After recently being introduced to Aspen Comics via the wonderful Broken Pieces by Mark Roslan, I endeavored to explore their catalogue and see what other books they offer. Of course, I came across the Executive Assistant series. Executive assistants are secretaries, obviously. However, a comic about a group of secretaries probably wouldn’t be that exciting (no offense secretaries). Fortunately, the kind of executive assistants that feature in Executive Assistant: Assassins #1 are a combination of bodyguards, assassins and secretaries, making action-packed and fast paced stories.
The focus of Executive Assistant: Assassins #1 is Lily, a former EA who has fallen from grace. She’s a legendary failure in the Executive Assistant Academy and is now working as an exotic dancer in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Unfortunately, Lily can’t seem to turn off her deadly training and, after over-reacting in a club, finds herself in trouble with some shady characters. Their leader, Mazutsu, holds a grudge against the EAs and their academy and is developing high-tech weaponry to stop them. Vince Hernandez‘ script pulls no punches and is a great set up for a wider story. Lily has plenty of demons and could be one of the more interesting and complex characters in that world.
The art of Jordan Gunderson and Teodoro Gonzalez is well constructed and fits the action-packed story very well. Unfortunately, some characters aren’t the most detailed, but overall the quality is high throughout. Readers who have read previous Executive Assistant titles will be familiar with the overtly sexual presentation of Lily, something comic fans in general should expect from a book with a female assassin as the lead character.
Lettering is something that is often overlooked, but Josh Reed‘s style and diversity is a real highlight.
Newcomers to the Executive Assistant series will find an easy jumping on point and long-term Aspen fans will find familiarity. It’s a bit predictable but the potential to add depth to the characters and a great cliffhanger make Executive Assistant: Assassins #1 a solid first issue and set up for a new ongoing series.
About Jack Chambers
Jack used to study Astrophysics, now he writes about comics and video games! He's also an aspiring writer of his own comics and novels. When he's not writing, he spends most of his time playing his Playstation 3, watching things on Netflix, listening to podcasts and watching & training in martial arts. He also has an (un)healthy liking for anything that involves Scott Snyder, Quentin Tarantino, Brian Bendis, Joe Rogan, Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, Brian K Vaughan and Scarlett Johansson.
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