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May 31, 2005
Comics Book Writers: Brian Azzarello
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Current Comics: 100 Bullets
Brian Azzarrello does great noir, and can be very effective when his stories are tightly plotted. The first few storylines of his long-running series 100 Bullets are gems of hard-boiled storytelling. The concept behind 100 Bullets is a great pulp premise: a shadowy organization selects people who've been betrayed in some way, and gives them a gun and 100 guaranteed untraceable bullets to use as they see fit to rectify the situation. Violence, of course, usually begets more violence, and revenge is rarely a simple matter. The agenda of the organization itself is only gradually revealed over the course of the series.
At its best, 100 Bullets mixes the campy-but-gritty pulp of Sin City with the paranoia of X-Files. Unfortunately, as the conspiracy grows ever more elaborate, the storytelling has grown more opaque - there are simply too many conspirators to keep track of by now. Likewise, Azzarello's recent runs on Batman and Superman were shaggy and disappointing - full of portentious dialogue and moody lighting, but missing the payoffs. He's clearly having trouble adapting his style to the superhero mainstream - although if he can ever make it work, the results could be spectacular.
One hint of that promise is a great Hulk miniseries he wrote a few years ago, Banner
Posted by tedf at May 31, 2005 10:42 AM
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