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“And do you know what? In my job? That doesn’t even make the top thirty of the weirdest things I’ve seen or heard.”
Jessica Jones was once a costumed superhero who hung up the cape and opened up a private detective agency. When not smoking or drinking herself into an early grave, she helps people — better than she ever did as a superhero, and often her path crosses those who still wear the cape.
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TITLE:
ALIAS
WRITER:
by Brian Michael Bendis
ARTISTS:
by Michael Gaydos (art)
and Bill Sienkiewicz (Sidekick illustrations)
SERIES:
Alias #1
Collects Alias comics #1-9
PUBLISHER:
Marvel Comics/MAX Imprint
CHARACTERS:
Jessica Jones, former superhero turned detective.
Warbird/Carol Danvers, an Avenger and friend to Jessica.
Power Man/Luke Cage, a Hero for Hire and Jessica’s friend.
Daredevil/Matthew Murdock, Blind lawyer and superhero.
Clay Quartermain, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and former boyfriend.
Malcolm Powder, a teenage geek who pesters Jessica.
Captain America/Steve Rogers, superhero, leader of the Avengers.
Man Mountain Marko, very strong hired thug.
Rick Jones, former sidekick of The Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel or a con artist?
MATURITY:
Contains violence, mature situations and language.
GENRE:
Graphic Novel (collected), Hard-Boiled Detective, Mystery, Fantasy, Superhero
DESCRIPTORS:
Murder, Private Detective, Framed for Murder, Betrayal, Paranoia, Conspiracy, Mental Illness, Cult of Personality, Superhero, Self-Destructive Tendencies.
SUMMARY:
Jessica Jones was once a superhero named Jewel and she had super strength, resistance to damage and the power of flight although the ability to land eluded her. She didn’t make it as a superhero and eventually hung up her cape. Now she’s a private investigator doing more good than she was ever able to do as Jewel.
We’re introduced to Jessica and her gritty, dark world. It’s a world where she runs into Luke Cage accidentally and sleeps with him in an effort to feel something. What she’s after she can’t say. It’s a world where she and Carol Danvers have a broken relationship from an earlier betrayal. It’s a world where not everyone is who they say they are.
In the first storyline, Jessica agrees to find out how a woman’s estranged sister is faring and stumbles on to Captain America’s secret identity when she stakes out the apartment. Paranoia shifts into overdrive as the estranged sister is found murdered and Jessica gets framed for the killing.
Then the woman who hired Jessica dies while fleeing from questioning and the clue from the cell phone leads Jess to a man so powerful that he dares to unseat a President with a cooked up scandal and casually threatens to kill Miss Jones anytime he chooses.
In the second storyline, Jane Jones hires Jessica to find her missing husband Rick Jones — a famous Marvel sidekick and rock star. She locates him but he seems to be on the run from the Skrulls or Kree who are out to get him for his role in assisting the Avengers in the Skrull/Kree wars. When she tries to get a high powered hero in on the case, he seems reluctant to get help or return to his wife. But then, is this the real Rick Jones?
APPEAL:
This is a mature label (the MAX imprint) and a lot of four letter words, adult themes and even a scene of sitting on the toilet can be found here. There is a drawn out interrogation scene between Jessica and the arresting detective which is so well written that I’ve read it a dozen times or more.
Bendis takes his time with the pacing of the stories in Alias. He is more interested in the character of Jessica Jones and the people around her, in and out of costume. Skillful use of dialogue propels the stories and often creates tension thicker than the fight scenes.
Jessica was once a superhero and now she is a detective even though she still has her powers. Why did she leave and what sort of person is she are some the questions that Bendis develops in this series. We learn most about Jessica by watching her interact with the people around her.
The story is told in 3rd person limited omniscience from Jessica’s point of view. The few captions that pop up are in Jessica’s voice and serve the place of thought balloons, but Bendis seldom employs captions and never employs thought balloons. He relies on dialogue and the art work to relay the text and the subtext and leave you to figure it out.
These stories take place in the Marvel Universe but on a level that most heroes never operate on.
READALIKES:
Brian Michael Bendis has another graphic novel series which has a similar feel to it. Powers is about two homicide detectives who are assigned the special cases involving super-heroes or super villains. The artwork is by Michael Avon Oeming. The stories are grim and gritty, as is Alias and it deals with mature subjects and nudity although to a lesser degree than Alias. In Powers the universe is all Brian’s so things can and do change in that series, whereas he is somewhat restricted in his stories set in the Marvel Universe.
NOTES:
Brian Michael Bendis grew up in the Greater Cleveland area before moving away.
Artist Michael Gaydos graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
