And with this issue, Bendis and company seal my desire to purchase The Pulse trade paperback. I've been up and down quite a bit on whether or not I liked this book, but while it definitely doesn't hold a candle to most of Alias, the continuing focus on Jessica Jones and Luke Cage has won me over, especially with the way they are played in this issue. The story of Norman Osborn's fall from grace lacks punch, partly because it was given away over in Marvel Knights Spider-Man several months ago, partly because it's a story we've seen a couple times before and mostly becuase Norman Osborn is dead and they shouldn't ever have brought him back, but the stories surrounding it, centering on the Daily Bugle and on the aforementioned superhero couple, make for pretty interesting reading.
I have to be honest here, I'm pretty tired of the inability of superheroes to have kids. Usually when someone is pregnant, it's a big read flag that they're going to die, miscarry the kid, have the kid kidnapped to some alternate dimension or future where they can be aged, or something else that will eliminate the problems of dealing with kids in superhero continuity. Trouble being that the notion of a superhero with a kid is actually really interesting, and one of the few ideas in superhero comics that hasn't been explored so much and so deeply that there's not a lot of new material left. So a big part of what makes me enjoy The Pulse #5 comes in the way that Bendis deals with Jessica Jones's fear of losing her baby when confronted by a supervillain threat like the Green Goblin.
The best part of this story, though, is the way that the father of that baby reacts. Bendis has taken Luke Cage, a guy who I've always liked on a genuine but maybe a touch kitschy level and made him into a character I can like just because he's damn cool. Forget the '70s badass vibe that I love (and yeah, I sometimes miss the yellow shirt and chains), forget the ill-advised gangsta revamp of Azzarello and Corben, Bendis writes great Luke Cage. His matter-of-fact way of dealing with Osborn perfectly encapsulates both the essential persona of the character and the way any father would like to react in defending his child, and for all that it's a serious matter, the way Cage reacts is also pretty funny and very satisfying.
It's become common for folks to rag on Mark Bagley's artwork, and I'll be first to admit that I don't think he was ideal for this book either. However, when it comes to the action sequences in this issue, I have to give credit where it's due, and say that Bagley gives the action both the sense of speed and violence and the humorous touch that makes them work. I especially liked Cage's scenes and the way he deals with the Green Goblin, but the opening scenes, with a dizzying aerial component, are pretty good too. True, the bulbous, weirdly shaped heads aren't my favorite thing, especially when it comes to Luke Cage, but that stylistic tic aside, Bagley's storytelling shows that he's been doing this for quite a while, and the shorthand that he and Bendis have developed working on Ultimate Spider-Man pays off in the synergy of The Pulse.
The central plot of this arc has really been a Spider-Man story, about the fall from grace of his major foe, and honestly, it's a Spider-Man story I don't particularly care about or even like. Fortunately, the approach is such that this isn't Spider-Man's story. It's the story of Ben Urich, of Jessica Jones, of Luke Cage, even of Jonah Jameson, and how this big superhero story affects them. It's not really an Astro City-esque take, because they're intricately involved rather than standing on the sidelines providing a different point-of-view, but it's different from most superhero books and even from most of what Bendis writes, while still having the recognizable strengths he brings to most of his books.
