No question...the series is a must for anyone who enjoys an excellent plot and detailed, serious illustrations. Volume 1 is intriguing and sets a foundation for things to come (and oh what delightful things do come!)

This series sneeaks up on you, as it initially feels like taking what you think is a shortcut, a road you've never taken before, just to avoid the traffic.

Volume 1 is when you first turn on the road...things look familiar to you and you think have an idea where the road is going, as you see your destination on the horizon. Then you realize (by the end of Volume 1) that this road starts to lead you away from familiar territory...and suddenly you are in dangerous, alien territory. There is no exit in sight, the cell phone don't work, and you can't turn back. Nothing to do but enjoy the ride!

Best series I have read in a long time. Volume 1 is the start of the ultimate mindjob.

If you liked the intricacies of novels like Sleeper or DMZ, you are off to a great start on a fantastic series with Volume 1.

100 Bullets begins with a simple premise, as most great things do: A person is given the chance to kill a person who wronged them in the past using a briefcase full of a gun, 100 untraceable bullets, and irrevokable evidence that this person is guilty.

From that premise, so much more develops. Brian Azzarello uses smart, realistic dialogue and engrossing characters to build a stunning story of morality, revenge, and human nature. Lives cross paths and wrongs are righted, and while 1 bullet may fix a problem, 99 more spring up in its place.

There are no heros in 100 Bullets, but every last character is likeable. Azzarello has a unique ability to make killers and criminals incredibly human and endearing, and even as they backstab each other into eternity, you can't help but pull for all of them to make it out alive.

If I would have to make a single gripe about the series, it is that the art backing up the story is a bit sloppy in the beginning, and it is most exhibited in First Shot, Last Call. Eduardo Risso's drawing style is way too loose and free in the first few issues, and things don't seem to have the detail they should. On the other hand, as the series progresses, Risso's art improves greatly. So, stick with it because it is worth it.

All in all, if you are a fan of comic books, conspiracies, action, or just amazing stories, then you should buy the entire series of 100 Bullets without flinching, it is that good.

I missed out on the initial release for 100 Bullets, but I'm glad that I've taken up this first volume (First Shot, Last Call) and rectified that problem. Brian Azzarrello's 100 Bullets continues the long line of excellent mature comic titles from DC Comic's Vertigo line. Azzarrello's hardboiled, crime-thriller noir series brings to mind classic detective-noir works by Hammett, Spillane and Chandler. It's a more complex continuation of the hyper-noir series Frank Miller began with his Sin City series. I've heard people say that this series is better than Sin City and to some respect it is. The stories in each issue contained in this first volume (issues 1 through 5) are abit more complex in nature and execution. The five stories in this collected volume also laid the basic groundwork for what'll turn out to be one long-running series. But where Sin City's simplicity in its storytelling and artwork lay its strenght, it is in the complexities in the tales and the detailed, but economical artwork that 100 Bullets works best.

In First Shot, Last Call we're introduced to the gamemaster of the tale: Agent Graves. Looking like an ever-present government agent who has seen all that life has thrown at him and ready for more, Agent Graves picks a recently paroled Latino lass by the name of Dizzy Cordova with a proposition. He offers Dizzy an attache case with a gun and 100 bullets that're untraceable and definite proof that certain individuals caused her heartache and grief that's ruined her life. He only offers her the attache case, its content and the proof within. The choice is Dizzy's to make on what she should do with what's offered her. This set-up and premise is the beauty of 100 Bullets. The story's basically a morality tale of choices to be made by the characters. Will they use the offer to exact vengeance and get away with it scott-free, or will they refuse the offer and live on with their life. The hoice of revenge really doesn't bring back lost time and loved ones and only feeds the need for retribution. Agent Graves doesn't really force Dizzy's hand, but a supporting character knowledgable of the offer does, for his own agenda not yet known, prod, push and guide her to picking the more primal choice. Dizzy's choice in the end was both understandable and in the end inevitable.

The second story arc deals with Lee DOlan who also has had his life turned upside-down by people unknown to him. His life and family taken away by the stink of a child pornography accusation in the past. Agent Graves makes him the same offer of the attache case and its untraceable 100 bullets. Dolan's reaction to this offer is different from that of Dizzy's, but in the end his ultimate choice doesn't give him the same resolution and new life path that Dizzy made. It's a tribute to Azzarrello's great writing that the decision both Dizzy Cordova and Lee Dolan made were understandable when taken into context of their personalities and yearning to fix the problem that led them to their current state in their lives.

