Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Michael Gaydos, David Mack, Mark Bagley, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rodney Ramos, Art Thibert, Dean White, Al Vey & Rick Mays
Bendis’ work on ALIAS is an achievement in character psychology, adult-oriented fiction, and exploring serious issues...
Ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(WARNING: The following review contains both massive spoilers for the plot of ALIAS, and discussions about mature subject matter that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised!)
One of the most least understood and divisive genres that I’ve come across in any medium is “mature,” or adult-oriented fiction. This is primarily due to the fact that stories specifically created to appeal to an adult audience tend to fall into one of two categories. The first category is what I like to call “pseudo-mature” stories, as these are the ones that shove in as much violence and sexual content as possible for the sole purpose of shocking the audience, whereas the other category is the stories that utilize said dark and mature themes in order to serve a legitimate purpose, whether it be to explore the mindset of a character, provide commentary on society, or elaborate on controversial and serious issues. Unfortunately, “pseudo-mature” stories are the type of adult-oriented fiction that appear the most frequently, which has I feel has severely damaged the image of adult-oriented fiction in the eyes of the general public. What a lot of creators fail to understand is that filling stories with gratuitous amounts of sex and violence for no purpose only serves to make these “adult” stories more childish. Comics are no stranger to this to, as several writers have attempted to make their stories darker by increasing the amount of violent and sexual content in their stories. At best, this makes their books come across a juvenile and pandering such as the majority of bad 90s and Rob Liefeld comics. At worst however, not understanding dark subject matter or sensitive issues can end up becoming heavily offensive to readers, such as AVENGERS #200, which I covered in my last review. What’s truly sad about this is because of the prevalence of “pseudo-mature” stories, audiences are often biased towards adult-oriented fiction in general. If handled correctly, the utilization dark and serious issues in fictional stories has the capability to highlight sensitive subjects in a manner that is both respectful and dignified. Such is the case with the comic series ALIAS, which greatly excels in using its main character to discuss serious issues such as depression, PTSD, and even rape in a mature and tasteful manner.
For those who are unaware, ALIAS was a 28-issue comic series that served as the introduction of the character Jessica Jones, a former superhero who operated as a private eye in the Marvel Universe. The series was the first book to be published under Marvel’s MAX imprint, a line of comics that was designed to serve as their equivalent to R-rated movies. While controversial, the MAX imprint was important as it not only allowed the creation of comics that appealed to an adult audience, but also promoted a greater prevalence of creator-owned content. ALIAS was one such example, as Jessica Jones was an original character created by Brian Michael Bendis, who I feel the majority of the comic’s success can be attributed to. As I’ve mentioned before, Brian Michael Bendis is not only the long-time writer of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, but he’s also quite possibly my all-time favorite comic book author (followed closely by Jeph Loeb, Grant Morrison, and most recently J.M. DeMatteis). The primary reason I hold Bendis in such high regard is because I feel that he, more than any other writer I’ve encountered, has the ability to develop his characters in a manner that makes them as close to resembling real people as possible. This was especially evident in his work on ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, as Bendis perfectly understood how real teenagers acted and behaved, which he portrayed through Peter Parker and his classmates. Bendis' intricate knowledge and understanding of human behavior directly contributes to ALIAS mature discussion of sensitive issues in my eyes, as by modeling his character close to reality allows the him to portray the comics themes as close to reality as well. I’ll admit that before reading ALIAS I had very little knowledge of the character Jessica Jones, but once I heard that Bendis created her, and that his series was being adapted into the JESSICA JONES Netflix series, I decided to take a look into ALIAS. Not only is Jessica Jones one of the most well-grounded and psychologically complex female comic book characters I've ever come across, but the comic’s ability to explore dark and sensitive subject matter in a tasteful manner conveys the potential of adult-oriented fiction.
The first issue of the series opens in the offices of Alias Investigations, where Jessica Jones is dealing with a dissatisfied client who hired her to discover whether or not his wife was actually a mutant. Although the client angrily lashes out at Jessica and attempts to strangle her, she quickly throws him out of window of her office door. Later when she reports the situation to the police, it is discovered that Jessica was once a costumed superhero known as Jewel, but for unknown reasons had retired from crime fighting years ago. Now a private investigator, Jessica is trying to make a living for herself by discretely gathering information and spying for clients, often those connected to the superhero community. But investigative life has not made things easy for Jessica, as she is also suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She attempts to drown her sorrows through various methods, including chain-smoking, alcoholism, as well as extreme sexual activities with other superheroes such as Luke Cage. Her personal struggles are also present in her everyday behavior, as she is shown to be rude, foul-mouthed, and introverted while interacting with friends, strangers, and even romantic partners. As the series progress, Jessica is forced to use her skills as both a private investigator and former superhero in order to solve various cases, including a government conspiracy theory against both Captain America and the White House, tracking down a missing Rick Jones and later a young girl suspected of being a mutant in a conservative and racist small town, as well as discovering a connection between the new Spider-Woman and a gang dealing and getting people hooked on the Mutant Growth Hormone drug. Throughout these cases, the reader gradually learns more about Jessica Jones history, including the origin of her powers, her reasons for retiring from crime fighting, as well as the source of her psychological turmoil when it resurfaces in the present day.
