Azzarello has said from the beginning that this series will run 100 issues, so that makes this the halfway point. An appropriate place to finally reveal the nature of the Trust and the Minutemen, to provide the "secret origin" of the book, as it were. By now, many of the details have slipped out in the stories, making this less a shocking revelation than a pretty interesting reveal of how all the puzzle pieces fit together. Like many of the 100 Bullets stories, this is one that will read better in context with other stories in a trade, but at the same time, this is a good single-issue read for anyone who might have liked Azzarello's Batman or Superman and want to dip their toe into the waters of the book that really brought him to the attention of the comics readership in the first place. Plus, of course, Risso and Mulvihill continue to impress with the dark, gritty artwork perfect to Azzarello's neo-noir style.
There are two stories in this issue of 100 Bullets, one set very much in the present and one set very much in the past. The latter is being told by a participant in the former, and while it's not remotely accurate to say that Azzarello's stuff reads very much like Quentin Tarantino's, there is a vibe in this story that reminds me of what I liked about Reservoir Dogs. The notion of criminals sharing their own urban legends and stories is one that I like, and by using a framing device of what happens after a robbery gone bad, Azzarello manages to include an excuse for some modern-day crime action along with a story that is mostly driven by politics and more subtle crime.
I have to say, though, that I was much more interested in the tale of the forging of the Trust and the beginning of the Minutemen than the story that took up the bulk of the issue, the modern-day tale of crooks that pulled a heist. Azzarello does his usual excellent job of building up these interesting characters quickly, but at the same time, he unfolds the actual story of what happened with the heist and what went wrong a little too slowly, and since he was also spinning the tale of the Trust in a slow burn fashion, there was a fair amount to guess at in the issue. I would have liked a more clear-cut lead story that laid its cards on the table at the first to counterbalance the slowly unraveling tale of the Trust, although it certainly reads just fine this way as well.
If Azzarello is skilled at building up interesting characters quickly, at least part of the credit must go to Eduardo Risso for his character designs. Though lacking any of the easily identifiable marks of costumes that make superhero designs a little easier, Risso has nevertheless created a set of characters that pop out at the reader instantly. Of course, they're only featured on the cover this issue, as Risso puts that design sense to work in crafting a crew of diamond thieves, and his designs there likewise speak volumes about the character, from the cool and casual Victor to the dangerous and brutish Harley. He also gets to cut loose this issue with a fantastic action sequence, and while 100 Bullets has often featured violence, it has rarely been this kind of over-the-top Hollywood action type of violence. Rather than being jarring, however, it was a very nice sequence, and told a lot about the type of character that Victor was.
After fifty issues, there's pretty much no way that Azzarello could shock with the revelation of the origin of the Trust without betraying the tone of the book that he's worked so hard to create. However, it is nice to finally know the whole story, and it will be very interesting to reread the past trades knowing what we know now. 50 issues in, this creative team has finally told us the past of the Trust. That leaves them 50 more to explore the political maneuvering and infighting that seems destined to make up the Trust's future.
