Alias #2 (December, 2001)
by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos



Summary: Jessica agonizes over what to do about the tape of Captain America's identity, becoming increasingly paranoid about why she was hired for this job. She then learns the woman she had been hired to find, the one she saw with Cap, was killed. She ends up being arrested for questioning in connection to the murder.

Thoughts: Art, mood, noir feel... still top notch. Strong narration, dialogue, characterization. As I said about the last issue, I like that Bendis isn't afraid of words. I really like the idea that comics can use both words and pictures to tell the story. Of late, there seems to be emphasis on them being a more cinematic medium.



Her paranoia is great. Seeing Luke Cage with another woman is great. Her being almost-but-not-quite in the superhero world is great. I am surprised Avengers Mansion didn't recognize her. You'd think recognizing one-time members would be something it's programmed to do.

We still have no idea what her powers are, what her superhero name was, or why she quit being a superhero.


Comparisons to television show: In the comic, we learn Jessica has a living mother and sister. In the show, her entire family was killed when she was a child. And she had no sister, only a brother. In the show, she does have an adoptive sister, Patsy Walker. It is not clear from this issue she is not referring to an adoptive sister.

Grade: B

The only bug up my butt about this comic was the art...was that the best they can do?

I got 1-20 in a 'right place, right time' deal, about 50c each...

But I got a great rush opening up the book for the first time and seeing F-words all over the page.

Alias #5 (March, 2002)
by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos



Summary: Jessica fights and defeats Man Mountain Marko, getting him to admit who he works for. The trail leads to a mobster named Zoumas. He explains the whole evil plan to her, that they just wanted her to make the tape public, either for money or to stay out of prison. It all traces back to political corruption, and donations from the mob to the current president, which were not appropriately paid back in favors. Clay Quartermain had bugged Jessica, heard the whole conversation, and sicced SHIELD on the gangsters. Steven Keaton drops out of the race, citing family reasons.

Captain America visits Jessica at the end to thank her for her discretion in the matter.

Thoughts: Storywise, it all wrapped up a bit too easy. As I said, I like when detective work is straightforward. But when a gangster just explains his whole evil plan without checking that the person he's talking to is bugged... that's just silly.

This issue features the first real fight scene of the series. The narration over it explains that she doesn't really like fighting. But she's good enough at it to defeat Marko. Then we get two more extended conversation sequences, with Zoumas and then with Captain America.



The picture of her with the Avengers in the first issue gave the impression she used to be an Avenger. That was false. Captain America only vaguely remembers her and we learn she'd only visited the mansion a couple of times. (Maybe this retcon can fit into continuity... but I doubt it.)

When Captain America says "I honestly can't think of three who would have done this for me", that seems absurd. He seems to be talking about not selling the tape. Even if he means investigating who was behind the tape, that still seems like something that superheroes do for each other all the time. He doesn't think most of the Avengers would have done the same?

Beyond that, the conversation is a good one. About why Jessica isn't a superhero anymore. Apparently, not many people quit. She explains she just doesn't have that "thing", that thing that inspires that people like Captain America have. The final moment is a phone call to Carol, suggesting a healing friendship.

Overall the biggest mixed bag of an issue. The art remains strong. Gaydos shows he can choreograph an action sequence as well as a conversation. And most artists can't do the conversation like he can. Some good character work, both during the action sequence and at the end. But the I felt plot-wise it was a weak ending to a strong plot. And Captain America's voice just wasn't right. That line in particular was off, but the whole thing was off.

All that said, this issue wraps up the first story-arc of a great series. Smart idea, cleverly executed, a strong character, and a great new addition to the Marvel Universe, one of the few successful additions in the last 50 years. Successful enough to have an adaptation to your name while not being an old-school creation puts Jessica Jones in the same league as Wolverine, Punisher, and Elektra. (And Rocket Racoon, and Baymax... perhaps it's not the exclusive club it used to be.)

None of the issues of the series yet have a title, and this first arc seems to have no title either. It's just the first arc.

Comparisons with TV show: The TV show wasn't willing to spend the money to get Chris Evans to appear. So no cameos of Captain America like the comic gets. The show does take a moment from this comic. When Jessica confronts the mobsters, they point a gun at her and she claims to be bulletproof. A bluff. She tries the same bluff in the show, but in the show her bluff gets called.