Before I address the highlights of ALIAS, I feel that I should provide my one major criticism of this comic. While the majority of the series avoids being gratuitous with its explicit content, the one area in which it’s unnecessarily exploited in is its strong language. Throughout the series, Jessica Jones is portrayed to be extremely foul-mouthed, often using words like “sh**” and “f***” in her regular vocabulary. Now to be fair, having strong language isn’t necessarily a problem in and of itself, as it does work to a degree when considering both Jessica’s personality and events of her past. My main issue with the language however is that it feels needlessly forced at times. For instance, the very first issue has the f-word as the first piece of dialogue in the series, and I think it would be difficult to find an issue ALIAS that does not say the f-word at least two or three times. Because of how much words like f*** are used in the series, it feels like sometimes Bendis is using the f-word just because he knows he can get away with it in a comic aimed specifically at adults. While the overuse of strong language can be somewhat forgiven as this was the very first comic published under Marvel’s MAX imprint, it does take some credibility away from what is otherwise a well-written and mature story. I’m not the only one who thinks this, as Bendis himself has openly stated that he probably used the f-word too much while writing ALIAS, which was why the comic’s sequel series THE PULSE was ultimately published outside the MAX line. Aside the occasional overuse of profanity, however ALIAS remains one of the most well-written adult-oriented stories I’ve ever come across.
The success is of ALIAS can be primarily attributed to the series’ main character Jessica Jones, whose psychological dilemmas and complex characterization directly correlate with the comic's realistic portrayal of dark and sensitive issues. Although Bendis does not reveal Jessica’s backstory until later on in the series, he provides enough information for readers to understand and care this character. We quickly learn that Jessica is a retired super heroine now working as a detective, and that she's very pessimistic woman who is rude towards others. Her attitude is made evident from the first scene in Issue #1, where Jessica’s is shown to be somewhat uncaring about her client's problems, having both a disinterested facial expression, and openly telling him not to “come in here and sh** on my desk.” While this rude behavior could have easily made Jessica unlikable, she still shown to be a good person with moral standards, as during many of her investigative cases, she is willing to forget about the job assigned to her if it means endangering or ruining the lives of others. This is conveyed through her refusing to leak out Captain America’s secret identity after accidentally catching him on tape, as well as denouncing a small town after learning that the missing child they hired her to find runaway because of the community's conservative and blind racism. Essentially, Jessica is portrayed as a character who while having unlikable qualities, readers can still connect and sympathize with, which is further enhanced when by her rude behavior being caused by traumatic events from her past. (SPOILER ALERT) As the series progresses, Bendis reveals that during Jessica Jones’ career as the super heroine Jewel, she encountered a villain known as Zebadiah Kilgrave (also known as the Purple Man), a man whose purple skin secrets airborne pheromones that cause individuals around him to do what ever he commands, simply by asking or telling them to do so. Jessica fell prey to Kilgrave’s mind control, as he transformed her into his superpower slave for a period of eight months. Unable to fight against Kilgrave’s influence, Jessica was forced to obey the Purple Man’s every command, whether it be to strip off her clothes in front of him, act as his lackey by fighting off law enforcement or other superheroes, or even watching him sexually assault other young girls while making her wish that he was doing it to her instead of them. Although Jessica was later saved by the Avengers and freed from Kilgrave’s mind control, the experience left her traumatized, causing her to retire from crime fighting, and suffer from depression and post traumatic stress disorder in the present day.
As I stated, ALIAS is a comic that heavily focuses on controversial issues such as rape, depression, and PTSD, all of which is presented through Jessica's past with Kilgrave and how it has impacted her in the present day. Before I go into further analysis, I should address that discussing sensitive issues like rape in a fictional story can be extremely risky, as writers can easily offend people actually affected by these issues if they are not careful. This was my main problem with AVENGERS #200, the subject of my previous review, as that comic had a villain rape Ms. Marvel for no other reason than to serve as a plot device, and the story ended with Ms. Marvel falling in love with her rapist and leaving to live with him in limbo. Not only was it sexist slap in the face towards women, but it actually becomes insulting to rape victims in general due to how poorly rape was portrayed in that story. But to be perfectly clear, it’s not the fact that AVENGERS #200 decided talk about rape that’s the problem, its that did it badly. In my opinion, sensitive issues such as these can be portrayed well in fictional stories if writers use them not for shock value or as plot devices, but rather to explore how they affect people both physically and psychologically.
