Graphic Novel Review: 100 BULLETS, VOLUME TWO: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE

100 BULLETS, VOLUME TWO: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (DC Comics/Vertigo, 2000 - Second Printing)

"With a seemingly simple gift - - an untraceable gun and a hundred rounds of ammunition - - the mysterious Agent Graves offers the powerless and wronged a chance at vengeance."

The creative team of Azzarello and Risso maintain a steady pace throughout Volume Two, and continue to add more layers to the promising premise established in Volume One. This title is a gem, and its brilliance is polished in Volume Two. 

Some of my suspicions about the nature of Agent Graves and Shepherd no longer seem likely. Azzarello provides some pertinent information in this Volume which seems to indicate the direction things are going. But, the big burning questions have yet to be answered, with the major one being: what's in it for them? Why does Graves select certain individuals? 

SHORT CON, LONG ODDS The two-part first story arc this volume sheds light on the troubled relationship between two childhood friends, both turned to criminal endeavors in the gambling industry. Chucky, just released from prison, has a way of making the dice roll in his favor but is stuck street-and-alley hustling and risking his life gambling with gang members - - all because his reputation has banished him from the gaming houses. His childhood buddy Pony is a successful gambler running a betting establishment. Agent Graves rescues Chucky, reveals some incriminating evidence of how Pony has used and abused and stolen from him - and provides the way for Chucky to "even the odds." Things conclude off-panel but they don't end well. Risso does an excellent job of portraying the sad and seamy world of gambling. 

DAY, HOUR, MINUTE . . . MAN" The second story was quite revealing, and the reason I dropped my suspicions that Graves and Shepherd were either God's messengers or the devil's agents. 
Graves double-crosses a Jamaican crime gang right after telling them that a book-making operation in Detroit (from the previous story) could be open for new ownership. Then he sics Federal DEA agents on their HQ. 
The hitman in the Hawaiian shirt from Volume One (named Lono) has a critical meeting with Graves, who also sets him up for a fall (still to come). An organization named The Trust comes up, apparently Graves, Shepherd and Lono were once part of it - as Minutemen - until Shepherd reported them as dead in order to get out of their clutches. 

THE RIGHT EAR, LEFT IN THE COLD My favorite two-part story of this volume concerns the driver of a neighborhood ice cream truck who turns out to be a sleeper agent for Graves and Shepherd. When he obtains the attache and gun from Graves, Cole Burns learns who burned down the nursing home where his grandmother resided. Cole Burns is a skilled assassin, and he has just been reactivated following a wild gunfight as well as an overturned ice cream truck. 




HEARTBREAK, SUNNYSIDE UP My favorite one-shot, standalone story concerns a hard-working diner waitress who worries about her runaway daughter, who's now grown up as a teenager at whereabouts unknown. Except, Agent Graves has the sad, ugly details about where she is and why she ran away from home. 

PARLEZ KUNG VOUS The three-part story that concludes this volume features the return of Dizzy Cordova (from Volume One) as Agent Shepherd pays her way to Paris to meet "Mr. Branch" without explaining the reason for the visit. Mr. Branch turns out to be a journalist who was offered the suitcase and gun by Agent Graves but never followed through on the kill. However, he wanted to know more and began to investigate Graves and company, much to his chagrin - which he why he relocated to France. Branch may have told Cordova too much, as a gun-toting Cole Burns shows up to remind Dizzy that she belongs to Graves. Is this an indication that Graves and Shepherd may not be working together, or at cross purposes. I'm also wondering if this was another "test" for Dizzy to see if she is worthy of becoming a Minuteman. I'm also wondering if the unhappy diner waitress in the previous story was also being "tested" as a potential recruit.

My summaries dont' do this enough justice, but I want to avoid major spoilers. The pacing is spot-on in these stories. Risso creates the proper atmosphere in the way he portrays each scene. The dialogue is realistic, and street smart. 

These stories are always worth a re-reading. There's so much going on in the background that can easily be missed during the first reading.  FIVE STARS.