To complement Azzarrello's words perfectly were Eduardo Risso's artwork. It would be a misnomer to say that Risso's art style was minimalist like those of Frank Miller's woodcut-engraving style for Sin City or Mike Mignola's chiasroscuro-style for his Hellboy series. There's a sense of the minimalism in Risso's work, but he also adds in detail to his panels that give it a more cinematic look to it. The scenes were always drawn with a mind for action even when it's just people standing around. Risso has quite the filmmaker's eye in how he's drawn 100 Bullets which just adds to its noirish feel. The characters and environment were drawn not to scale and real-world proportion, but just enough not to look cartoonish. I would agree that there's an abundance for cleavage on the women drawn, but Risso doesn't do it gratuitously. Instead he uses this detail to showcase the sexuality of the strong female characters. It paints the female characters like Dizzy Cordova and Megan Dietrich with a sense of both strength and sensuality without pandering to the teenage boy demographic. Plus, he gives these ladies their own personality and character with how he draws them. Dizzy truly has the Latina sensual curves while Megan has the icy-cold Aryan beauty that serves her well.

100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call was a great discovery and a wonderful beginning to a very mature, intelligent and hardhitting comic series. Congratulations must got to its creator Brian Azzarrello for writing such great characters and memorable stories. I can't forget the work of his artist and partner-in-crime, Eduardo Risso. Risso's artwork has stamped themselves in my mind as the only way to see 100 Bullets in. Both Azzarrello and Risso complement each other well and I hope both continue to work with each other in this series for however long they decide to let it run. 100 Bullets is a great addition to the excellent line of comic titles that's been released by Vertigo. I see only great things to come from this duo.

This what might be called a "high concept" series in Hollywood lingo. A mysterious man in black shows up and gives you proof that a particular person has wronged you badly in the past, an untraceable gun, 100 bullets, and license to kill that person. What do you do? The answer isn't as simple as one might suspect, as the first two stories demonstrate. In the first one, we meet Dizzy, a Latina gangster just released from jail and bitter from the death of her man and her son in a drive-by shooting. Back on the streets of Chicago after a few years served, she's sad and seeking to live a straight life. But of course, you can't leave the gangster world behind that easily, and her brother's rise to prominence as a local gang-banger sucks her back in. It also doesn't help that the two cops the man in black fingered as having done the drive-by are in her face, giving her a lot of static. The art is pretty nifty stuff, perfect for the genre, with a great muted wash to the colors. The only lame part is that the women are all comic-booky, with huge breasts and bared midriffs -- pretty cheesy. The dialogue never really rings true, as all the "we got bidness", "knowhumsayin'" and "I ain't playin'" sounds more like something lifted from some tired film than it does real life. The characters are the familiar gangster hoodlums types and none are given any interesting nuances, nor does the story get interesting until the last few panels, which leave the door open for Dizzy to reappear later on in the series.

The second storyline is somewhat stronger, as we meet down and out Los Angeles bartender Lee Dolan. The man in black shows up and offers him the chance to get even with the woman who set him up on kiddie porn charges. It's a more far-fetched scenario, but somehow manages to work in a hard-boiled pulp way, as does Lee's character, a loner whose only conversations are with a stripper. Once again, the art is very assured and good, aside from an overabundance of bursting cleavage. The characterization is a little bit stronger, and the storyline just works a little better. There are some oddities here and there, such as the a strange murder and gun battle that takes place behind the characters at one point. A helicopter is blown out of the sky right next to them, but it's not clear why, nor is it clear why they don't notice. This is all perhaps a setup for another story somewhere else in the series, but interrupts the flow of Lee's story. These two stories collect the first five issues of the comic, and an eight-page story from an anthology rounds things off. The lighter side of the man in black's operation is shown in this, as a little old lady comes in to confess her murder, only to be turned away by the cops, who assume she's batty. Overall, it's not pitch perfect, but it definitely established a nice mood and I'm curious to read on to see what the larger motives of the man in black are.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call (Vertigo, 2000)

Brian Azzarellos' new series 100 Bullets starts with First Shot, Last Call, which introduces the world to the mysterious Agent Graves, a man who goes around offering a gun and one hundred untraceable bullets to people who have been wronged and posing the question: if you could get away with murder, would you?

As a result, so far, the only character going between stories is Graves (though both the end of the first story and the very end of the book seem to say that such will not always be the case); this is not necessarily a bad thing, because some of the characters who form the meat of each story are apt to get on your nerves. The dialogue, especially, is apt to get a touch cheesy at times. But usually not for more than a couple of panels at a time. Besides, 100 Bullets is not about dialogue. Like all good noir, it's about soul-searching combined with relentless, ugly action. And there is more than enough of both to go around here.

A fine beginning to the series. *** ý