Executive Assistant Assasins #7 review

It looks like I'm taking my first step into reviewing an Aspen comics book. Let's see what we have here... oh! It's Executive Assistant Assassins 

This is issue 7 and it's being reviewed by Jeremias de Leon

Story

There are female assassins who are banding together to try and take out a particular enemy they all have a grudge against. During the issue they try to start to work together instead of being lone wolves as they learn that isn't the best way to handle things right now.

This issue has some exposition on who and what exactly the assassins are after but the book is really focused on why. Their motivations are explored more than anything else and so is their enemy's. Also of note, is how this explorations is being done. Instead of walls of text from inner monolog it's all done from the characters interacting with each other and talking to each other, with dialog that's believable as well and not stilted or wooden.

Art

In short Executive Assistant Assassin's is well... pretty. Very pretty.  Not just the women characters either. There's a tiger and a leopard shown that are drawn really well, and the weapons each girl wields are really well drawn and sleek looking. One could say the guns are just as sexy as the girls. The action, and there's plenty of it, is drawn with dynamism and impact. Which is why there happens to be one panel that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's just one panel near the end of the book but it lacks any motion or conveyance of impact compared to the rest of the really well drawn book.

In short this is still fantastic art, that one panel aside this whole comic really is eye candy and I have a strong urge to continue reading the book to see more art.

The cover and interior art is just gorgeous

Verdict

At first glance it may seem a little bit cheesy with the story being about extremely sexy assassins wearing skimpy and tight outfits. But it's not terrible, and it's not fluff either. Check it out, it definitely won't hurt and you will get more out of it than you thought if you've never read Executive Assistant Assassins (or EA: Iris) before. If you have been reading before then I say don't stop now it's definitely not fallen off and the story is only heating up from here.

Sexy, tough, smart the women in Executive Assistant Assassins are the total package I give this an 8.5 out of 10.

Does Sony's All Stars compete with Smash Bros.?!

Developer(s) SuperBot Entertainment, SCE Santa Monica Studio, Bluepoint Games (PS Vita)

Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s) Omar Kendall
Producer(s) Chan Park
Designer(s) Seth Killian
Platform(s) PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Release date(s) NA November 20, 2012

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale brings together the biggest names in Playstation’s history to duke it out for supremacy. The game is Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s popular Super Smash Bros. series which features iconic Nintendo characters. Characters from Sony games such as God of War, PaRappa the Rapper, and Heavenly Sword and third-party games like BioShock and Killzone are brought together by the game’s antagonist Polygon Man, who was Sony’s former mascot before he was dropped just shy of the release of the first Playstation. Like most other fighting games, All-Stars features an arcade mode which follows the story of each character up until the final boss, Polygon Man. Multiplayer allows up to four players to compete in timed battles and Versus Mode lets you take on your friends in a free-for-all or cooperate in Team Battles.

Along with the host of varying playable characters, All-Stars also comes with a range of items and levels influenced by various PlayStation franchises. The game features fourteen different arenas for battle, with elements in each one that can damage characters and cause them to lose Ability Points. Each stage is based on a combination of two games, such as "Sandover Village" (based on Jak and Daxter and Hot Shots Golf), "Dreamscape" (based on LittleBigPlanet and Buzz!), "Stowaways" (based on Uncharted and BioShock Infinite) and "Hades" (based on God of War and Patapon).  In addition, there are several item pick-ups that can be utilized by players, such as the Rocket Launcher from Killzone, the Hedgehog Grenade from Resistance, the Divinity Spear from God of War and the Razor Claws from Ratchet & Clank. These items can be used to give your character a power boost or bring the hurt to an opponent.

PRO: All-Stars gives us a nice trip down memory lane by reviving past characters such as PaRappa and Toro. Each character’s stage is just as vibrant as you remember. It is really fun to watch a big, angry God of the Underworld stomp around in the bright, cheery background with characters from Patapon. Graphically, the game is amazing. The characters work well together despite their various time periods in gaming. As a fighter, All-Stars is well-balanced with immediate response controls. If you’ve been playing the various Street Fighter IV games, the control scheme will seem alien at first, but not hard to adjust to.

CON: As tight and precise as the controls are, there are times when there may be a hiccup. Dodging pass your opponent does result in a momentary pause that will leave you open to attack. It is not enough to annoy but it is enough for you to get clobbered. There are a couple throw-in characters just purely for nostalgia. Sony Japan's mascot Toro is one of those characters. He is difficult to use and most of this karate cat’s attacks do not land cleanly (think Phoenix Wright from Marvel vs. Capcom 3…same deal).

OVERALL: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is a unique fighter that gives us Sony fans who want to play a Smash Bros. without running out and buying a Wii as well as provide us with a trip down memory lane. It is a joy to see the characters such as Parappa and Toro that have given Sony a solid footing in console gaming. Many fans still want to see the company’s original face Crash Bandicoot grace his presence in this game. But if we know Sony well enough, there will be DLC characters coming sometime in the future. I’m looking forward to see Lara Croft and Nathan Drake finally throw down. Wishful thinking…

Until next time, see you on the next level!

