I have an extreme love of Powers by Bendis and Oeming, and it was the first comic series I have almost completely finished. We are still missing like, three issues! :(
So, when Michael handed me Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, I had very high expectations. I've read some of his other work, really enjoyed it, and love how he is so raw with his writing. There's a bit too much F-This and GD-That for my overall likes, but it certainly wasn't enough to detract from the beauty of this comic. And it was most assuredly not enough to stop me from reading it, and recommending it, to everyone reading this, or who I talk to for the next week.
It starts off pretty normal.
Jessica Jones is a private detective in New York (where all crime sees to be located), and she has a very upset client on her hands. There's some introspect on her job, some verbal abuse from the client's mouth (Hey, if you don't want answers, don't ask questions.) and a broken window. Whoops. Nothing starts off an excellent story like a call to the authorities, and some smart-mouthed cops.
Another client comes in, throws some money around, cries a bit and it's a mad dash to the internet, every detective's best-friend. Jones locates the missing quarry, goes to collect some video evidence and... Bendis swiftly reminds me that despite the very Noir-ish feel, this is a Marvel comic. Odd. I was envisioning it in black and white, bad music and an airplane flying over head during a reflective monologue. Due to a huge part of Jones' past, one I dare not reveal in case I'm labeled a spoiler, she freaks the freak out.
Bendis paints an unbelievable, powerful and very addictive picture of deception, discovery and mystery, wrapped up with some sex, politics and the American Flag. His characters are likable, or at least, they invoke some emotion. Pssh. Rick Jones. Whatever! I'd like to clock him with that Sidekick book, right over his falsely swollen head. Either will do. The amount of text looks daunting, but your eyes take it in like water to a man lost in the desert, and before you know it, you're staring and going, "That's it?!" I would have bitterly snapped at my husband, but the smart man disappeared soon after I cracked the pages. I get emotional, especially at endings. All the Bendis works I have read have left me gaping at the end, in love and furious it was over. Darn you.
I don't think I've ever read anything with Michael Gaydos illustrating it before, but I'm super glad I have. I love the way he did this comic. It's hard for me to descrbe art sometimes, I can never word it quite the way I'd like, or even pin point WHY I like it. Gaydos's work on Alias is the latter. There's something about it that draws me in and makes me look over each panel carefully. They all flow together so well, and married with Bendis' text, it's so easy to fill in the between sequences.The way the panels are arranged, like in the alley with the cell-phone, is perfect. It goes with the actions, the movements and it adds to the over-all effect of what's happening in each panel. Plus, they just look freaking awesome. I like how the use of color isn't excessive, or too complex, and the shadowing looks great! I'm a little thrown by Jones' face sometimes, and even Power Man's back, but I guess that's 'cause I'm not into men that have muscles bigger than their heads. Eh. I suppose he wouldn't be Power Man otherwise.
"So, I said to him, I said, Well, if that's true, shouldn't you shoot the webs out of your ass?"
A line that paraphrases conversations Michael and I have had a thousand times over. There are little lines like this that bring it all together for me. Simplistic, human and very every day mundane. One of my favorite things about Bendis is his ability to sensationalize, and at the same time, drive home the point that even super heroes are every day people sometimes. They talk, and gossip, and curse, and get mad. That's part of what this book is all about for me. I know the story line behind it is much bigger and way more complex, but Jones is as average a woman as her name most of the time, despite her past, and it shows that no one is perfect, especially not those living in the very public eye.
The only thing that could have made this any better was a surprise appearance by Batman. I'm just saying. Keep it in mind.
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