Comic Review – “Alias Vol. 3: The Underneath”

Brian Michael Bendis, who amazes me with every entry into the
Ultimate Universe, plays in the regular Marvel playground.

General Information

Title: Alias Vol. 3: The Underneath

Author: Brian Michael Bendis

Illustrator: Michael Gaydor

Original Publication Date: 2003 reprint of material first published
in
2002 and 2003

ISBN: 0-7851-1165-4

Cover Price: $16.99 US, $27.25 Can

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Premise

Jessica Jones, ex-super hero turned private investigator, works
on two
cases close to J. Jonah Jameson.

This collects issues 10, 16-21 of “Alias,” which is currently in its
fourth story arc.

High Point

The outcome of her first assignment with JJJ.

Low Point

The hypocrisy of complaining about having to pay for cigarettes.

The Scores

This is a crime comic that happens to take place in a world
populated
by superheroes. That’s original enough for me; I
give it 5
out of 6.

The artwork can be downright ugly. If it weren’t for
the
very nice work on issue 10, it wouldn’t have scored as high as 3
out
of 6.

The story is done well enough, and is new reader
friendly.
The case seems easily solved, though. I give it 4 out of 6.



The characterization is very well done. Our hero is
capable,
but has a serious lack of confidence. I really liked her after issue
10, since that shows how she treats others, but I didn’t care for
her
in the rest of the collection, given how negative she is about
pretty
much everything. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response this produced spiked at the
end of
issue 10, and at the guest appearance by Speedball. I honestly
don’t
see why this title is so highly regarded; it’s good, but it only truly
impressed me once. (Do I still need to specify that this happened
at
the end of issue 10?) I give it 3 out of 6.

The flow was done well enough, and was mainly
impeeded by my
occasional desire to close my eyes rather than look at more of
the
art. I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a decent crime story read, but I don’t see
the
revolutionary material that other reviewers seem to attribute to it.
I give it 4 out of 6.

In total, Alias: The Underneath receives 29 out of 42.

Additional Notes and Comments

Yes, I’m a huge Speedball fan. I bought this, bypassing the first
two
volumes, because I knew he was in it. I’d love to see the
character
come back in a more mainstream fashion. The good news is, this
volume
works without any prior knowledge of the title.

One reply

  1. From a Subscriber…

    (First of all, in case you weren’t clear, this book has nothing to do with teh Alias TV show)

    I first started bying the Alias comics because i thought it wsa going to be a limited run storyline, and I like that sort of thing … but I’ve been very happy with the title… the story arcs are short, and nicely contained; the issues of the lives of nomal humans living in a world of Mutants is covered well; and the main character is something you don’t see a lot of: A superhero who quit because she got sick of the work.

    Lastly, for those who don’t allready know of these titles: if you like the theme of “what is life like for most people in a world full of super hero’s, you should check out the graphic novel “Marvels”, and the hard to find two issue release of “Ruins” (which is a much darker take on the subject)

Comments are closed.