Comic Info
Comic Name: Alias
Publisher: Marvel Comics/MAX
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Gaydos/Mark Bagley/Rooney Ramos/David Mack
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2003
Alias #13
Reprints Alias #11-15 (September 2002-December 2002). Rebecca Cross is missing, and Jessica has been called in by her family to investigate. Rebecca’s mother and aunt feel like Rebecca has met foul play and that her father is a suspect. When Jessica uncovers that Rebecca is rumored to be a mutant, Jessica wonders if a hate crime could be involved. Jessica also continues to suffer from men trouble as she meets a local sheriff, faces a date set-up by Ms. Marvel with Scott “Ant-Man” Lang, and the return of Luke Cage.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Alias Volume 2: Come Home is a Marvel Comics superhero collection. It follows the first volume of Alias and continues the story of Jessica Jones. Not included Alias—Volume 2: Come Home is Alias #10 (August 2012) which is a stand-alone and included in Alias—Volume 3: The Underneath. This collection and the first collection were also collected as the Alias: Ultimate Collection Volume 1 and available in the Alias Omnibus.
I continue to love Jessica Jones. I am often a Bendis criticizer because I didn’t like what he did to the Avengers, the Marvel Universe, and especially this character following the events of her series. Despite that, I have enjoyed a lot of Bendis work including Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers, and this series which begins here to cross over with Bendis’ other series at the time which was Daredevil.
Alias #15
The first part of the story is a basic detective story. There are no superheroes, and Jessica doesn’t even really use the superpowers she possesses. It pretty much involves a straight forward disappearance, but the Marvel spin on it is that the girl is claiming to be a mutant. Bendis paints this scenario as a stand in for homosexuality in a small town (which the character actually is…and in general an outsider). This story is a majority of the collection and shows a superhero comic can be a bit more than capes and powers.
The very last part of this collection is mostly about Jessica’s man troubles. In the first issue of the series (collected in Alias 1), Jessica has a rather graphic night with Luke Cage. Here, Cage is back and defending himself. Also Jessica meets “the nice guy” in Scott Lang. It is almost a romantic comedy set-up…with lots of swearing since you’ve got the deeper than he’s given Luke Cage that shouldn’t be on the plate for Jessica and the Scott Lang character who’s just willing to bend over backwards to work with Jessica through her problems (guess who of course wins in typical romantic literature). Also, Jessica bangs a local sheriff while searching for Rebecca, so Jessica once again proves she’s all screwed up (just like we like her).
Alias was a great series with a great character. I didn’t always love Michael Gaydos’ dark art and found it nice when there would be little interludes like Mark Bagley and Rooney Ramos’ Jewel flashback in Alias #12 (September 2012) or the dominant David Mack art throughout the first story. This story also connects in to Bendis’ monumental Daredevil run by having Jessica take up as one of Matt Murdock’s bodyguards once he’s “outed” by tabloids for being a superhero. Alias—Volume 2: Come Home is followed by Alias—Volume 3: The Underneath.
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