Straight Forward Reviews: Bubblgegun issue 3

Bubblegun is back for more cyberpunk action. What's one of Aspen's newer heroines up to now?

Writer - Mark Roslan
Artist - Mike Bowden
Publisher - Aspen 

Review by Jeremias de León

Story

This issue sees Molli and what's left of her team try desperately to get back her sister from the weird techno coma she's in. We see more backstory this time for the antagonists and some nice character development for Molli.

In short the story and dialog in this issue is all about leading up to the bigger stakes and action we'll see soon and it does a fairly good job.

There's some good storytelling here but all the different technologies in this sci-fi world could use some explaining. There were different variations of robot and cyborg being thrown around at different specific entities and for what the antagonists are after it seems that the differences between them are important but since the reader doesn't know it might as well be gibberish for now.

Art

A very varied color palette takes the spotlight in this issue, along with good emotive close ups of the character's faces. As this issue is pretty tense for the protagonists seeing their emotions does a lot for the storytelling.

Molli's character design is one of my favorite designs in comics this year, as I've probably already said in my reviews of issue 1 and 2. It really stands out here as she's doing a lot in this issue. Her design is one of those character designs that really makes the character look especially cool while in motion. Not unlike Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel, when standing still he may have looked goofy but while in motion he pretty much defined cool. For Molli her two colored hair makes her look very unique and much like an action hero as in some panels where she's moving her hair in the wind looks very much like a flame.

Verdict

This book is a ton of fun, and subjectively, one of my personal favorites. Objectively, this has the potential to be a really well done series. Right now it could use some more fine tuning but it's really worth the read and I have faith it'll only get better from here. I give Bubblegun an 8 out of 10.

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.