100 Bullets, Vol. 5: The Counterfifth Detective

100 Bullets #5

by Brian Azzarello, Robert K. Elder (Introduction)

In the fifth volume of the 100 BULLETS saga, Agent Graves continues his puzzling behavior of providing ordinary people an opportunity to exact revenge with impunity from those who have victimized them. After receiving an attach� case and the standard 100 bullets from the mysterious Graves, Milo Garret, a broken-down L.A. private detective learns that a recent mishap that left him scarred and without a face might not have been an accident. But as the mystery of his misfortune unravels, Milo must decide between having answers and having a future. SUGGESTED FOR MATURE READERS

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Noir

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".

Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).

In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.

As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.

information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agent Graves' self serving offers of premeditated revenge murders with guaranteed immunity continue; his latest client, private investigator Milo Garrett, has a mission, but is he sure of it, and why's Lono on the scene? The gritty urban American mystery crime thriller continues its blood soaked interconnected short storytelling. 7.5 out of 12, Three Star read.

2017 read; 2011 read

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 Bullets goes noir with a hardboiled detective story. I'm not really sure what the point was, it's very cliche and maybe pokes fun at the genre? I didn't really detect much satire though.

The story was fine, very convoluted as noir seems to be most times. Risso's artwork remains sharp throughout making for a fun read if Azzarello's story does feel a bit unnecessary.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, sadly this volume was a little disappointing. The story was fine, and the art is still great, but the characterizations were so cliché that I had a lot trouble getting into it. That is the whole point of the hard-boiled detective, but that's been done and done far better. It just seems to me if you're going to play around with a genre that has been done to death, you should do something different with it. Sadly, this was just obvious and predictable; disappointing.

[Vuk · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst (and saddest) thing about Azzarello is that once he creates compelling characters, he buries them in a stew of multithreaded storylines while trying to bring noir to a new level, leaving us with a tangled mess of unresolved subplots and unanswered questions.

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continues to be a fun series, dripping with all the neo-noir tropes you could hope for of course, and perfectly suited art work from Risso. This particular volume introduces a new character, sort of an Unknown Soldier if he became a private eye. Sometimes the over-arcing storyline about Graves and the Minute Men can be a little too much, in the way that sometimes the big overall story in X-Files could take away from the pure fun of the monster-of-the-week episodes, but overall I'm still enjoying this journey.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another powerful chapter in the 100 Bullets saga, introducing a new character who seems to have forgotten his past, one that plays into the overarching storyline of the series. He’s now a detective and finds himself drawn into a real mystery, one that keeps him busy to the very end.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best of the series, a hard boiled detective chapter that will be hard to top. The cards were dealt in the previous chapter but this storyline was leagues a head of the previous chapters. Great tough private detective attempting to put all the pieces together. It was gritty and tough with femme fatales, big players and a painting at the center. You can't fault something that is just brilliant, I really don't expect the series to reach this height again.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I call "lame" on this one.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite of the series so far.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story to really be a straight take on the hard boiled detective noir. With dead bodies, beautiful women, hard drinking, and no one to trust, Milo has a lot on his plate already without having Agent Graves show up with his infamous case of 100 Bullets. Well told throughout it reminded me more of Sin City than Raymond Chandler, but there were influences everywhere.

Having the protagonist's face wrapped in bandages from start to finish was a great concept to let the reader project their preferred anti hero onto Milo. Another excellent volume it includes more hints and clues to the larger picture while never allowing them to detract from the primary story.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a Private Eye Detective gets deep into the world of a 100 bullets.

While it's still not a 4 star again, this is a stronger volume than the last. Our main character, the detective, is interesting enough to carry a six part storyline. I will say I enjoyed the actual mystery but I called the betrayal from a mile away. It was so easy to see. However, the shocking ending is a nice surprise, and reminded me of how brutal this series can get.

I do miss the simple tales, the 100 bullets case tales, because they created situations I was intrigued by on top of having a cool backstory to it all. I hope we get back to that eventually. A 3.5 out of 5.

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of dull and the story went in circles just to have you find out nothing really.

[Drinking Espressos · Rating 4 out of 5]

***3.5***

[Andrew A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular noir tale full of all the tropes and all the atmosphere, stunning art. Brilliant characterisation and a great tale all round

[kuusela harry-pekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noir series does a motor mouth detective story. Very well.
The art is great as always, now the characters on the side of the panels are the ambience.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

HOLY SHIT! this arc starts with subtle props to Shoot the Piano Player (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.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

What looks like a classic noir/hardboiled detective story rehashing all the clichés you can think of (hard-drinking detective down on his luck, hot femme fatales entering the office late at night etc.) soon becomes a twisted little anti-detective novel where the real case is the detective's search for his own identity/past. As a hommage to Raymond Chandler it worked, but I'm not so sure whether it sits well with the rest of the series. I found Megan Dietrich's sexcapade to be out-of-character and the easiness of invading her home and castle doesn't sit well with her toughness and power in the previous volumes.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is the most classically noir of the series thus far, it is also the weakest. The narration jags on the modern ear, the story lacks the clarity of earlier entries, and it mostly ignores the main hook of the series. Add to that an unearned twist in the tail and you've got a minor disappointment. Luckily, the art still stuns and the dialogue crackles, which is just enough to make it worth a look. We'll see if it's essential to the wider tale and/or a harbinger of a quality drop, but I hope not.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Reread] Nice noir art and color art. Story - in this installment - seems derivative hardboiled to me, but maybe it's just not my genre. I had forgotten I had read this before! Thanks to Fulton County Public Library for the loan(s).
In each volume, we get Agent Graves setting up an operative. This one is an unstoppable force/immovable object conflict...
Not sure I'll ever read a conclusion to 100 Bullets, but the Azzarello/Risso storytelling is like toxic candy.
Mildly recommended.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one can be read as a stand-alone, but you'll want to read the others anyway. Elements of David Goodis make it one of my favorites, so far, in the series.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit confusing noire story-arc, accompanied by the ever gorgeous artwork of Risso.

[Artemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was kind of too long and over-complicated for what it tried to say, but it's still a good volume.

[Pedram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milo is arguably on of the best characters in the series, his dialogues were gold, and if you've read you'll know how I feel about the ending :(

[Carlos B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que se siente raro que la historia no cierra y solo es para introducir a milo

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints 100 Bullets #31-36 (February 2002-July 2002). Milo Garret is a hardboiled detective who is recovering after losing a fight with his windshield after a car accident. Wrapped in bandages, Milo finds himself approached by Agent Graves who tells Milo that he has a chance to get even with the man who set him up…but Milo quickly finds himself caught in a spiral of lies and allies who might not be who they say they are. Milo is about to discover that the past he thought he knew might not be as clear as he believed.

Written by Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets Volume 5: The Counterfifth Detective is a DC Comics crime comic book collection published under the Vertigo imprint. Following 100 Bullets Volume 4: A Foregone Tomorrow, the series features art by Eduardo Risso, and issues in this collection were also collected as part of 100 Bullets—Volume 2 and 100 Bullets Omnibus—Volume 1.

It is very push-pull for 100 Bullets and me. I really like some of the stuff Azzarello did with the series, but I also hate a lot of the stuff Azzarello did with the series. This entry in the collection is one of the better entries in that it is a good exploration in the noir genre and also doesn’t find itself too buried in vernacular and clever attempts at writing.

The story is pretty straightforward and in line with a lot of pulp stories. You have a detective whose hiring has surpassed finding the answers he was hired to find and getting into the “why” of why he was hired. The search for a stolen piece of art has Milo in contact with a lot of shady people and ends up opening a floodgate of memories he didn’t expect.

The repressed memories tie into the bigger picture but also seems a bit predictable in the world of 100 Bullets. As a member of the Minutemen (with the codename of “The Bastard”), Milo did a lot of shady stuff. With his memories reawakened, Milo discovers he is in a fight for his life that he had forgotten. Like many hardboiled detectives, Milo essentially damns himself by not being able to give up on the assignment…and discovering leaving his past life isn’t possible.

In general, 100 Bullets is a clever and smart series filled with interesting stories and thought-provoking ideas. I prefer entries like these with a nicely written story and the bigger picture put on the backburner where it can simmer and grow. In the world of 100 Bullets, the past always seems to catch up to you, and Milo finds that out the hard way. 100 Bullets 5: The Counterfifth Detective is followed by 100 Bullets 6: Six Feet Under the Gun.

[OmniBen · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review for the omnibus this story arc collects) 4.5/5
I was really looking forward to this. I was holding this one back for a rainy day. One of those reads that you just know you're going to love, so you don't want to burn it too quickly. Once read, it can never again be read for the first time. Now, over the last year or so since its release, there were plenty of times I began to doubt Azarello's ability to deliver on this, for I've read some absolute stinkers from him. Though it wouldn't be the first time that someone was really good at writing a down and dirty crime noir, yet didn't have the chops to deliver, say, a long run on a female superhero...
But on to 100 Bullets. I know when I'm absolutely on board with a comic, when rather than read at my usual pace, I linger on panels, pages. I read things over and over again, not because they're ridiculous or don't make sense, but because they're so bloody good. Because I'm completely immersed in the story, or maybe because there is a rather fetching young lady featured on the page (and there are quite a few of those featured throughout).
I had minimal experience with Risso's artwork before this, although despite him being very much a love him or hate him type artist, I was instantly on board with his style. It suited the story and Azarello's writing down to a T. This only grew as the run continued, and the guy's chops and style improved. Some of the artwork and colouring in the final runs collected here were stunning, causing more of those lingering stares. And yeah, the guy knows how to draw a seedy, yet sexy looking woman, that's for sure.
Whilst a few issues towards the end certainly weren't as good as the opening salvo's, and the prevalence and quality of the dialogue wasn't as strong at the end of the book as the beginning, but nearly sixty issues of quality street level noir with the same artist is something I can't quite accurately describe how happy it makes me. If this didn't live up to my expectations, I would've been crushed. But thankfully, 100 Bullets is one of the greatest collections I've had the fortune to read thus far, and absolutely and unequivocally belongs on every respecting comic book fans shelf. If you've never read it, stop what ever you are doing (probably reading this review) and get it. When it goes OOP, can't imagine it will get a reprint anytime soon. 4.5/5


OmniBen.

[Peter Derk · Rating 1 out of 5]

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."

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection stays focused on Milo Garret, a private detective who wanders around with bandages around his head from the accident that....

The specifics of plot were a little lost to me. There are some interesting shifts in time and memory and plenty of characters: Lono, Echo, Monroe Tannenbaum, Detective Chet, Megan Dietrich. The series seems to have shifted course to being a little more about style and a little less about substance. There's not much about the Minute Men, not much about the mysterious cabals. Which makes this a solid - if a little, dare I say, cartoonish - self contained story.

Ends with a cliffhanger that leads nicely to Vol. 6.