t just stop there. If the book was simply a series of vignettes, it would be a fun read, but it wouldn’t be a great one. Before you know it, you find yourself in the midst of one of the most sprawling and involved conspiracy books ever to come out of Vertigo. While many books maintain mysteries that run through their entire runs, 100 Bullets definitely has one of the most involved mysteries I’ve ever read. As it turns out, characters begin to keep returning, scenes in the background that seem like they’re being used as a metaphor for overlaid dialogue have revealed intents, and you find yourself reading the war between the Trust and the Minutemen.
I don’t want to reveal too much, because the intensity of the reveals as the story goes along is half of what makes the story so great, but the true story of 100 Bullets boils down to this: a group of 13 families control the entire nation behind the scenes. This group is called the Trust. In addition to the Trust, there is a group of people referring to themselves as the Minutemen, all led by the mysterious Agent Graves – the man giving away the attaches. Why is he giving away 100 bullets? Why does he hate the Trust? And who are the Minutemen? These are a few of the questions you are left to ponder for 100 issues, and it all goes up in a bang.
I am a huge fan of long mysteries (such as LOST). I love being led by the nose through a series of twists and turns that don’t make sense until the very end. 100 Bullets is a perfect example of that. The mysteries I mentioned above are just some of the few present, and there are many more that are introduced throughout the book, all with powerful payoffs by the finale. The book gets rather intense that I really recommend reading it in trade format – you benefit from being able to read it all in one sitting (which is your only option now, granted). It’s such a rich story hidden in the details, and it’s all made more powerful by double crosses, revenge, and more twists than an M. Night Shymalan flick. About halfway through, the book essentially boils down “Who can you trust now?”, and you begin to question your heroes and possibly even side with the “villains.”
Continued belowIn shorter terms: 100 Bullets is a 100 issue long morality play. The book even takes a bit of a shot at this idea, with one issue (issue #75) being titled “Amorality Play,” which includes Grave’s famous attache – but introduces an opposing view point, which makes you question Graves’ motives as well as the general idea behind the gun and it’s opportunities. 100 Bullets starts with a set of morals and ethics, and the line between right and wrong becomes incredibly blurred by the time you’re done. It’s a book where nothing is sacred and no one is safe. It’s almost a Shakespearean tragedy in a literary sense.
On top of that, 100 Bullets proves that it’s clearly been intensely plotted from the beginning by answering questions you never thought would be explained. A quiet question that you simply take for granted that is introduced in the first issue has a powerful answer and explanation by the end of the book, and it changes the entire way you look at one of the characters. Things like this really enhance the reading experience for me, and I find that the last arc is one of the most intense page turners due to the amount of things that happen and are explained that it’s the book equivalent of being on the edge of your seat in an epically intense thriller film (such as Inception, for example).
Azzarello and Russo created quite a tremendous achievement in comics with 100 Bullets. The book is an absolutely unforgettable read, and it defies being pigeonholed by specific genres tropes and cliches. The book pays tribute to many different elements of crime stories, all of which are written by Azzarello with great strategy impact. Many stories contained with 100 Bullets remained with me long after reading them, for a variety of reason, and elements of the book became so real to me, the reader, that reading certain words or scenes would cause my jaw to drop in a similar manner that they would impact the characters. It becomes a very involved read that really makes you part of the journey, as much as shows like LOST or the Wire pulled viewers in.
Of course, half of the 100 Bullets team is the fantastic Eduardo Russo. Russo created a set of characters in here that all give off a different mysticism. Lono the Dog is an unforgettable villain, with an incredibly frightening frame and wild streak. Russo also gets sexy women in comic books, with characters like Megan and Echo using their feminine wiles to an almost scary effect on some of the male characters, thus manipulating courses of events that don’t even register right away. Russo has a terrific style that plays heavily with it’s use of shadows and darkness in a similar way to Frank Miller and Sin City. Some of the greatest images in 100 Bullets are simply the darkened silhouette of a face coupled with and evil grin and narrowed eyes. Russo’s art is so empowered with it’s noir influences that you’ll be surprised you aren’t watching a moving picture here with it’s fluidity.
To put it simply, 100 Bullets is one of the most amazing comics in the Vertigo arsenal, yet somehow I don’t hear people mentioning it enough anymore. Even when the 100th issue came out, I don’t remember a lot of people I know mentioning the book. I don’t think the book gets the recognition or the credit it deserves. Any fan of the crime and noir genre needs to have read 100 Bullets though, as it shows you how to write a crime story and conspiracy thriller in ways that other stories should aspire to. An absolutely unforgettable tale of revenge, morality, and power, 100 Bullets is 100 intense issues of comic books that everyone should have.
