100 BULLETS #29
"!Contrabandolero! Part Two of Three"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
|
DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
I'm thoroughly enjoying this latest story arc, as it gets the title back to the everyday-humanity focus we saw in earlier issues. The recent examination of the Trust and how Graves fits into the picture was strong as well, but this is the stuff that drew me into the book in the first place. Risso continues to impress with the sense of cultural authenticity he brings to the book. 100 Bullets is turning out to be as much an exploration of America as it is an exploration of human conscience.
Wylie Times, posing as his friend Hopper, heads down to Mexico with his dim-witted new partner in crime, directed by Eightball to pick up a "package" and bring it back over the border. Dizzy and Shepherd's interest in Wylie leads them to investigate what Wylie's up to, but his use of an alias throws a wrench (or two) into the works.
Last year, Stephen Soderbergh's film Traffic took North America by storm, and it's fostered a sustained interest in the underworld links between the United States and Mexico. Border crossings, corruption and a wide variety of crime are routine down south, and Azzarello takes us into that world. He doesn't just look at the political effects, though. He introduces us to those that commit the crimes, and we see they're just regular folks. They live in a world that fosters corruption, and while we need not forgive them, Azzarello helps us to understand them.
In most issues of 100 Bullets, Risso has taken the reader in the dark heart of Urban America. For folks like me -- living in Small Town Canada -- it makes for fascinating, eye-opening reading. With this story arc, Risso carries us to a different place, far less densely populated, but just as dark, if not darker. He conveys the arid, stifling atmosphere of Wylie's hometown, and it helps us to understand his frustration.
This might be the first moment in this series when the reader knew more about what was going on than any character. The mistaken identity factor has added a great deal of suspense to a script that otherwise might not be so dramatically tense. I also continue to enjoy the dichotomy that is Dizzy Cordova. One the one hand, the reader admires and even likes her, given the obstacles she has had to overcome. But on the other, there's a sense of danger to her, as though she were a trap waiting to be sprung.
Email Don MacPherson comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.
|
