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Vice Blog

LONDON - GET OVER THE WATCHMEN

Blah blah the Watchmen film's coming soon, blah blah, it'll probably not suck, blah blah, Doc Manhattan's gigantic, pendulous blue cock, blah blah. Yeah yeah, but we'll all be bored once every single entertainment outlet is creaming itself in a big way over Zach Snyder's adaptation in a month or so. What people don't realise is that just before Watchmen makes loads of people who haven't read a comic book in their life suddenly start talking about comic books, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's astonishing, brutal, beautiful and shocking 100 Bullets will reach its 100th and final issue.

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Here's an idea – think of a story, then tell that story. Don't embellish, garland or extend; diluting the original hook will only ever lead to diminishing returns. And that's what Azzarello and Risso did. They took one of the best hooks in graphic novel history – if you could murder someone who'd wronged you and definitely get away with it, would you? – married it to an expansive, detailed back story and rendered it in tones so noir it could be narrated by Sam Spade. And that's it. They had an idea, a brilliant concept: a hundred bullets, a hundred issues. One massive arc.

And yeah, Watchmen has Rorschach and The Comedian and two Silk Spectres, but 100 Bullets makes an old white guy in a suit carrying a briefcase quite possibly the coolest character since Miller's Dark Knight. Like that other gilt-edged droppable name The Wire, every single character is deeply, relentlessly fucked up, unsympathetic and just plain nasty. But it's compelling in a way that so little else is, because it doesn't rely on cheap narrative tricks or hooks – the hook is so entirely embedded within the writing, the sheer force of nature that is Agent Graves and whoever the fuck's behind him ensures no one needs to dress up like a fucking owl in order to get your attention.

Here's the thing: Azzarello and Risso are cleverer than you. They don't deal in twists and turns; rather, they know exactly where they're going and are only revealing little nuggets as and when they see fit.

So enjoy Watchmen. It'll probably not suck. But in terms of graphic awesomeness, it's got a seriously long way to go before it even comes close to touching Graves and co.

BEN PATASHNIK