Jessica Jones - Alias, Volume 1

With the Marvel Netflix iteration of 'Jessica Jones' ending recently, I thought I'd go back to the source and check out the super-powered private investigator's first appearance in print, this collection bringing together the first nine issues of 'Alias'. Jessica comes bursting off the page fully formed in all her dysfunctional glory, throwing a stroppy client through her door's window in the opening pages, swearing and drinking and shagging Luke Cage by the end of the second. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos hit the ground running with an opening five part tale that puts Jessica in the middle of a conspiracy to discredit superheroes, putting her into contact and conflict with the Avengers she briefly worked with when she was the costumed heroine Jewel. Bendis has always excelled at dialogue and with this being part of the Max imprint of Marvel Comics the writer delights in plenty of tart, spiky exchanges, Jess throwing in the F-bomb in the very first panel. However, Bendis is clever enough not to just set out to shock, cloaking his tale in the classic trappings of the noir gumshoe, having the private investigator narrate the story in classic Sam Spade fashion that would be familiar to fans of Krysten Ritter's laconic voiceover in the TV version. There's no Trish Walker here, that place taken by Carol Danvers, better known to MCU fans as Captain Marvel. Along the way, Jessica tangles not just with Carol but the police, who suspect her of murder, and has encounters with Matt Murdock and Steve Rogers, Captain America. By the end of that first arc, after watching Jess triumph and fail, bicker and drink, you'll feel as if the character has been around for years, not just five instalments. Gaydos adds much to this too, his visuals giving New York a realism and griminess, while his depiction of Jessica steers away from the stereotype of the costumed bombshell that still dominates the look of female characters in comics.

The remaining four issues of this collection tell a loose series of cases which end up coalescing around the same theme. Jessica is hired by both a woman who believes her husband is about to embark on a homosexual affair and the wife of Rick Jones, perennial superhero sidekick who has been an assistant to Captain America, the Hulk and the original Captain Marvel. When Jessica finds Rick he seems to be in hiding, fearful that the Kree or the Skrulls have put a hit out on him after he stopped the conflict between them. Jessica finds that she has common ground with Rick, especially after reading his autobiography 'Sidekick' which describes his feelings of uneasiness at being part of the superhero world, a sentiment Jessica can well identify with. These four issues are typical Bendis, strong on dialogue scenes but very slow in plot momentum. However, the conversations really hit the spot, a lengthy lunch date between Jessica and Carol Danvers full of great one-liners, especially as Carol has heard on 'the grapevine' about Jessica having a one night stand with Luke Cage. "He's a total cape chaser," Carol confides, before telling Jess that Cage has slept with Spider-Woman, Tigra and She-Hulk! The theme of this loose arc is identity and how we define ourselves. For Jessica, a super-powered former hero, she defines herself as different to that, desperate not to be part of that world yet always dragged back into it because of her former associations. The doctor who is about to embark on an affair with a man obviously also has a secret self while Rick Jones turns out to be an imposter and fantasist, the real Rick safe and well in LA. In the final scene, Jess turns up at the doctor's rendezvous, having posed online as a man, and engages him in conversation regarding fantasists. "It's called pseudlogica fantastica," he explains. Why do people believe the fantasist? Jess asks. "The peasants want the kings to come down and play," he replies. "People like to have a little of the fantastic in their life. And they want it so bad that they'll put on hold any rational logic so they can hold on to it. They'll believe any crap you tell them so badly do they not want to be ordinary." Wise words and superior, adult comic book storytelling.
70s Rating: ****