ALIAS accomplishes this better than any other story I've encountered. Here, the subject of rape is metaphorical rather than literal, as while Jessica states directly in the story that Kilgrave never physically raped her, he still invaded and controlled her mind for over eight months. Bendis ingeniously utilizes Jessica’s past with Kilgrave in order to both convey how rape victims are affected by these events, as well as to progress Jessica’s own character development. When Kilgrave used his power to take control of Jessica’s mind, she was completely unable to resist and was forced do whatever he told her to do. This meant that whenever he told her to strip in front of him, or watch him rape other women in front of her, she was doing it against her own will and was being violated both physically and mentally. So while mind control itself is unrealistic, Bendis uses it as an effective metaphor for rape, which is further made clear through the emotions that Jessica express after the incident. Not only did Jessica feel personally violated, but she begins to lack self-esteem, as she continuously doubts herself, expresses despair over a loss of control, suffers from depression and PTSD, and sometimes even blames herself for what she did while under Kilgrave’s control. This is reflective of how rape affects people in the real world, as repeated studies have shown that the aforementioned behaviors expressed by Jessica throughout the story are frequently felt by victims of rape. By using the emotions felt by Jessica to convey of how rape impacts people both physically and psychologically, ALIAS serves as a definitive example of how to properly portray controversial issues in a fictional (take notes FAMILY GUY!).
Along with exploring the physical and psychological consequences felt by rape victims, Bendis also utilizes these themes to further flesh out Jessica as a character in her own right. The narrative of ALIAS places great emphasis on how Jessica was affected by her encounter with Kilgrave emotionally, as she feels that she has lost control of her life. Not only does she lack confidence in herself, but she suffers heavily from depression, is foul-mouthed, susceptible to anger, hesitant to discuss her past, experiences relapses from PTSD and panics at the mere-mention of Kilgrave's name, and attempts to drown her sorrows through drinking, smoking, and sexual promiscuity. Jessica's depression and attempts to cope with it are particularly evident in one of the comic's more infamous moments, where Jessica allows Luke Cage to engage in intense sexual activity with her, and she expresses through her inner monologues that she wants to feel something different than what she is currently experiencing, whether it be pain, humility, or anger. Essentially, this conveys that Jessica is a woman who has hit rock bottom in her life, and is willing to do anything to cope with her pain. Bends also utilizes Jessica's feelings of despair to progress her character development, as she is eventually forced to overcome the demons of her past when Kilgrave suddenly returns into her life. This is expertly portrayed when the Purple Man attempts to break through Jessica’s insecurities by comparing her life to that of a comic book character, describing her as a third-rate character who believes that the story is all about her, and that he's an invading force in her life by stating that it “may be [her] book, but this is [his] time.” Not only is this analogy a creepy breaking of the fourth wall, but it serves as an effective metaphor of the state of Jessica's life, and her feelings of doubt, ultimately placing her in a position where she is forced to choose between Kilgrave controlling the direction of her character, or to write her future for herself. Overall, Bendis effectively utilizes this meta-commentary in order to allow Jessica to overcome the traumatic events of her past and triumph over Kilgrave. For him to be able to create a character that not only serves as a fairly accurate depiction of how serious issues like rape affect people, but is also a fleshed-out and three-dimensional character in her own right is an accomplishment truly worthy of recognition (as well as the fact that he managed to make a character called the Purple Man scary… let me repeat that… he made THE PURPLE MAN SCARY!!!)
Not since the likes of Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN have I come across a comic aimed at mature readers that utilizes its dark subject matter to such an effective degree. While ALIAS is a well-written series with compelling detective stories, Brian Michael Bendis elevates the book through it’s psychologically complex heroine Jessica Jones, and utilizes the dark events of her past to discuss issues of rape, depression, and PTSD in a tasteful and mature manner. Aside from the masterpiece that is ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, ALIAS is undoubtedly Bendis’ best for Marvel, and I cannot recommend it any more than I already have! Whereas most adult-oriented stories nowadays are often “pseudo-mature,” relying on shock value and being pointlessly offensive, ALIAS manages to stand strong with its rich character psychology and respectful depiction of serious issues, which effectively carried over years later into the equally compelling Netflix series JESSICA JONES! Overall, ALIAS is a series that manages to be more adult than most stories marketed towards adults.
“Maturity is the ability to think, speak, and act your feelings within the bounds of dignity.”
-Samuel Ullman
