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Publisher: Aspen
Writer: David Wohl
Artist: Eduardo Francisco
Cover: Eduardo Francisco & Peter Steigerwald

Minor spoilers ahead!

“Woman From Tokyo”: Iris is continuing her quest for revenge on behalf of her employer Mr. Ching, who was the victim of a failed assassination attempt last issue.  Her new target takes her to Tokyo as she is tasked with infiltrating his gambling house under the guise of a new and eager employee.  Now after navigating through the “screening” process, which is mostly getting hit on while on her way to the big man, she is shocked to see a familiar face from The Academy draped all over one of the thugs.  Iris looks away and hopes that she isn’t recognized by the girl as she leaves the room, and finally makes it to Mr. Suzuki’s penthouse where he’s throwing a huge hedonistic bash.  Iris tries to get him alone, but he knows who she is and that’s pretty much when it all hits the fan for Iris.  She’s grossly outnumbered and at a severe disadvantage, but she states that she has never abandoned a job and she’s not about to start now.

I actually expected a slow paced story filled with back story in this issue…well, was I wrong!  Wohl keeps the momentum going with this new target of hers, while at certain points giving us brief glances of Iris’s past life at The Academy, which were triggered when she saw Lilly.  It’s obvious later in the book that the two have history, but Wohl keeps it pretty ambiguous for now.  She is the third member of The Academy we have met so far, and it seems to have affected each one of the women differently, which I’m hoping is explored as the story progresses.  Iris’s inner dialogue is used to familiarize us with who she is, and I like that Wohl has chosen this method of storytelling as I feel it explains more of who a character is than just regular spoken dialogue.

Eduardo is consistently bringing his A game to each issue, making sure that it’s visually on point from the first page to the last.  His style is clean, detailed, and I find myself going back to find things I’ve missed.  The quality is even maintained during the fast paced fight scenes, which aren’t just a bunch of blurred shots that obscure what’s going on.

The series has turned out to be a little more than what I expected it to be, and that is a pleasant surprise for once.  Of course there are several familiar themes throughout the series, and yes Iris exploits the ignorance of men that are easily seduced (A LOT!), but between Wohl and Francisco, they make it fresh and it looks damn good!

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