Comic Info
Comic Name: 100 Bullets
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
# of Issues: 11
Release Date: 2002
100 Bullets #20
Reprints 100 Bullets #20-30 (March 2001-January 2002). Agent Graves is continuing his games. He and his briefcases of guns are causing problems for the Trust but shutting him down isn’t easy. As Graves and his agent Dizzy spread their game of chaos around in an attempt to avenge the Minutemen, the Trust, and Shepherd has his own role in everything. More and more people are getting caught in the war, and the bullets are flying.
Written by Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets Volume 4: A Foregone Tomorrow is a DC Comics and Vertigo crime thriller. Following 100 Bullets Volume 3: Hang Up on the Hang Low, the collection features art by Eduardo Risso. Issues in this volume were also included in 100 Bullets—Volume 2.
I have always been on the fence about 100 Bullets. I think it does some stuff well, but I also think it overplays its hand in other locations…it thinks too much of itself and loses the fact it can simply be a compelling story. 100 Bullets 4: A Foregone Tomorrow is a perfect example of this.
The collection is a number of shorter sequence stories. The comic continues to build the bigger picture, but it also follows the individual characters caught up in the game of guns. While some of these individual stories are interesting, others are bit of a bore. The dialogue for the series is also really clunky…Azzarello tries too hard to write dialect and it comes off as cheesy and stereotypical instead of real.
100 Bullets #25
The bigger plot building is fleshed out a bit more. The series events are kind of caught up and explained in 100 Bullets #26 (September 2001) which features Mr. Branch explaining his attempts to bring down the Trust in France. The issue is largely in untranslated French, but the important parts are translated. It does still feel a bit like Cliff Notes…which the series at this point actually needs.
Part of the reason for the need of Cliff Notes is the art. While Risso is a talented artist, I do think that his characters sometimes blend together. Without costumes and capes, the business man look or the cold-eye assassin look can only be expressive so far. By this point, you are able to get most of the characters down, but it still can be tricky to not confuse some of them.
100 Bullets 4: A Foregone Tomorrow is a nice continuation of the story and has some fun (like the reveal of the “real” assassin of JFK and the reasons behind the assassination). It still is walking a tricky line of explaining what is going on and telling stand-alone stories of unlicensed, untraceable bullets and guns…and this volume is a bit thin on that side. 100 Bullets 4: A Foregone Tomorrow is followed by 100 Bullets 5: The Counterfifth Detective.
Preceded By:
100 Bullets 3: Hanging Up on the Hang Low
Followed By:
