Reviews

100 Bullets, Vol. 5: The Counterfifth Detective by Eduardo Risso, Brian Azzarello

tobin_elliott's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This time around, we're treated to a single, long-running storyline. But, as has been the case with the previous four installments, it's uniformly excellent, and I truly believe that Eduardo Risso is only getting better and better with not just the art, but panel layout and sheer storytelling ability. And Azzarello's writing is, as usual, top notch.

There's going to be a point, I'm sure, where I'm just going to be tempted to write one of these reviews as...

Blah blah blah amazing art blah blah blah amazing story blah blah blah amazing series.

Because, quite frankly, this is a series that has me running out of superlatives to describe it.

barrybonifay's review

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

modkuraika's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Azzarello and Russo continue to impress.

helpfulsnowman's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

This was some BAD dialog. Real bad.
It's that clever, hard-boiled detective shit. "The dame walked out of my wet dreams and into the dry heat of my office." That kinda shit.
I was going through the series, that was the plan, but I'm tapping out here. I can't go any further.

How come these broke-ass detectives always have a downtown office? How do they pay for that? They're always broke, but they're always drinking in bars. They can never scrape together any money, but they have trenchcoat money! Where are they getting all these trenchcoats? Those things ain't cheap!

I need to start a finance series for hard-boiled detectives. Seminars that teach them how to not be so hard-up all the time. "Hard-boiled, but not hard up!" "The Case of the Why The Fuck Haven't You Put Any Money Into a 401k, but You're Gambling Like Crazy."

kandicez's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This was my favorite so far and that's saying something since I finished a bit confused on a few key points.

flowsthead's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Note: 3 stars for series, not individual volumes

al_capwned's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I guess this volume was a full-on tribute to the noir genre with all the cliches etc. but noir is one of my favourite genres.

bloodravenlib's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Wow. This was excellent. Azzarello did a great homage to the noir private detective, including the femme fatales. P.I. Milo Garrett gets the attache case from Agent Graves after the P.I. suffers a car accident that leave his face in bandages. It turns out the accident was not so accidental after all. Milo has all the proof he needs to get his revenge, but like any other private dick, he just has to go digging around to ask why. And he gets in deep into a world of rich people and art dealers, and a bit more. Overall, an excellent story in the series. I think that even readers who have not picked up previous volumes in the series could find this volume a good entry point. And readers who enjoy crime fiction and noir will probably enjoy this volume as well.

nharkins's review

Go to review page

4.0

HOLY SHIT! this arc starts with subtle props to [b:Shoot the Piano Player|42589|Shoot the Piano Player|David Goodis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328135504s/42589.jpg|344493] (which i also just recently read), then begins a standard noir pretzel plot with a private detective getting out of the hospital with his head in wraps (a cool touch) and some clever dialogue, BUT the last 10 pages of the 4th issue in this arc is exactly why comics RULE: back and forth frames showing the perspective of two men with concealed guns across the bar of a crowded diner locked in a non-verbal battle of wills, so-to-speak. then again a few pages later, a great cliffhanger where a seemingly minor macguffin connects this arc to the main plot, foreboding all hell breaking loose. big picture: i still don't know much more than i did, and honestly, i'm now afraid that there's too many 'minutemen' that are too similar, and there's not going to be enough depth to set them apart once this story finally reveals something. but i'm way down for some more awesome scenes like these along the way.

update: i should know by now that my giving anything 5 stars before i'm done is the kiss of death. everything after kinda sucked, so i gotta knock it back down to 4, because there's a lot of 5 star comics out there that do a lot better than 10 awesome pages out of ~160.

dvonya's review

Go to review page

4.0

This volume is where the overarching narrative of the series really starts to take over, but damn, it's anything but simple.
More...