Opinion

Alias

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Gaydos
Published by Marvel/MAX

Jessica Jones used to be a superhero. She was a member of The Avengers for a brief time, and fought the good fight in her costumed identity as, er, which one was she again? Anyway, now she's retired from that business and has her own detective agency, but her circle of contacts still includes many of the super-powered folk she used to hang out with when she was, er, you know, thingy, in the costume? Anyway, this is her story.

Brian Michael Bendis strikes again. The man who has made Ultimate Spider-Man the definitive story of the character, whose Powers series has made Image Comics cool again, and who has just uncovered Daredevil's secret identity, turns out, in Alias, one of the best comicbook depictions of the detective genre ever. It's also, by the way, nothing to do with the TV series of the same name which coincidentally started last Autumn.

Unexpectedly, the use of the superhero world in this book is a strength, and creates a palpable sense of Jessica having lost something, or possibly run away from it. The fact that Bendis has set the series firmly in the Marvel Universe (or *a* Marvel Universe), populated with familiar characters seen from unfamiliar perspectives, creates a great sense of being wrong-footed for the reader. At the start of the series, Jessica was depicted as a depressive drinker, getting herself into a gruesomely nasty sexual encounter with an otherwise heroic figure almost as a conscious effort to reinforce her own lack of self-worth. The series since has shown a steady and believable climb back from that particular depth, to the point where in the most recent single-issue story, she's confident enough to pull off a minor scam and get the Daily Bugle newspaper to pay for her to support various charitable operations. This single-issue, by the way, means that either it or the next issue start of a new story are great stepping-on points for new readers.

Bendis has established an entirely-deserved reputation as the best writer of dialogue currently working in American comics, and Alias is possibly the finest example of his art. His dialogue is not so much read as heard.

On the artwork, Gaydos is a real find as Bendis' collaborator on this series. His stark, angular, images create an unsettling effect which is perfectly-suited to the off-centre sensibilities of the series. His is art that designed to be dark, and the colouring of Matt Hollingsworth is completely in tune with that principle. This is a colourist who isn't afraid of using black. Altogether, this is one of the most well-matched creative teams Marvel have assembled in quite a while. (Milligan and Allred on X-Force would be another.)

Marvel's 'adult' imprint, MAX, has enjoyed mixed reactions since it launched late last year, and of the early releases, Alias was the only one which interested me enough to pick it up, but with the continued strength of Alias and the recent addition of Howard The Duck and Black Widow mini-series, I'm going to allow myself to hope that they'll have some better material coming along.

Alias, though, could carry the line by itself.