100 Bullets #54
Originally presented at Comixtreme.com on October 10, 2004
Quick Rating: Average
Title: Who Runs the Voodoo Down Part Four
Wylie finds himself in a pinch.
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Cover Art: Eduardo Risso
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Review: Wylie, suffering a minor injury, spends an issue trying to hunt down the killers he and Diz saw murder a girl. Along the way, he encounters various stereotypes.
It’s a simplistic explanation of this issue, I know, but that’s really all I got out of it. It’s one thing to fall back on stock characters to fill out a storyline, and lapsing into stereotypes is sometimes forgivable if it helps expedite the storytelling. But there is a point where you’ve got too many stock characters and it goes from easy to irritating, and this book goes way past that point. Virtually every character in this book other than Wylie and Diz is stupid or ignorant or fat or ugly or some combination thereof. Perhaps this wouldn’t insult me quite so much if this storyline wasn’t set in New Orleans, my home turf, but it is, and I am far beyond merely being aggravated by the way the people of this area are portrayed in movies, on television, and of course, in comic books.
Eduardo Risso, as I noted last issue, does have a better grasp on the look of the city itself than most comic book artists who have taken a shot at it. Although he doesn’t quite capture the near-claustrophobic nature of the city’s streets, he does a pretty good job on the architecture and scenery. His characters, as I mentioned before, are mostly fat and ugly, but as that seems to be a stipulation of the writing I’m not going to take points off for that. The artwork is really the saving grace of this issue.
The storyline is progressed, but the progression is typical and the efforts at a surprise don’t really surprise. There are certain comics out there whose critical acclaim has always eluded me, and this is one of them.
Rating: 5/10
Quick Rating: Average
Title: Who Runs the Voodoo Down Part Four
Wylie finds himself in a pinch.
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Cover Art: Eduardo Risso
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Review: Wylie, suffering a minor injury, spends an issue trying to hunt down the killers he and Diz saw murder a girl. Along the way, he encounters various stereotypes.
It’s a simplistic explanation of this issue, I know, but that’s really all I got out of it. It’s one thing to fall back on stock characters to fill out a storyline, and lapsing into stereotypes is sometimes forgivable if it helps expedite the storytelling. But there is a point where you’ve got too many stock characters and it goes from easy to irritating, and this book goes way past that point. Virtually every character in this book other than Wylie and Diz is stupid or ignorant or fat or ugly or some combination thereof. Perhaps this wouldn’t insult me quite so much if this storyline wasn’t set in New Orleans, my home turf, but it is, and I am far beyond merely being aggravated by the way the people of this area are portrayed in movies, on television, and of course, in comic books.
Eduardo Risso, as I noted last issue, does have a better grasp on the look of the city itself than most comic book artists who have taken a shot at it. Although he doesn’t quite capture the near-claustrophobic nature of the city’s streets, he does a pretty good job on the architecture and scenery. His characters, as I mentioned before, are mostly fat and ugly, but as that seems to be a stipulation of the writing I’m not going to take points off for that. The artwork is really the saving grace of this issue.
The storyline is progressed, but the progression is typical and the efforts at a surprise don’t really surprise. There are certain comics out there whose critical acclaim has always eluded me, and this is one of them.
Rating: 5/10