100 Bullets Volume 2

Written by Brian Azzarello
Illustrated by Eduardo Risso
Vertigo

I liked this second volume of 100 Bullets much better, but that's a bit like saying you'd rather have a cold than strep throat. This time, there's a stark reduction in "street" dialog, though there's still far too much for my taste, and Azzarello ramps up the mystery factor.

The premise is still the same--a person who was wronged gets 100 bullets and an untraceable gun to do whatever they'd like with it (usually in relation to those that wronged them). It can be anyone--a grieving mother, a dice hustler, maybe even a reporter. That's still interesting enough, but the key now is that we start to get just a little hint as to why this is being done.

The question is--do we like the answer?

It seems that some people have liked to play with the lives of others for some time now, and maybe that doesn't sit very well with certain other people. Or maybe it's all crap being fed to us through misinformation. Right now, that's hard to tell.

What is not hard to tell is that even though the stories seem gratuitously "gritty" at times, Azzarello has got something in his head, and now I'd like to find out what. Assuming you made it through the first trade, I think you'll want to find the answer, too. Just be ready to wince every time the book enters the inner city.
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