ALIAS

no.6

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Penciller & Inker: Michael Gaydos

      Jessica Jones, former superheroine who decided she simply couldn't cut it in costume, is now a private investigator. As the founder and sole employee of Alias Investigations, she's almost exclusively dealing with the slimy underbelly of humanity. Investigations of husbands and wives for the sake of their partners' divorce cases. Generally unsavory items, but it pays the bills.

     The first arc ended with Jessica chalking up some moral victories, including a verbal pat on the back from Captain America and the reopening of her friendship with Carol (Warbird) Danvers. This issue - though it appears to take until the end of the issue - plunges her into her next case that has more to it than the normal infidelity investigations. I'm hoping Bendis is just jerking us around at the end, though (and judging by Jessica's expression, I'd say that was the case), with a woman showing up claiming to be Rick Jones' wife, and that Rick's related to Jessica. All of that has to wait for issue #7, though.

     This issue has more of the wonderfully natural dialogue Bendis is famous - well, as famous as comics writers tend to get - for. Having Carol bring Luke Cage back up as part of the lunch conversation is probably a little poke at the people who protested his appearances in the first two issues of the series. I suppose it's a little cruel, but the ones I've met who were (somehow) deeply offended by Luke's behavior in those early issues aren't reading this series anyway.

     Michael Gaydos' artwork continues to work well, though he does have some difficulty making female faces distinct. Jewelry, hair color and dialogue are often all that allows us to identify who we happen to be looking at. Noses in particular appear to broaden and narrow from scene to scene. The faces are subtly expressive, though, and that's part of the charm of the storytelling in this series.

     With Howard the Duck being a 6-issue mini, Alias is the only Max series so far that's worked for me. (U.S. War Machine seemed disconnected, and Fury was the sort of abomination those responsible would have been burned at the stake for in more civilized times.)

     Finally, I would like to say that the covers on this series appear to have nothing whatsoever to do with the issue. This issue's is fairly typical of the series so far. I'm sure these Mack covers are all very... artistic, but I'd like to see someone else - perhaps someone who's actually been briefed on the series and the issue - take a crack at them. Yeah, I'm funny that way.  It's not a big issue for me personally, but I can't help but wonder what message these cover images, along with the big "Parental Advisory EXPLICIT Content" block they toss down in the bottom right of each cover, give to those glancing over the comics shop shelves.

     Comments? Drop me a line or post something for all to see on the messageboard.

                                                                                                                                          ---Mike Norton