100 Bullets Vol. 5: The Counterfifth Detective

Loved the whole noir detective who drinks hard and loves harder lol. And that guy always has to walk a fine line or he comes off cheesy and not smooth. With Milo they got that character portrayed perfectly. Love the story, the writing, the dialogue is fantastic. The art as always stellar and amazing. Everything about this series I have loved and this was my favorite so far. Ending hurt, but still just a quality quality job done on every part of this amazing book. Could probably have Milo Garrett as a series of his own in all honesty, I'd love to see that personally.

I've read volumes 1-4 so far before I read 5 on my way to reading the entire story, and even though 100 Bullets is an amazing story as a whole, vol. 5 (The Counterfifth Detective) is so far my favorite story arc. Milo is an extremely interesting character that I wish I got to know more about, and Cole and Lono are always great (with Cole being my favorite character of the 100 Bullets universe). The Counterfifth Detective is the most 'stand alone' arc so far so if you're unfamiliar with Azzarello and Risso's work, and just wanted to see what its all about, with a story that has a beginning, middle, and end in one volume, then give vol. 5 a try. PROMISE you won't be disappointed

100 Bullets is surprising in many ways. You never know where each new story will take you. Every story may seem separate from the general story arc, but then very subtlety everything connects. It's dark, intelligent, surprising, even emotional. LOVE IT!

First of all, the last reviewer, Michael K. Smith, hasn't read the four books in the series before this one, so please, only take his review seriously if you are sastisfied reading one chapter form the middle of a given story, and no more. On a most different scale, I'd give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It's a great series (overall, 5 out of 5 stars, for sure), but the ironic detachment seeping out of the punny characters of this storyline tends to slow it down. I can't say that I think endless, breathless puns make one's writing remarkably appealing. The Counterfifth Detective is too much in the shadow of the last book, which tremendously advanced the storyline and our understanding of the Trust, the Minutemen, and Graves. Very little is revealed here, and in the end, there's a bit of a feeling of disappointment that not much actually happened. The book is spectacular when read in series with the rest, but, by itself, it falls a bit short of the standards set by the rest of 100 Bullets.

If you are bored of the same crap everyday when it comes to entertainment, this is the solution: READ A BOOK! This one's got pictures and violence and swearing, can you describe a better book? The story is awsome too. However, I recommend you read volumes 1-4 first.

Reading 100 Bullets trades can be a frustrating endeavor. Its run was precisely one story, making it possibly the longest story in comics history, so just picking up any trade beside the first will leave one starting in the middle. Most are comprised of single or double issue exploits requiring previous familiarity of events while concluding with little resolution themselves, except for one. Counterfifth Detective is the one trade of thirteen that can even remotely be considered a standalone arc. It's also the only one that can be classified as noir, with the rest better described as contemporary gangsta. Like most Azzarello books it can be difficult to follow, especially given the smaller role it plays in a bigger picture. His writing is caustic and clever as usual, though the repetitive nature of the banter between practically every character does get tiresome. The plot plays out like an old fashioned private detective tale, replete with crooked clients, dangerous dames, and enough booze and bawdiness to satisfy any fan of the genre. However like mentioned do not expect everything to make sense upon first reading. If you're not intrigued enough by the 100 Bullets saga to contemplate purchasing the entire run but would like to sample arguably the best and certainly the most self contained book of the series, this is the one to consider.

If you love film noir than i guarantee you will love this collection. Actually if you love noir you will love every 100 bullets book but especially this one. This is very classical noir in a modern day setting. Brian Azzarrelo is probably the best writer in comics today and one of the best in any medium in my opinion. He writes incredibly complex storys that revolve on the incredibly simple human nature. And with fantastic and witty dialogue. I think this trade shows Brian at his best with snappy dialog and a Chinatown like plot that the casual reader can enjoy but also ties into the big picture of the whole 100 bullets series. They all tie into one another to create an amazingly realized noir world that instead of focusing on the flashy aspects of sex and violence (which 100 bullets has plenty of) but of each individual character caught up in a larger game. Each book focuses on a character, each book is a beautiful piece of a puzzle. Highest Reccommendation Possible.

I read almost every non-manga graphic novel I can find, so I have a basis for comparison when I say that their quality adheres to the classic bell curve. Some are pretty good, some a pretty bad, but the majority are merely mediocre -- and this interesting but confused effort fits right in the middle of the pack. "100 Bullets" is apparently an ongoing series of which this is just one installment, but I haven't seen the others, so I can only say that the set-up -- the old man with an attache case containing a pistol and a hundred guaranteed untraceable slugs for it -- doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And about one-third of the way through, the attache case ceases to have any part in the story anyway. So what do we have? We have Milo Garrett (whose name actually might be Lewis), a faceless, alcoholic private detective with a bad attitude who like to start fights. "Faceless" literally, because he was in a car wreck and has his face swathed in bandages for most of the book. Then there's an art theft, a number of murders, a number of bad guys -- badder than Milo, that is -- and a lot of sometimes well-written dialogue and interior monologue that borrows heavily from Raymond Chandler. While the separate scenes are usually pretty well done, the overall plot, as noted, wanders all over the place. I never have quite figured out what the ending meant. The design and drawing, while eye-catching, isn't all that original. So, a very average piece of work.

Magistral.Un de mes tomes préférés de la série. Mention spéciale à Patricia Mulvihill.Son travail sur la couleur est juste énorme.

An absolute stand-put from the series. I recently re-read the entire 100 bullets run and the bandaged face of milo keeps coming back to me. Much like how Marvel have managed to cinematically bring together their characters with self contained stories that go on to bind the characters to a larger universe, so too do the spectacular characters of Azzarillo. Flashy, memorable characters like Counterfith Detective's Milo are what made the series great, what's interesting is before seeing them puzzle-peice themselves together, you always get a full version of the character and the path they're on away from the main story. I'm not going to bore you with blurb summaries like the other reviewers have done, I'll simply say that even if you haven't started volume 1 yet but are curious about the series, this may be an example where starting at number 5 is a good shout, it'll definately get you hooked on the series.

Purtroppo questi numeri non sono mai stati tradotti in italiano ed ho dovuto comprarli in inglese. Questo fumetto è molto bello ma in inglese è scritto con uno slang un po complicato. Cmq niente di impossibile. Grazie ad Amazon ho potuto completare la mia collezione.