100 Bullets Vol. 2: Split Second Chance [Paperback]

Brian Azzarello (Author), Eduardo Risso (Author), Grant Goleash (Author), Clem Robins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000 | Series: 100 Bullets (Book 2)

Suppose that you're given incontrovertible proof that you've been wronged by someone--seriously, grievously wronged. And then suppose that you're also given a handgun, a hundred bullets, and complete assurance that however you choose to use this information--and this gun--you won't be held accountable, won't go to jail, won't pay any price for exacting revenge.Throw in a secret society, some low-life gamblers, a couple gangland executions, and a healthy dose of Thai boxing, Gracie jujitsu, and other assorted violence (not to mention sex) and you've got one of DC's most compelling comic-bookseries to come along in years. This trade paperback collects issues 6 through 14 of Vertigo's100 Bullets series, so you might want to check out the first collection, First Shot, Last Call, if you haven't already. Fans will be happy to find that Split Second Chance clears up some of the questions surrounding the mysterious Agent Graves and the equally enigmatic Minutemen. But as one of the Trust's pawns later learns, "Asking questions is free... but the answers--they can cost you your life." --Paul Hughes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Suppose that you're given incontrovertible proof that you've been wronged by someone--seriously, grievously wronged. And then suppose that you're also given a handgun, a hundred bullets, and complete assurance that however you choose to use this information--and this gun--you won't be held accountable, won't go to jail, won't pay any price for exacting revenge.

Throw in a secret society, some low-life gamblers, a couple gangland executions, and a healthy dose of Thai boxing, Gracie jujitsu, and other assorted violence (not to mention sex) and you've got one of DC's most compelling comic-book series to come along in years. This trade paperback collects issues 6 through 14 of Vertigo's 100 Bullets series, so you might want to check out the first collection, First Shot, Last Call, if you haven't already. Fans will be happy to find that Split Second Chance clears up some of the questions surrounding the mysterious Agent Graves and the equally enigmatic Minutemen. But as one of the Trust's pawns later learns, "Asking questions is free... but the answers--they can cost you your life." --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

In the world of 100 Bullets, moral ambiguity comes packed in an attach‚ case with a gun, one hundred untraceable bullets and positive identification of the person responsible for ruining your life. Gimmicky, perhaps, but not necessarily a bad premise for the high melodrama of noir. However, in this instance it quickly runs out of gas, undercut by clich‚d characterizations and absurd plot contrivances. Dizzy Cordova is a young, recently paroled ex-gangbanger whose husband and baby have been killed in a drive-by. Lee Dolan is a drunken bartender whose family and career fell apart after he was framed for peddling child porn. Both are offered a chance at revenge by a pair of mysterious agents whose motivations are as obscure as their origins. Riffing off ghetto stereotypes and corny street slang instead of a convincing plot, Azzarello's story lines offer up half-processed notions of greed and betrayal, with a little violence and tawdriness thrown in for good measure. To be fair, this volume collects just the first five issues of an ongoing and complex narrative series. But the book's real pleasures can be found in the drawings of artist Eduardo Risso, whose shadow-filled, stylized renderings of urban anomie manage to convey unexpected nuances of emotion. Risso's drawings, coupled with the subtle, muted palette of colorist Grant Goleash, give the work an engaging visual moodiness that the clunky narrative is unable to match.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563897113
• ISBN-13: 978-1563897115
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.5 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fistful of Bad Dreams, August 16, 2002

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Bullets Vol. 2: Split Second Chance (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next amazing piece in a grand mystery, April 3, 2001

By 

David W. Richards (Plymouth, Mi United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Bullets Vol. 2: Split Second Chance (Paperback)

First off read the first 100 Bullets trade. It's a great read if your a comic fan or a fan of crime literature. This second trade continues the excellent storytelling of the first trade. It answers some questions, and brings up many more. It appears the creators are setting up a huge,grand mystery. When 100 Bullets is finished I feel it will be as large an epic as Preacher was. The trade ends with a story featuring the return of Dizzy Cordova from the first storyline. And it ends with a killer last panel that will make you want even more. I eagerly await the next trade paperback. Like I said 100 Bullets is for fans of great stories(comics or otherwise)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Storytelling, Tremendous Art, A Masterpiece, March 3, 2001

By 

M. Howell "likes good things" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Bullets Vol. 2: Split Second Chance (Paperback)

100 Bullets has received a great deal of praise from comic publications and fans alike. That's fine and dandy, but you and I both know that comic magazines have raved about things a million times before, and that the results of said raves are usually disappointing, hacky stories that have been done a million times before. This isn't one of those!!!!! 100 Bullets is one of the finest comics out there. Blending a mysterious ongoing plot with the stories of the invidividuals given a gun and 100 untraceable bullets, this is a comic that regularly delivers entertaining, intellectually stimulating stories!!! Some people call it grim and gritty because it deals with crime and its not the happiest book on the face of the planet. Some people want to rave on and on about how good the dialogue is (in my opinion the best part about the dialogue is that you never have to think about it. The dialogue is perfectly natural. You don't feel like you are reading a comic so much as eavesdropping on a conversation.) Anyway, Brain Azzarello and Eduardo Risso have outdone themselves. Before I finish this up, I have two things left to say: 1). Don't even think about buying this until you have read the first collected edition entitled First Shot, Last Call and 2). This collection also features a rather spiffy introduction by comics legend and all around great talent Howard Chaykin!!!! If you have ever liked any type of comic, you have to give this one a try!!!!