100 Bullets
100 Bullets is an Eisner Award winning comic book title written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso. It is published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint.
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The plot of 100 Bullets is built on a simple premise, questioning whether people would take the chance to get away with revenge. In each story arc, Agent Graves approaches someone who has been wronged in someway, and gives them the chance to set things right in the form of a nondescript attache case containing a handgun and 100 bullets. He informs the candidate that the bullets are completely untraceable, and even more, any police agency that receives these bullets as part of an investigation will, through some unexplained process, immediately drop that investigation and ignore any transgressions related to it.
Though all of the murders enabled by Agent graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for taking up the offer, and appear to receive nothing other than closure for their actions. Several people have received the offer, and decided not to take the offer up.
It is eventually revealed that Agent Graves is working for an enigmatic organization known only as The Trust. Little is known about the organization itself, but it is hinted that many of the candidates are former members of the Trust who were brainwashed.
Style
Both the writing and artwork in 100 Bullets exemplifies the noir and pulp genres. It is extremely gritty, and presents the reader with several morally ambiguous cases.
Characters
- Agent Graves - A mysterious old man who presents offers to the candidates
- Dizzy Cordova - An ex-gangbanger who accepts the offer to get revenge for her brother's death, and then attempts to find more about the mysterious organization behind the offers
- Cole Burns - An ice cream man seeking vengeance for his grandmother's untimely death; he has large gaps in his memory
- Mr. Branch - An ex-journalist who rejected The Trust's offer, and is now living in Paris, France
Books
There are currently six trade paperbacks in publication for this series.
