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ALIAS #5
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics/MAX Comics imprint
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Gaydos
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Stuart Moore
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Bendis has sometimes had trouble with his endings, but that is not the case with Alias, which features some incredible verbal confrontations, a nice wrap-up to the conspiracy plot that has been going on and more than a little character development for our lead character Jessica. Gaydos's art is a perfect fit for this gritty look at the Marvel Universe, and with the first arc completed, it's pretty easy to name Alias as the biggest success of Marvel's MAX imprint so
far.
One of the hallmarks of Bendis's work, at least prior to Ultimate Spider-Man, was his use of a very different sort of staging for action scenes. There's a realistic and harsh violence to the gun and fist fights in Torso and Goldfish, and
it's prevalent here as well. The opening confrontation between Jessica and her
assailant is full of believable pain and blood, and Jessica's monologue about
not enjoying fights is a terrific counterpoint.
There's a lot of ugliness to
the violence, and that comes from Gaydos's work. In some stories, Gaydos's work
itself would look ugly, and in fact his depiction of Captain America is a bit
lacking because he doesn't belong in this world. But for the most part, this
gritty and for lack of a better word ugly vision of people and places, buried in
orange sunset or other dark colors by Matt Hollingsworth, really develops the
atmosphere of the book.
Bendis has often been lauded
for his dialogue, and he has a few really great exchanges this issue. Jessica's
confrontation with the man behind the whole conspiracy, from her opening bluff
to the closing smug send-off she gets, is pure genius. Zoumas is a scumbag, but
his plan was very well thought-out, and for a second, I actually thought he
would get away with it. Then we're introduced to another of Jessica's
acquaintances from her past and things change in a hurry.
The real strong moment of this issue, though, and probably a turning point for the series, is the talk between Jessica and Cap in her apartment. Though Jessica isn't what you would call your standard super-hero, her heroic nature gets a bit of a spotlight here, and the ending seems to indicate that she might be starting to climb out of the sewer she had made of her life. Not only have we gotten a solid mystery plot, we've gotten real character development and change, and there's definitely a feeling that Alias could go just about anywhere from
here.
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