What do you get when you combine a former superhero turned private investigator with a chip on her shoulder and an affinity for alcohol? You get one heck of a great story and an amazing character. First off, no, this is not the Jennifer Garner "Alias". "Alias" is the named after Jessica Jones' private investigation practice. Jessica was once a superhero by the name of "Jewel", but after a traumatic event that lasted weeks that lead to weeks of physical recovery and mental scars that left her scarred for life. After that, Jessica decided that the life of a superhero wasn't for her and quit that life. Unfortunately, no one ever completely quits being a hero when they have powers and the will to do good.
Alias isn't a story about Jessica Jones learning how to reuse her powers to one day become a hero again (even though she one day does). Alias is the story of how Jessica Jones picks herself up from a life of drunken nights, self loathing, and, most importantly, learning how to forgive herself from things that happened to her in the past. Before the halfway mark of issue one, Jessica was assaulted by a client because he didn't like what she found out (which she told him happens a lot of the time), harassed by the police that she called about the assault (Jessica ended up throwing the guy through the window in her door), and then has drunken sex with her friend Luke Cage because she wanted to feel something. All this happened before the first book ends and this barely scratches the surface on her character.
Of all the super powered people in comic books, Jessica Jones is easily the most relatable. Writer Brian Michael Bendis wrote her as a character that we can all get behind because we have all been down the paths she has gone down at one point or another. We may not be able to fly or throw people fifty yards, but we've all been down and felt like there was no way of climbing back up, work a thankless job that we barely or flat out don't enjoy or want to be at, or have had our lives take a turn unexpectedly and have had to just deal with it. Everything that we do is to try and live our lives and hopefully get some enjoyment out of it on the way. Hopefully even meet some new people we enjoy hanging out with and maybe one day fall in love. These are all things that Jessica Jones goes through during the course of her four volume run.
Last year, Marvel announced that Jessica Jones was going to be getting her very own series on Netflix. That series starts this Friday, November 20th, 2015. While you may not have to read the book to enjoy the series, there will definitely be some scenes in the comic that will be left out in the show. It's almost impossible to capture a whole comic series in one season of a show. Especially when you have a character who has a lot going on (and also characters you may not be able to use due to licensing thanks Marvel Entertainment and Fox). For those of you who want to know the whole story behind this great character, pick up "Alias" volume 1-4. It's an extremely solid adult geared book. It's funny, clever, witty, dramatic, vulgar, and one of the few comics and books that will make you feel every emotion from happiness to anger to despair.
image source "comicvine.com"
