Executive Assistant: Assassins #3
Publisher: Aspen
Writer: David Hernandez
Artist: Jordan Gunderson
Cover: Alex Konat
As this arc wraps up, Lily and Cope are still on the run, but Mazutsu has their whereabouts and intends to make sure they’re very dead. Means he wishes to accomplish with a very destructive prototype weapon. Though the real action hits when an Executive Assistant by the name of Lilac pays a visit to Tarver and his family. More lies are brought to light and wills are tested by the time this story is over.
As Executive Assistant stories go, Hernandez definitely moves this one along quite fast. We’ve seen an Executive Assistant training facility blown away, henchmen slaughtered by a high powered weapon, and plenty of character revelations in such a short time. This doesn’t hurt the story too much, but Lily getting clean from her heroin addiction in a matter of days just seems unlikely. Everything else about the story is what makes this one of the more exciting in the series. Much like in the past Assistant’s books, the focus has been on their actual character building rather than their cup size and other physical assets. Hernandez gives us a very damaged character in Lily, and one deadly and mysterious villain in Lilac and Mazutsu. Both should make for interesting antagonists as this series continues.
As far as the visuals go, Gunderson keeps things moving quite well when things are quiet. When the action kicks in things seem a bit hit and miss when it comes to the fluidity of the attacks. However, much of it still looks good and is paced out quite well. With the lack of backgrounds in several of the panels it seems like an opportunity was missed to pull you deeper into the story’s visual sequence. Again, all of this aside, EA: Assassins is still a well drawn series. What may be reassuring to several readers is that the women are also drawn with more realistic proportions, and their bodies don’t distract from the story.
EA: Assassins is a fast paced and brutal ride into a dark and very exciting world. As the series progresses things should only get better, as it’s got everything it needs to remain a solid and well done story. The only thing missing (at least in my eyes) is the return of a certain assassin that started it all. Hopefully she’ll be making an appearance in the series at some point in the future. Until then, you should give this series a shot if you’re looking for something new.
Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net
