Panel Vision - Alias

So, Jessica Jones has hit Netflix everywhere and the response has been pretty much overwhelmingly positive.  A lot of critics seem to love it, myself included, and there seems to be enough popular support that I wouldn’t be surprised if a second season got announced over the next couple of weeks.  It’s easy to see why the show has touched such a chord with so many, firstly because it’s just a really well made show.  The writing is excellent, the cinematography solid, the set design and lighting is superb, and the actors are all in top form.  More than that, the show has taken the bold stance of touching on a lot of very controversial and raw subject including, abuse, PTSD, rape, dubious consent, and privilege. 

All of that is relatively in line with the comics that spawned the series, 2001’s groundbreaking comic series by Marvel comics architect Brian Michael Bendis: Alias.  Published through Marvel’s MAX Comics line for adult content Alias pushed the boundaries of modern comics and helped Bendis get his foot in the door to create the Ultimate Universe and eventually take over the reigns of power at Marvel and extend greater relevance to now key characters like Luke Cage and Carol Danvers.  All of which is nice because aside from the book’s importance…it’s really not that great.

Now don’t get bent out of whack from the start: Alias is not a terrible comic it’s just not really a great one.  In case you’ve never heard of the series Alias is about Jessica Jones, a former superhero and Avengers member whose career was cut decidedly short after a traumatic run in with the mind controlling villain Purple Man.  Now damaged and disillusioned Jessica serves as sort of the private investigator to the Marvel universe.  As a core concept that’s a pretty neat idea for a comic, or rather it’s two neat ideas that have been forced together without much consideration.  Yeah this is the book’s first major problem, the odd disconnect between the content of the stories and the character of its heroes.  Jessica is still bristly and short fused like in the show but it’s decidedly downplayed, though part of that is the artwork, which I’ll touch on later.  The point is, she’s still meant to be a closed off and angry hero who’s decidedly dead inside and is only surviving rather than living.  That’s all well and good on its own but when combined with the title of “Private Investigator of the Marvel Universe” things break down.

See, what I mean by P.I. of the Marvel U is that nearly all of her cases are directly linked to the broader superhero community and not in a small way either.  Every case involves some major hero and ropes Jessica more and more into the lives and affairs of Marvel’s A-list.  Her opening case involves investigating a shady senator who Captain America has endorsed for President and the following case involving Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones is all about crazy hero stuff like the Hulk, the Kree-Skrull War, Avengers Mansion and more.  It’s all just very tonally dissonant.  These characters and these stories don’t fit the “broken person” story of Jessica herself nor do they really fit into the broader slot of a noir.  Seriously, any time Captain America or Iron Man stomp into the story it completely breaks the visual cohesion and tonal flow of the comic because it’s suddenly the costumed brightness of the A-listers is thrown right into our faces.  

It’s especially jarring because the idea of following a PI in a comic book universe is actually a really good one and more quirky and out there characters like Howard the Duck or Detective Chimp roll with it fine, it’s just not the right fit for the adventures of Jessica Jones: shattered woman living day-to-day and occasionally running into super soldiers and gamma beasts.  It also gets a little taxing how much Jessica is shoe horned into the past of superheroes.  I could buy that she used to be just another superhero among many but she was a full on Avenger who went to school with Peter Parker and was best friends with Carol Danvers and dated Ant-Man.  She wasn’t a small part of the mythos here, which makes it a much harder pill to swallow that history just completely erased her from memory and that’s why we’ve never heard of her. 

The other major problem with the comic is that it really isn’t written as a comic.  The sheer volume of text featured here is far too much to justify in a comic book, featuring some pages that are just wall-to-wall writing.  It’s not the kind of scripting you want for a visual medium, everything is being told rather than being shown to us.  That’s a problem that only gets compounded by the abysmal artwork that slathers the comic like a thick layer of blubber.  Michael Gaydos art may not be the worst I’ve ever seen but it’s certainly down there.  Everything looks flimsy and off and not in a way that increases the uncomfortable world of the comic but one that makes it hard to make out exactly what’s happening, a fact that isn’t helped by Matt Hollingsworth’s colors.  Hollingsworth actually has a very unique and compelling palet that he works from but it’s absolutely wasted on this artwork.  The biggest problem is Gaydos faces; no one looks natural in this book and there’s barely any emoting from the characters.  Sometimes will get these massive, 8X8 panel grids with maybe 3 facial expressions between all characters involved, it all ends up really robbing the book of the immersion it so desperately needs to sell its personal story.

I will give credit where it’s due that the 3^rd act of the series, issues 22-28, are actually very good.  This is the only time the comic finally drops the whole “investigating the background/private lives of superheroes” and actually focuses on the personal life and struggles of our damaged protagonist.  In fact, issues 22 & 23, a two-part story about Jessica’s secret origin is actually really damn good and probably the most excellent part of the whole story, mainly because Gaydos adopts a much brighter and classical art style.  Though aside from that it’s one of the only stories that feels genuinely real as previous stories were too comic booky to feel grounded and the final arc ‘Purple’ ends up decidedly lurid and trashy.  Speaking of, the final arc is where they actually cover Jessica Jones’ history of rape and abuse at the hands of Purple Man and for a story that was so groundbreaking at the time it’s decidedly okay. 

The whole idea of Jessica being under his power is a lot more lurid than I would’ve liked as there are honestly too many details given about the whole situation.  What’s more Purple Man himself is weirdly undefined, when we see him in the past he’s basically just a shouty little violet ass but in the present he’s constantly breaking the 4^th wall and aware he’s in a comic book, something that has never come up before or after this comic.  The fourth wall breaking is neat but it’s basically wasted, it’s not as if his end goal is to escape the comic or he uses his knowledge of his comic book status to his advantage he just monologues about narrative and panels inbetween his evil schemes. 

I’m really not sure what the deal is with Alias, in that I’m not sure if the comic just never held up in the first place, has aged poorly, or is just looking far worse now that Jessica Jones has come out and shown us how well this story should be told.  Whatever the case it’s not really a comic I recommend.  Jessica Jones would later appear as a quasi-main character in Bendis’ follow-up project The Pulse, which was a much better use of her character as a sort of in-house superhero for the Daily Bugle.  It’s still not a great comic with some decidedly mixed art but the emphasis on the mechanics of every day things within a universe of power armor and magic fits a lot better with the tone thanks to a lighter overall take on Jessica and her life.  I might talk more about it down the line but for now if you’re really interested in seeing Jessica Jones you’re best bet is to watch the Netflix show; it’s the best the character has ever been.  


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