Grade: C+

While I'm sure that is true, it marks the major difference between the show and the comic. The comic really depends on the Marvel Universe existing, much in the same way that Marvels does. Or perhaps the She-Hulk series where she practices superhero law. She's the ex-superhero PI of the MU in the comic. In the show, she's a super-powered PI.

Alias #6 (April, 2002)
by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos



Summary: Jessica sits down with Carol Danvers for lunch and some girl talk. She later works on her case, pretending to be a gay man on the internet to out a client's gay husband. While she's in the restroom, a random person enters her office to answer her phone for her. It's a kid who claims to be a fan. At the end, a tear-eyed client enters, asking Jessica to help find her husband, Rick Jones.

Thoughts: Bendis continues to enjoy the liberties the Max line offers. This may be the first Marvel comic to ever include the phrase "throbbing cock". And it gets it in there twice.

I'm going to have to keep harping on this point, because I find it so unique within Marvel comics, and even within comics generally. Bendis is able to fill an entire issue with just a couple conversations. The first half of the issue can be summarized as "Jessica and Carol have lunch". But the dialogue is engaging, and Gaydos keeps finding interesting ways to convey the complete lack of anything happening. Given literally nothing to work with by the script, it's all on Gaydos to fill those first 10 pages with art that conveys two women having lunch, while keeping the reader engaged. It's impressive.

Ditto for the 5-page sequence of Jessica typing on her computer.



Now let's talk about the dialogue. I was a big Bendis fan. I'm not now. Goldfish and Jinx remain among my favorite comics, because I think the dialogue is just excellent. I think he captures the way these people would talk well. When he took the voice of a Goldfish character and started giving to superheroes, I quickly looked at him askance. That's how Goldfish talks. Not how Hawkeye talks. And I think this gets to why I thought Captain America's dialogue sounded off in the previous issue.

Now Captain America has had many voices over the years, many takes. Gruenwald's style and Brubaker's are night and day, in some ways. But in others, they both work. They both fall within the general spirit of this iconic character. From Simon to Lee to Englehart to Kirby to Stern to Demateiss to Gruenwald to Waid to Brubaker... there is enough of a trend, enough of a sense of a single character, that you can point to some core defining elements within what he sounds like. Just enough to know when he sounds wrong.

Jessica Jones is a new character. So Bendis gets to define her voice. (Perhaps it's best she's a new character, as opposed to being a Jessica Drew comic, as I suggested in a previous review)

But Carol is an established character.

Or is she?

We got to know her as a supporting character in Captain Marvel, under frequently rotating scribes. She went from supporting character to superhero in her own right, and was given her own series. But Conway defines basically a new voice and role for her. It was such a left turn from her appearances is Captain Marvel, it's almost hard to call her the same character. Conway's take was refined by Claremont. But when she showed up in the pages of Avengers, she seemed a different character again. In fact, so egregiously so, that Claremont's single issue of Avengers, he wrote what is perhaps her character's defining moment, where she tells off the Avengers, as proxies for Jim Shooter, for their treatment of her. In the pages of X-Men, Claremont tried to continue the arc he had set her on, finding a new role for her amidst the Starjammers as Binary. Busiek reinvented her once more in the pages of Avengers. Busiek obviously knows his history and tried his best to create a character true to all the previous versions, and that would flow as organically as possible. But really, this may as well have been a whole new character again. Bereft of her Binary powers, back in a variant of her Ms. Marvel costume, going by the name Warbird, struggling with alcoholism. This is where we are at the time of this issue, in the waning days of Busiek's epic run on Avengers.

So I have trouble telling Bendis he has Carol's voice wrong. He's doing no worse than Arnold Drake on that score. The Carol in this issue is as in line with Carol as anything else. I haven't followed the character recently, but she actually seems to be at the height of her popularity after some 40 years as a B-lister. Going by Captain Marvel these days, and soon to star in the Captain Marvel film, chosen against my vote over Mar-Vell, Monica, and Genis.

Grade: B-

Embarrassing layman question: the Jennifer Garner TV series has nothing to do with this, right?