I admit, there have been rare times when I've wondered if maybe I overrate Bendis a bit as a writer... maybe he's not one of the best, most consistent writers in comics. And then a week like this comes along, where he has four of the best comics of the week on the stands, and I realize that nope, I was right, he is one of the best writers in comics. Alias #11 is the beginning of a new story arc, another missing persons case like her last one, but set in a small town instead of the city and featuring a teenage girl instead of a flaky super-hero groupie/rock star. The difference is like night and day, even though the basic premise is the same, and watching the slow burn as Jessica investigates the town and starts to get a grasp on the situation makes for a gripping read, such that by the time the patented Alias cliffhanger hits at the end, the reader is already anticipating the next issue.
What I like about Alias, and about Jessica Jones, is how normal and believable everything is. Sure, the cliffhanger ties the story into the Marvel Universe, but the basics of the case are like anything you could see in a good private investigator story. Better, maybe, because instead of femme fatales and creepy characters who exist more to create tension than a feeling of verisimilitude, Bendis populates the story with a divorced couple whose accounts of the story differ quite a bit, nervous but believable school administrators and a friendly but wary cop whose interactions with Jessica are a lot of fun. These read like real people, not characters who are there simply to serve the story, and that is a big part of what makes the interaction so much fun to read.
Bendis also knows how to build a mystery, and this issue really plays out at a nice pace. Starting off with a pretty glaring intro that Jessica is not in uncaring, city of millions New York anymore and moving through a rural town, Bendis sets up and knocks down suspects and possible motives throughout the story. A cry for attention, an inappropriate romantic attraction, maybe some trouble at school? And then he nails us with the ending, which I did not see coming but which should take the story in a whole different direction in the next issue.
Of course, all of this pacing and strong characterization means nothing if the artist can't sell it, and Gaydos and Hollingsworth deliver once again. The work seems photo-referenced, and that sense of reality helps to keep the story grounded even as Bendis's script does. I love that the cop looks like a combination of Luke Wilson and David Duchovny, because it gives me a visual shortcut to get the character's personality. Similar character shortcuts can be found in the sloppy ex-husband (who's watching porn when Jessica comes in), the sweet and house-mom looking mother and aunt of the missing girl and the flustered, apologetic appearance of the school secretary. Gaydos also does some interesting things with panel layouts, including a bold use of white space which in other comics might seem wasteful but here seems appropriate to help draw the eye to the right spots on the page.
Although Bendis has set every case in the Marvel Universe through the inclusion of elements like aliens, super-heroes and mutants, Alias is really a book like Jinx or Goldfish, about a type of person who most of us never meet. It is fictionalized to make it interesting, but real enough in some of the mundane details to feel real, and it centers on one of the most believable protagonists to be found in Marvel Comics. It's also a lot of fun... there aren't many comics that can combine a solid mystery with funny dialogue and the undeniably amusing sight of the protagonist singing along to her car radio.
