Review by Corwin C. Crowl

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Michael Gaydos, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, Mark Bagley, Rodney Ramos, Al Vey, Rick Mays & Art Thibert
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth with Dean White
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Wes Abbott, Oscar Gongora & Jason Levine and Cory Petit
Covers: David Mack, Steve McNiven (What If?)
Assistant Editors: Nick Lowe, Marc Sumerak & Stephanie Moore
Editors: Stuart Moore, Joe Quesada, C.B. Cebulski, Tom Brevoort & Andy Schmidt
Published by Marvel Comics

Collects Alias 1-28 and What if Jessica Jones had joined the Avengers?

Jessica: Lucas will feel guilty about this. He’s a decent guy and a buddy and he’ll feel bad about this. But that feeling will pass. Because he’ll look back and remember this was the one night that I let him do anything he wanted.

Continuity. It is the one thing that draws comic book readers back month after month. Now if you have read a Marvel MAX book before you know that Marvel tries to distance their regular super hero continuity from the MAX universe. The MAX universe is adult oriented and brandishes a "mature readers only" tag, it has everything you would expect from a "restricted" or rated R film. So it comes as no surprise that Marvel would want to divide it from their other books.

At the tail end of Secret Invasion, Brian Michael Bendis hits us with a flashback story in New Avengers #47 of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones drawn my Michael Gaydos. I was really impressed at the depth and dynamics of Luke and Jessica's relationship. It is something that is hinted at in New Avengers but with a whole team of heroes it often falls to the background. I finally decided to take the plunge and bought the Alias Omnibus by the Bendis and Gaydos. To my surprise Bendis puts Jessica Jones right in the middle of the regular Marvel Universe. (I am guessing when Marvel launched their fast MAX books it was during or after their bankruptcy so they were willing to take more risks.) Anyway, Jessica was retconned into Marvel history to where she attended the same high school and had a crush on Peter Parker. That is Spider-Man for those of you do not know. An accident robbed Jessica of her family and put her in a coma but also granted her enhanced durability, strength and flight. Taking the name Jewel she tries to use her gifts for the benefit of other people. Unfortunately once again Jessica gets herself into a terrible situation and the mental scars cause her to end her super hero career. She picks up an addiction to alcohol and becomes a private investigator founding her own business Alias Investigations.

Some of Jessica's cases bring her all around the Marvel Universe as she meets many of its most colorful characters. Her fling with Luke Cage within the first few pages of the book immediately lets you know that this is a MAX book where anything can be said or done. They have a lot of interesting conversations dealing with life, love and man/woman issues. Issue fifteen has one of their greatest conversations ever. Jessica even has an entertaining love/hate relationship Carol (Ms. Marvel) Danvers but you also get to see the likes of Jessica (Spider-Woman) Drew, J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Urich, Matt (Daredevil) Murdock and Speedball. Jessica even dates Scott (Ant Man 2) Lang for a while. One case has her hunting down Rick Jones who seems confident that the Skrulls have infiltrated the Earth. The last issue of the omnibus is a What if... story which asks, "What if Jessica Jones joined the Avengers?"

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Alias and I love how Bendis has built and continued to build a great continuity around Jessica Jones. Her exploits and relationships within the Marvel Universe are rich for mining great stories and building connections between characters even if they are retconns. Gaydos brings his unique noir-ish style to the book. His heavy use of black and contrasts leaves out a lot of details that your mind somehow fills in automatically. The other artists provide a look at different times in Jessica’s past. Mark Bagley steals the spotlight as the most used guest artist as he details her time as the heroine Jewel. His style works perfectly in making you believe you are reading a comic in contrast to the framing story. However, the adult language and other adult moments will consistently jolt you out of the false reality of the Marvel Universe as Gaydos returns to remind you that you are reading MAX book. I really wish Marvel would have continued to base more of their MAX books in the regular Marvel Universe.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (On Its Way to Greatness)

Bendis also continues Jessica's adventures the less adult series The Pulse.