So, Jessica Jones was a big hit in her MAX series, Alias, by Bendis, Michael Gaydos and Matt Hollingsworth, which we saw just a tiny bit of a few blocks back. We see the beginnings of a trend here, where when Marvel has a hit book in the 2000s, Bendis’ name is on it with remarkable frequency. We are fast approaching a time when his influence will really kick into high gear. In all honesty, he might be the most important writer at Marvel since Stan Lee. The passage of time, his influence and prodigious output have seemingly turned him into something of a punchline to many jaded old comics people, but every single one of them was buying every book he put out in the 2000s, guaranteed. But, anyway, as Alias progressed, its success kind of became a frustration. There was a desire to get Jessica more integrated into the Marvel Universe, but the whole point of MAX was to do very adult material taking place in, but walled off from the mainline Marvel Universe. Material that would appeal to adults and safely not appeal to kids. An overarching plot in Alias was a turbulent romance between Jess and Luke Cage, and by the end of the series, she reveals to Luke she’s pregnant, and they decide to have the baby together. The last line of the series is “Ok. New chapter.” And that is this. Bendis brings Jessica into the Marvel U proper, where he’s forced to tone down the language and adult situations, but now has access to the whole toy chest. This issue does not feature Spider-Man, but the storyline can’t help but pull him in for reasons that will become obvious, so we’re gonna cover it. And who’s here to launch the book? Why, Mark Bagley, of course! A guy who can easily do 2 books a month without sacrificing quality, and someone with a real “comic book” art style to welcome Jessica into the proper comics, it’s a smart choice. Bags did some flashback pages in Alias when they showed some of Jessica’s brief, disastrous superhero career, so while you ideally want Michael Gaydos drawing her, at least Bags is a familiar take on her. He’s inked here by Scott Hanna, so you know it’s gonna look sharp, and colored by Frank D’Armata and Brian Reber. This month’s cover is by Mike Mayhew, who does a lot of them, as I recall.
Our ol pal Ben Urich. That front page story is by Kat Farrell, who was the hero of that Deadline mini I looked at ever-so-briefly awhile ago (Continuity!). He flips through the Bugle to his story about Daredevil’s fight with the Yakuza in DD 57 (Continuity!) way back on page 17-c. Without a word of narration or dialogue, it’s clear what he’s thinking thanks to Bags: He’s worried he’s old news.
Uh-oh. That looks bad. We’ll come back to it.
The stars of our show. It took them a lot of work to get to this point. Bendis has written all kinds of stuff I’ve really enjoyed, but I think Alias might be the very best, pound-for-pound, not least due to its short length. It felt like a complete, satisfying story rather than the sort of endless narrative of most comics, and made me a superfan of both Jessica and Luke, so it was exciting to see them coming into the larger narrative. Back at Central Park, a hot dog vendor see the thing floating in the water, but someone asks if he’s open and he turns away. Then Jess is at the Daily Bugle, looking at the headline on the latest edition, wondering why she’s there. She heads up anyway and meets Joe Robertson, and boy, is it nice to see him. He leads her through the newsroom in a 2-page spread with a construction very similar to fans of Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s “cops in a superhero world” comic Powers, it’s very much like an establishing shot of their precinct, complete with inset panels. In those, Jess runs into Ben, who wonders why she’s here. She says she thinks JJJ is going to offer her a job. Someone wanders by wondering where Kidder is, and then Robbie moves Jessica along.
One of Jessica’s cases in Alias involved tracking down Mattie Franklin, last seen around here in the dubious ASM, Vol. 2 #14, remember her? She had been adopted by the Jamesons, and was missing, and wound up being in a truly grim situation being used by the people making Mutant Growth Hormone. But Jessica got her out of there, so JJJ owes her huge.
Jess says she needs insurance and a contract and stability, and also sheepishly admits she’s pregnant. Ever the king of tact, JJJ asks if it’s Luke’s, and if she’s going to have it, and then says the Bugle wants the exclusive. Birth announcement and first pictures and all. He hastens to add “When you’re ready!” when Jess objects. Robbie, being more a human, just says congratulations. JJJ says they’re going to pump up Jessica’s profile, make a star staffer out of her, put her on billboards and buses.
It’s a yes. Meanwhile, back at the park, the hot dog guy has gotten a cop to come look at this thing he keeps seeing. It looks like a body. The cop radios for detectives & the morgue. Then we cut to JJJ, Robbie and Ben in a bar, where JJJ is giving Ben the reverse version of the sales pitch Jess got. That he still thinks superheroes are scum, but they sell, and he wants Urich to cover them. That it’s Jess who’s washed up and who needs this, and he’s counting on Ben. Ben asks if this means they’re speaking again. Remember, Ben told JJJ Daredevil wasn’t Matt Murdock, and now everyone knows he is, these 2 have not been friends lately, but JJJ is putting the paper first. This is kind of how comics work in the 21st Century. Writers do multiple books at a time, and those books have tight continuity while rarely referencing anything else. Certainly not just Bendis. Well, JJJ tells Ben this has to work, and the first story has to be a doozy, as we cut back to the park, where it’s now night time. A police chopper lights the way as a boat hauls the body out of the drink. A woman, who an investigator says was clearly dropped from high up into the water. They find her ID.
Who she is will have to wait for next issue. But, that’s the premise: Jessica as the superhero consultant for the Daily Bugle, working alongside Ben Urich. As someone who was sorely missing the Bugle staff in the Spider-Man books, this seemed like a can’t-miss proposition to me. A continuation of Jessica’s story, and a nice home for the Spider-Cast the Spider-Man comics didn’t seem to want anymore. And, I mean, look at the structure of this first issue, it has a really “grown-up,” cinematic quality. It may not have had the action-packed start of a traditional superhero comic, but it makes for a great first issue.