Posted - October 17, 2015

Previous: 100 Bullets 1 to 3

A big part of this second story arc from 100 Bullets happens at the Regent Bar. One way to look at this bar is as a cozy neighborhood place one can go to to get the edge off after a hard day. Another way of looking at it is a run down hole-in-the-wall bar. I'm inclined to the former description because I'm quite taken by the place - specially after meeting some of the regulars. The following panels are not part of the essential storyline of 100 Bullets but they are absolutely entertaining . . .

So the whole thing has devolved into a bar fight. But the wife is there, and she does this:

Now, this is the best part.

What's a bar fight between friends? I love it.

Much later just one more lovely bar scene with the same two guys.

Hahahahaha!

Man, who needs the main story right? Okay, okay, kidding. Here it is . . .

Just like in the Dizzy story arc, we begin with Agent Graves and his fancy briefcase:

The guy he's talking to is Dolan. This is his story:

Nothing less than a story of a fall from grace that we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy. Parts of it still needs fleshing out though. Namely: Who did it and why was it done?

Graves has got the who part.

Together with the gun and 100 rounds of ammo. All untraceable. From the previous story arc we also know that this includes an utterly incredible blanket immunity from law enforcement. The briefcase is accepted and so, once again, the stage is set.

One last information from Graves: The girl who destroyed Dolan's life will appear in Regent Bar that very night. Now the stage is really set.

With that, Agent Graves has one more for the road.

That means "health" in Russian.

Next is a pub crawl by a bunch of yuppies. Remember the term "yuppie larvae" from Ghostbusters ?"Yuppies" used to be a popular word during the eighties meaning "young, urban, professionals" - all those eighties yuppies have now become "your parents". Laugh it up Millenials, old age will claim us all. Anyway these yuppies will forever be young in the pages of 100 bullets. One of them really has it all he's young, rich and good looking. I love this next panel.

Damn. After reading this panel "life without friction" is not just a phrase I'll never forget - it's a life goal worth going for. "Life without friction" - sounds so good.

Lo and behold Megan Dietrich, the supposedly guilty party does appear and we have this little scene.

So basically, Dolan has followed Megan to the ladies' room - there she is sitting behind the stall - and Dolan is about to get his revenge.

Dolan was a restaurant owner, so he hesitates big time. I read an article once about amateur boxers. The article made a point about the hardest obstacle boxers have to hurdle. Not the grueling training, not the time demands of the sport, not finding a gym. The hardest thing a boxer has to overcome is the natural human reluctance to hit another human being. We are simply not wired for that. And why not you ask? Because people who have a natural propensity to hit other people would most likely come under some form of counterattack. And this counterattack could be fatal. Logic would suggests that these kind of people have been naturally weeded out by evolution - they got counterattacked to extinction. I recall another book I was reading were the author was absolutely appalled about how some people simply didn't understand a simple fact: If you go to your neighbor and hit him over the head with a stick it is an absolute surety that your neighbor would want to hit you back. So now, we, who are left after the weeding out of generations, are "hotwired" with natural impulses to guarantee our survival. One such impulse says: Do not hit your neighbor so he doesn't hit you back and you live to have babies and guarantee the survival of the species.

Dolan, in the panel above, is struggling with this impulse. And it wins. Megan Deitrich gets to piss in peace.

The day after, Dolan is still left with his shattered life and a seething anger. Did I say shattered life? Here's the visual on that:

That's Dolan's son wanting nothing to do with him. This well-done panel says it all: The broken family. The lonelines of the pariah. And to top it all off: Dolan is innocent. Can you blame him for being angry? Knowing what would happen next I would add: Can I blame him for letting his anger get the better of his reason? I can't. Even after I've finished this story, I can't.

Up until now we have an incomplete puzzle on our hands. But not for long. Dolan manages to get into Meg's posh office tower. Here are two panels that depict this with a nice layout.

For the completion of Dolan's story I present: Megan Dietrich.

Megan Dietrich is a cold-hearted bitch, she's bad, bad, bad in bed, she's - wha? I mean, she's just terrible. She pretty much destroyed this guy's life on an impulse hack. Wait-a-minute the thing about the FBI tracing the download and breaking into Dolan's house. That's bullshit. First of all, even if they managed to trace the download would they really go after it. Thousands of pervs might be downloading every single day. They simply don't have the manpower and budget to raid everybody. I know for a fact that Homeland Security does raid and shut down the sites but not the downloaders - too cost inefficient. Next, how the heck was Dolan convicted? His machine was connected to the internet and it could be hacked. That alone would introduce reasonable doubt enough to overthrow a conviction. Okay, that aside, it happened as Megan tells it.

So Dolan: shoot the bitch.

Megan starts to cut a deal.

First. a cool million for Dolan

Then couple a million for his kids - each.

Then the equivalent of a cleanup of his perp record.

New social security number gives Dolan a clean slate.

It's too good for Dolan to pass up.

The last part of the deal is that Dolan has to leave Grave's gun with Meg.

As Dolan is about to leave Meg shoots him with the gun he just handed over.

As you join me in looking down at Dolan's bleeding corpse. Let's think through what just happened here.

First of all, Dolan was dead the moment he entered the lobby. He went into Meg's highly secure office building. Even if he did shoot her, there is no way the guards would let him out alive - I'm pretty sure they wouldn't just have him arrested. They would gun him down. The perfect place to have taken Meg out was in the ladies' room a while back.

Something inside Dolan wanted to die. Granted he was very emotional and wanted revenge so badly but even a casual think of the situation would have prevented this particular approach to take out Meg Dietrich. The man is tired, he's been runover by life's steamroller. He wanted to go.

And now for a twist that reveals a bit more about the greater storyline.

Next: 5 Ronin