Comic Info
Comic Name: 100 Bullets
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2001
Reprints 100 Bullets #15-19 (October 2000-February 2001). Louis Hughes never knew his father. When Agent Graves shows up with a gun and 100 untraceable bullets, Loop learns that his life is going to change. “Loop” is reunited with his father and together, they could change things. Loop now is on a path of death and revenge, and the reunion with his father could be very short. Agent Graves is playing his own game, and Loop could just be another pawn.
Written by Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets Volume 3: Hang Up on the Hang Low is a DC Comics crime series under the Vertigo imprint. Following 100 Bullets Volume 2: Split Second Chance, the series features art by Eduardo Risso. The issues in the collection were also collected in 100 Bullets: Deluxe Edition—Volume 2. The story received an Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story.
100 Bullets is an oddity. I like lots of aspects of it, but I also think that a lot of Azzarello’s writing is overrated. While some gush with praise for the series, I find that it is completely hit or miss. With a basic, interesting concept, I see the series having potential. This is one of the volumes that the story and dialogue do come together and tell a good story.
Previous entries in the series were a bit more cut and dry. Use the gun, get revenge. The legal consequences are gone, but the moral and mental consequences are bigger. In this collection, the consequences of murder are bigger and more explosive…it is the inconsequential murder that brings Louis down.
The overarching storyline is still a big question. There are a lot of forces at play in the collection, but it is really secondary to the core story and an underlying theme. You have Graves and his mysterious plans, and you have the hidden history of the guns and the organization, but it smartly doesn’t take away from the basic story while building up the whole “saga”.
I don’t know what Agent Graves’ endgame is and you don’t really have to think about it to enjoy this collection. You have a good story of revenge, and it also goes a long way to explain how just because you can commit murder without any evidence that it getting away with it isn’t easy. 100 Bullets 3: Hang Up on the Hang Low is followed by 100 Bullets 4: A Foregone Tomorrow.
Preceded By:
100 Bullets 2: Split Second Chance
Followed By: