|
100 BULLETS #34
"Counterfifth Detective Part Four"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
|
DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
I'll be
damned if there weren't several times during this issue when I was completely
lost, not following what was going on in the dialogue. However, even at those
times, I was enjoying the read, as Azzarello and Risso are crafting another
mind-wrenching conspiracy/crime story that stands on its own and reads as a
larger part of the 100-issue arc of the series. There are any number of familiar
faces in this issue, all acting in unfamiliar ways, and at the center is Milo,
the detective with a taste for alcohol, sex and danger, who seems to be even
more than he appears to be, and perhaps even deeper in the 100 Bullets
conspiracy than he had first appeared.
I'm amazed at how well
Azzarello and Risso have managed to capture the film of a 1940s noir serial
right along with the modern urban setting of this book. The femme fatale, the
hard-boiled narration, the booze, the seedy locales... all of it is right out of
a Bogart film, but there's no doubt at any point that it's set in the more
complicated modern world. And the twists and turns the plot are taking come so
rapidly as to dizzy the reader.
However, while I don't
entirely follow Megan's story to Milo (not helped by the notion that she's
probably lying, knowing her character), I got enough of the gist to realize what
was going on. Azzarello has made a habit of this kind of thing, providing just
enough information to draw the reader in while frustrating him or her with the
real answers just out of reach. What's Megan's game? Is Milo a former Minuteman?
What does Graves really have him doing, and what did Graves tell him he was
doing? The relationships and motivations are fuzzy, kept in the background to
tantalize the reader. It's working.
As always, Risso turns in
artwork that can only be called phenomenal. The detail on the clothing, the
backgrounds, the characters is beautiful, and the pacing, with quick cuts and
close-ups, is dead-on. There's a silent storytelling sequence that features a
battle of wills between Milo and Lono in this issue that is incredible, conveyed
with subtle hand gestures and facial expressions, and it speaks volumes about
the two characters.
Azzarello is teetering
dangerously close to the edge of too much teasing and not enough information,
with a thoroughly complicated relationship between Megan, Lono, Monroe, Karl and
Milo. However, he's more than earned my faith in the series at this point, and I
look forward to being able to read the entire arc together and see how the story
comes together when all the pieces are more visible.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
