By Cat Wyatt

The pace for No. 1 With a Bullet has picked up pretty significantly in the last two issues. When we left off the last issue, we saw the instigator for all of Nash’s pain and trouble driving off a cliff (courtesy of his car not working properly) as well as a couple of other attacks (one on an online pervert harassing Nash and another on the investigator following her). I’ll admit I was a bit worried that Nash would take the blame for this if nothing else than in the media’s eye (which has been the problem all along, hasn’t it?).

Thankfully the investigator isn’t an idiot. It probably helps that he was looking directly at Nash when he got attacked, but still. Unfortunately, the media is loving this new twist. They believe that Jad committed suicide thanks to the vicious and false allegations Nash has been throwing around (man do I wish type could accurately portray my disgust at that sentence) and are having a field day blaming her left and right for this.

I don’t blame Nash for being ticked off at the police for not announcing Jad was killed. Then again, the media would probably blame her for that too, and it would probably be worse. At least in theory. So perhaps it’s better this way. At least by keeping it secret, the police may get a leg up on the killer.

Speaking of, their number one suspect right now? Violet Reynolds. As in ex-girlfriend (probably) Violet Nash. It would certainly explain the connection Nash has to all of the crimes; either Violet is doing this out of protection or jealousy. Or perhaps a mixture of both.

This revelation causes Nash to have a series of flashbacks about Violet. Some of them are the cute happy ones, but most of them establish the fact that Violet was a jealous lover. Before Violet had met Nash, she had sworn off of dating bi-women, having been burned pretty badly by the last one she was with (she left Violet for her male ex). So her reaction to Jad and Nash’s non-consensual sex tape makes a bit more sense now. But would she have been upset enough to have gone after Jad like that?

Granted, it wasn’t until after Jad said those horrible things about Nash that he got killed. So perhaps whoever did it was on the fence up until that moment, and the very minute he began the attacks on Nash’s character it was game over for him.

With a series of texts (presumably from Vi) it seems like Violet’s guilt may have been confirmed, not that she said anything outright. We could be getting intentionally misled, but it’s hard to be certain until we get more information.

Thinking your ex is capable of attacking and killing multiple people would be pretty tough. Knowing they did it because/for you? That would be unbearable. Having her apartment constantly broken into and vandalized is just icing on the cake.

Personally, the vandalism makes me think it isn’t Violet – but I could be wrong. Perhaps there are multiple people here doing different things. One person punishing Nash (because they’re sick freaks that think they have the right to do something like that), while the other is hurting people in a twisted sense of a white knight complex. Or maybe it’s neither of these options. I don’t envy the investigators on this case; it sounds like a complete mess.

More importantly is the concern of what the hell is going on with Nash. Something isn’t right – and I can’t say for certain what it is. At first, I had thought that somebody was replacing her contact lenses with the camera version, but now I’m less certain. The contacts she’s wearing are clearly causing a reaction, so perhaps they were replaced, but instead of recording her they were designed to drug and otherwise harm her?

This is an intriguing series. Every time I think I’ve got a handle on what is going on, I have another plot twist thrown in my face. Despite the constant twists and turns, I don’t find myself frustrated with them.  It just makes me more determined to figure out what’s going on and see this through to the end.

The artwork for this issue was great, as always. The vibrant colors add a new element to the rough nature of what is happening to Nash. It’s emotionally garish, in a sense. The scene at the end, with Nash trying to put her contacts in is somewhat graphic, so those sensitive to eye images like that should consider themselves warned.

Score: 4/5

No. 1 With A Bullet #5
Image Comics