100 BULLETS: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE is the second graphic novel from the award-winning monthly 100 BULLETS comic book put out by DC Comics' Vertigo line. Again, series writer Brian Azzarello keeps the mix violent and unpredictable, fusing the cold shadows of the street with the hot fury of betrayal. The book opens up with a two-part story, "Short Con, Long Odds", about Chucky and Pony, two childhood friends who grow up to be gamblers. Then Agent Graves, the unknown man of mystery who always kicks the stories into high gear, shows up carrying a briefcase loaded with a semi-automatic pistol and 100 rounds of untraceable ammunition. He tells Chucky that Pony set him up for a seven-year fall in prison that he should have taken--at the same time that Pony is stealing Chucky's woman. The biggest risk either of Chucky and Pony ever took was being friends with each other, and that's about to change. "Day, Hour, Minute...Man" offers up a quick peek into the mysterious agency that Mr. Graves works for, and shows Mr. Graves coldly dealing out vengeance of his own. "The Right Ear, Left In The Cold" tells the story of Cole Burns, an ice cream man who sells ice cream and stolen cigarettes out of his truck, and who is much more than he appears to be. Mr. Graves gives him a briefcase and the 100 rounds of ammunition, then tells him that Goldy Petrovic is the man responsible for the burning death of Cole's grandmother in the nursing home. Besides wanting vengeance, Cole also has to deal with another ice cream man trying to take his beat. But most of all, Cole Burns is a man on a mission to find himself. "Heartbreak Sunnyside Up" is another stand-alone tale that is brutal and violent, and all too real. Lilly Roach is a waitress in a diner, and a woman who has lost her teenage daughter to the streets. Then, one day, Agent Graves shows up with the story of what really happened to Lilly's daughter--and a briefcase containing a pistol and 100 rounds of untraceable ammunition. Even the back story in this particular episode resonates with truth and pain directly from the real world. The book wraps with a three-chapter arc, "Parlez Kung Vous", that takes the reader back to Dizzy Cordova, the heroine introduced in the first graphic novel. She's in Paris on assignment, hooking up with a man named Mr. Branch. She has a lot in common with Mr. Branch. He was a reporter, very different from the barrio life Dizzy knew, but he was also offered the briefcase and 100 bullets--only Mr. Branch didn't use them and his life is now in jeopardy. The mystery surrounding the Trust, the Minutemen, and Agent Graves is cleared up a little, but only enough to reveal that more twists and turns are ahead.
Besides writing 100 BULLETS, Brian Azzarello has also worked on the HELLBLAZER series, BATMAN/DEATHBLOW, the JONNY DOUBLE mini-series for DC COMICS, and STARTLING STORIES: BANNER, CAGE, and SPIDER-MAN for Marvel Comics. Eduard Risso, the co-creator of 100 BULLETS, has also drawn for BATMAN, the horror anthology FLINCH, the JONNY DOUBLE mini-series, and comic books in his native France.
100 BULLETS: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE continues the same throbbing beat of violence and sharp emotion summoned up in the previous graphic novel. Each volume, so far there are four, stands on its own merits, but there is something to gain by reading them in order. As always, Azzarello's characters are sharply drawn and come across as real people with real problems. Primarily those problems are always about betrayal and the need for vengeance. Azzarello moves easily about the urban landscape of the real world, and his stories echo with current events. His dialogue puts a fine point on what could simply be just a collection of out-for-revenge stories. The characters are torn between the need for vengeance, the loss they're going to suffer when they act on that need or choose not to, and they're torn over the fact that once they follow up on that path to vengeance that their lives are going to be forever changed. Risso's artwork displays those worlds, those streets, and those emotions with knowing ease, while at the same time conveying the heaviness of life to someone living in the shadows. The fact that the vengance stories are only pearls on a string, and that the string is actually part of a much greater story Azzarello is telling is awesome. Readers can start to see the beginning bones of that story in these tales, and the imagination will reach to fill in the other gaps.
This graphic novel is definitely recommended to fans of Azzarello and Risso's work. Also, any fans of noir and action movies will find a lot here to whet those appetites in the brilliant dialogue and panels that accompany these hard-edged stories. Comics fans that regularly read Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Chuck Dixon will find a new favorite author in Brian Azzarello.
