Alias: Volume 1

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Art by: Michael Gaydos

The short review:

Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’ story of a loud screwing, hard-smoking, knuckle tough anti-heroine is a story both full and complex, built from a host of characters fully realized by their deep and dynamic interiors.

The long review:

Mr. Bendis is on to something.

Alias is a series from Marvel’s “MAX” imprint that ran from Nov. 2001 to Jan. 2004, and that continues, to some extent, in the current series The Pulse. The story, roughly, regards the workaday life of Jessica Jones, an 80’s era Avenger that in times past donned white spandex and pink hair to soar the New York skyline as “Jewel”. Jessica left the Avengers after an event that creeps about the shadows of the series, only revealed explicitly in the final and fourth volume Purple. In the wake of this harrowing event Jewel “comes out” as Jessica Jones, puts away the cape and mask and becomes founder and sole employee of Alias Investigations.

"Jewel"


Beautifully, this is about as “capes and lasers” as the series gets. Though the story flirts with the high-powered Avengers and its members, even these larger than life figures are given human faces by Bendis’ crafty characterization and Gaydos’ crooked pencil.

In the first issue of the first volume (4 volumes in all) our dark anti-heroine gets lonely, gets drunk, and throws herself at Luke Cage, fellow C-list superhero and bulletproof tough guy once known as Power Man. The desperation, the tangible solitude rendered in the act and its visual representation is both repulsive and endearing. She isn’t the brightly-colored paper doll found in so much of comic narrative, the kind whose morality is pinned on like one more tight-fitting costume. Jones and the rest of the characters that populate Bendis’ New York are neurotic, they’re ugly, hell, even Jones’ run in with comic mainstay Captain America has him wearing a weary grin that conceals decades of worry lines. Bendis’ puts us right in the center of Jones’ lively network of insecurities and rough memories. And the payoff for the reader is that watching Jones do good in spite of her shit-colored sunglasses describes for us a character with a dynamic trajectory, something that goes miles towards convincing us to give a damn about Jessica and her blemishes.

"No shit, is that you?"

Michael Gaydos’ rendition of New York and its muttering denizens is smudged and minimalist; the colors are washed out and the lines are hard, providing the foundation for Alias’ visual grime. Frame repetition is common, minor changes are made to a frame and reused again and again alongside one another. It achieves an effect, anchoring the reader in the voice of the character while slipping exposition by beneath our noses. The technique is common to Bendis’ work, and for a story driven comic this strategy encourages the reader to follow plot, not simply float through flashy eye-candy.

Alias contains mature themes, earning its place in the adult-oriented “MAX” imprint. But like all great stories, Alias transcends mere gratuity into something far more gratifying.

If only the world was cool enough to make a television show about this Alias instead.

Eric

Like what you see? Drop us an email at: [Nick] bungalowjones@hotmail.com, [Drew] gronix@excite.com, [ESkalac] eskalac@gmail.com or [Kate] katedickson@occultmail.com