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Publisher: Aspen Comics
Writer: David Wohl
Artist: Eduardo Francisco
Cover: Eduardo Francisco

“The Devil Inside“:  This issue brings Iris’s past to the forefront and sheds some light on The Academy that trained her.  Beginning with a flashback of a very young Iris being bullied that directly leads into the events from last issue. We see Iris kick her way out of  the vault she and her employer hid in when the explosion happened.   Needless to say, Mr. Ching is pissed and Iris considers herself a failure and seeks to correct this mistake immediately.

Knowing who is behind the attack, she sets off on her mission and successfully catches the eye of the number 2 man involved at a casino in Monte Carlo.  It doesn’t take long for the seduction to begin, and since this guy is a talker she is able to get the info she needs.  They start on a moonlit stroll, and you just know this poor idiot has no clue he isn’t going to come back from this.  After all is said and done, Iris has what she needs and makes her way to Victor Hwang’s boat and dispatches 2 random henchmen; but she has a feeling that it’s about to get a lot harder.  Right on cue to answer her inner thoughts, two blades come within inches of her head as she dodges them. Their owner is Rose, a product of  The Academy in the employ of Victor Hwang.  Both of them show skills honed from years of training and hard fought battles, though in the end Iris is the victor.   Her target awaits in the lower levels of the boat, but it seems she’ll be facing an unexpected enemy…herself.

The team of Wohl and Francisco have done another great job with progressing this story and keeping it from becoming stale. Wohl has chosen to tell the story through Iris, and this has worked well, allowing a deeper perspective into her character.  It’s obvious there is some internal struggle going on, but she is at the same time fiercely devoted to her role and will see it done.  Francisco’s visuals continue to impress, but I also have to give credit to John Starr for coloring and his attention to detail as well. A lot of times a character’s color tone isn’t changed when they are outside at night unless it’s some really dark shadow, and Starr nailed the moonlit walk on the beach scene perfectly.

With the introduction of Rose in this issue I’m sure there will be more appearances from other members of The Academy that will cause problems for Iris, and I’m pretty eager to see what Wohl has in store for us. It’s early in the series, but I’m hoping Executive Assistant: Iris avoids the pitfalls of the other sexy female assassins in the industry.

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