Bullet to the Head presents itself as a hard-hitting crime noir thriller.
As most first issues do this one sets up the principal players and their motivations. This involves contract killers executing a politician and his possibly underage sex partner. Then in come the dogged cops to examine the crime scene and start putting clues together. And that's about it.
Colin Wilson's art is crisp and detailed with good facial expressions. Matz's dialogue is cool and specific to each character. The story is executed well with a steady pace. However...
I don't want to be overly critical but we've seen 'politician-getting-caught-doing-something-he-shouldn't-and-killed' scenario a hundred times before, which means that it needs to be presented in a really creative way to stand out. As well, the opening sequence where the contract killers exchange witty dialogue over the price of shoes come straight from 'Pulp Fiction' land. Put these two things together and we're starting to move into a place called 'derivative' which is a killer itself.
The straight crime comic isn't one I usually get in to but that didn't stop me liking Miller's Sin City or the Brian Michael Bendis' crime noir inflected Powers. If it's good, it's good.
No doubt further developments and twists will ensue in later issues but I'm not sure this issue does enough to warrant further monetary outlay. Who are we supposed to get involved with here? The witty killers or the weary cops?
This: Decent enough, but didn't really get me in. Forthcoming: Only if it looks really good.
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