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A review by helpfulsnowman
100 Bullets, Vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call by Brian Azzarello
1.0
I'm giving this one a low review because I want to warn people off the series.
It starts with a promising premise, a promise, if you will. Wait, that's not clever. I mean, it IS a combo of premise and promise, but those words are almost identical.
The premise is good: some guy comes to you, brings you a briefcase with a gun and 100 bullets in it, and a picture of someone who probably ruined your life. If you kill this bastard with the gun and the bullets, you'll face no legal consequences. If the bullets are found, you'll instantly be released, investigation stops, all that good stuff.
What do people do? What are the choices they make? What sorts of twisty, dark tea times of the soul do they cut the crusts off of grudge sandwiches for?
And it works. For maybe 2 volumes.
Then we get into WAY too much nonsense about secret societies and puppetmasters (not the little dolls with knife hands, the metaphoric kind that controls shit), and it's teased out SO SLOWLY that I can't get behind it.
Meanwhile, we pretty much forget the premise entirely. Because who cares about that, the most interesting part, the titular bullets? No, I'd rather read about some nonsense, like a dude driving a truck across the border, a junkie who is sad, a gambler who is down on his luck and has a weird mad-on for some guy he doesn't even know.
Then we get to volume 5, which is when I cashed in my chips. It's a hardboiled detective thing that is just...I found the Dixon Hill episodes of Star Trek: TNG more realistic, and those are about Captain Picard going on the holodeck and pretending he's a detective. And I hate the holodeck. Hate it. Why would you invent something that could possibly turn against you like that, and then just be like, "Yeah, fuck it, throw this on our scientific/military exploration vessel. Seems fine."
Plus, if I wanted to watch a terrible show about a detective, there's no shortage. I want to watch a mostly excellent, occasionally not-so-great episode of Star Trek, thank you very much.
My only critique of that show, beyond the holodeck, is that in "All Good Things" they should have jettisoned the holodeck with a hearty "Good Riddance," and maybe a speech from...I don't know, Data, about how simulations only serve to distract the crew from pursuing their real dreams.
It starts with a promising premise, a promise, if you will. Wait, that's not clever. I mean, it IS a combo of premise and promise, but those words are almost identical.
The premise is good: some guy comes to you, brings you a briefcase with a gun and 100 bullets in it, and a picture of someone who probably ruined your life. If you kill this bastard with the gun and the bullets, you'll face no legal consequences. If the bullets are found, you'll instantly be released, investigation stops, all that good stuff.
What do people do? What are the choices they make? What sorts of twisty, dark tea times of the soul do they cut the crusts off of grudge sandwiches for?
And it works. For maybe 2 volumes.
Then we get into WAY too much nonsense about secret societies and puppetmasters (not the little dolls with knife hands, the metaphoric kind that controls shit), and it's teased out SO SLOWLY that I can't get behind it.
Meanwhile, we pretty much forget the premise entirely. Because who cares about that, the most interesting part, the titular bullets? No, I'd rather read about some nonsense, like a dude driving a truck across the border, a junkie who is sad, a gambler who is down on his luck and has a weird mad-on for some guy he doesn't even know.
Then we get to volume 5, which is when I cashed in my chips. It's a hardboiled detective thing that is just...I found the Dixon Hill episodes of Star Trek: TNG more realistic, and those are about Captain Picard going on the holodeck and pretending he's a detective. And I hate the holodeck. Hate it. Why would you invent something that could possibly turn against you like that, and then just be like, "Yeah, fuck it, throw this on our scientific/military exploration vessel. Seems fine."
Plus, if I wanted to watch a terrible show about a detective, there's no shortage. I want to watch a mostly excellent, occasionally not-so-great episode of Star Trek, thank you very much.
My only critique of that show, beyond the holodeck, is that in "All Good Things" they should have jettisoned the holodeck with a hearty "Good Riddance," and maybe a speech from...I don't know, Data, about how simulations only serve to distract the crew from pursuing their real dreams.