Broken Infinite TV: WHAT THE Friday!

 Welcome to the first edition of WTFriday! Here, we just go all out and give you a collection of movies, series and more to entertain you. Take a look as we got several shows (some webshows), plus a bunch of movies, clips and more. We start with a bang and end with an even bigger bang. It's time for WTFriday!


















Featuring:
Versus, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon Abridged Movie, Divergence, Mortal Kombat Legacy & much more.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure review part 1

Hey guys I'm back with a review. This time I'm looking at the first storyline for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, called Phantom Blood. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series that's been running for 25 years. It has a fighting game by Capcom that's been re-released recently on Playstation Network and Xbox Live and two OVA's based off it's third arc and one movie based on the first arc. In celebration for it's anniversary this year a video game for Playstation 3 will be released called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle that will feature characters from pretty much every arc and a t.v anime will be released this October that looks like it will animate every storyline.

Phantom Blood is the first arc in the long running Jojo's manga and is pretty much the origin of the events that happen later. Since each arc stars a different Jojo each arc is pretty much it's own self contained story though they always have some sort of connection to the other Jojo arcs. Another thing, as you probably noticed in each Jojo's storyline every main characters name is Jojo. Usually by combining part of their first name and part of their last name. In the first character's case he is called Jojo because his name is Jonathan Joestar.

So how does the first storyline in Jojo's hold up? Let's find out.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Phantom Blood
by Hirohiko Araki

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story

The story of the first Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is set during 19th century England and shows how a man named Dario Brando saved a man named George Joestar and his child from death, or so George though. When Dario is on his deathbed he tells his son Dio to go to George to raise him as George said he owed him for saving his life. Dio does go to George and meets his son Jonathan Joestar, to which he is immediately rude to and over the course of the next few weeks in an attempt to get Jonathan so angry that he'll go insane, and with him insane Dio can inherit George's wealth. Jonathan however through all the things Dio does, and Dio does some pretty cruel things, keeps his sanity and composure.

Jonathan then finally stands up to Dio and shows that he cannot be pushed around anymore and Dio doesn't pick on him for a few years. Then one day the real story starts as the "bizarre" part of Jojo's story kicks in and Dio becomes a vampire and the undead come into the picture. A man named Baron Zepelli shows up out of nowhere and teaches Jojo the "ripple" technique which is a way of basically using breathing to manifest spiritual energy, as a way to destroy the undead. Then there's some really interesting battles that happen. Even though there are big, muscular men and lots of fighting. The fights are not like a normal shonen manga. Since Jojo and his friends are basically normal humans, humans trained to use their spiritual energy, but still pretty much normal humans, their fights against these super humanly strong vampires are won mainly through wits and not strength.

The story is basically about Jonathan wanting to bring Dio to justice and having to train really hard with a man named Baron Zepelli to fight against Dio and the undead he was creating.

Characters

The characters are what makes this story go from "ok" to "good". Jonathan Joestar is a very strong willed young man, and in a dark story it's cool to see. Baron Zepelli is one unique character and as Jojo's teacher he works very well, having his own dark, tragic past. Robert E.O Speedwagon who ends up becoming a family friend of the Joestar family is basically a "commentator" during the battles but unlike other shonen fighting "commentator" characters he actually does help or try to help and when people tell him to basically shut and sit on the sidelines he'll argue that there's really no reason he shouldn't learn to fight too. Which is kind of nice to see, though still a bit annoying because he doesn't really learn to fight. Dio in this first arc though still awesome like he is in his more famous version as the wielder of "The World" stand is a bit of a one dimensional evil character. Even though you see he had a rough childhood it really doesn't explain why he is as evil as he is. It would explain being bad to a certain extent but not how he is as downright evil as he is, especially when he becomes a vampire.

Art

Hirohiko Araki has a very cool unique style in his manga, except just not at this point in time in the first Jojo's story. The art looks just like Buronson's from Fist Of The North Star, which at this time does make sense though, since it was an inspiration for making Jojo's. Still that isn't to say it's a complete copy of Buronson's style. The clothing designs for the characters especially Jojo's is definitely unique to Araki. Plus considering how the characters fight with using the ripple the art style does lend itself well to the battles. In a nutshell it's not where Araki will be in later story arcs. but it's still well done.

Verdict

Phantom Blood on it's own probably isn't the strongest Jojo's story but it's still really well done. There was even a point in the manga that I got a bit emotional over, so it's definitely not boring. The clever fights that will be a staple of the series are already really well done and the unique and quirky characters, though looking like Fist Of The North Star characters, are quite charming and do leave an impression on you.

Read it, even though the later series really show Araki becoming his own artist, the origins of the Joestar family and their fate with Dio shouldn't be missed.

I give the first part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Phantom Blood an 8 out of 10.

If you want to follow my thoughts on all things anime, manga, and more follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/ikariradio 

I'm also a graphic designer and artist and I take commissions on my deviantart here http://fighterxaos.deviantart.com

Also listen to my general geek podcast the Ikaricast with my co-hosts, two of which are also on the Broken Infinite