Alias Part 3: Come Home

[cyberghostface]

Like the trades, I'm going to skip #10 and include it with the next post as it's a stand-alone issue that ties in with that arc better. (It stars J. Jonah Jameson, who features prominently in the subsequent storyline).

Jessica's new case in the small town of Lago, New York where she is investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl. When she gets there, she finds that her presence has already been written about in the local paper, which pisses her off as that sort of negates the purpose of being a "private" investigator.



The mother admits that she wasn't that close to her daughter, and that her daughter had been getting in some trouble at school with mouthing off to various teachers.



She meets up with Rebecca's father, who isn't too happy to see her.





She looks in Rebecca's room but doesn't find anything. The town sheriff later arrives.



Jessica later visits Rebecca's high school.



#12...







As Jessica is about to leave, the woman who runs the local newspaper runs into her and asks about the investigation.



Jessica looks through Rebecca's book which is illustrated with all sorts of abstract illustrations (these are from David Mack).



At the bar going over notes with the sheriff, one thing leads to another. Jessica gets a little drunk and hits on the guy, and the two have sex.



(Art here is by Mark Bagley obviously)

Jessica wakes up from her dream in a jail cell. The sheriff put her there because she was drunk and he wasn't going to let her sleep at his house. Jessica tells him to fuck off and, taking the cue from the newspaper woman, decides to visit the local church.



#13...



The sheriff later runs into Jessica at the local diner to apologize, but she's not having any of it. She later gets a phonecall from Scott Lang; apparently Carol Danvers was trying to set the two of them up on a date.









Jessica doesn't think Rebecca's father is responsible for her disappearance but she decides to pay another visit.





#14...







Jessica takes her home. Rebecca is obviously pissed off but Jessica's not having any of it.

Also it turns out the little kid from last issue was the only person Rebecca liked in town and didn't want him to be worried about her, so she told him where she was going.

Back home, Rebecca's aunt is being arrested for the death of Rebecca's father. Apparently she was drunk and in the midst of an argument with him she took it too far. Rebecca's mother isn't taking it too well.







As Jessica leaves town, she gets another phone call from Scott Lang.

#15...

This issue is a stand-alone story that sort of serves as an epilogue.

Jessica is helping out Matt Murdock and working as one of his bodyguards. Only problem is,  Luke Cage is also there, and the two haven't spoken in a while.





Jessica accuses him of sleeping with her because he's a "cape chaser" and has a fetish for sleeping with superheroes (what Carol told her before).


Luke asks her if she wants to get dinner with him, but she tells him she has other plans.

Later, Jessica meets Scott Lang for their date. She tells the waitress that she'll have a double vodka on the rocks, but Scott interrupts and tells her that she shouldn't.







The two have a somewhat lengthy conversation, which I'm not going to recap here for time reasons, but long story short there's a battle across the street between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus.



"...I guess I needed someone to do that for me."

Comments

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

It's been said before, and I don't say this out of irony, but God Damn does Bendis love repeating himself.

[beyondthefringe]

"He repeats himself?"
"He repeats himself."
"Like, just says the same shit over and over?"
"Back and forth. The same shit. Over and over."
"No shit. He repeats himself."
"Yeah. Makes for some tedious, long-winded scenes where nothing happens while the artist, fed up, just cut and pastes the same talking head panels for half the issue."
"The same talking head panels."
"Yeah. Characters repeating themselves with cut and pasted talking head panels."
"That's fucked up."
"That's decompression for you."
"Decompression?"
"Turning a one or two issue story into six issues, easy. Write for the trade."
"Write for the trade?"
"Yeah, y'know. The trade. Six issues or so, maybe you get a full story. Or maybe it's just a two-part story where everyone repeats themselves until it's six parts. Y'know? I got a theory."
"A theory?"
"A theory. That once Bendis starts... he just forgets how to stop."
"He forgets how to stop."
"Just like *headsplode*

[cyberghostface]

This is probably the first time I've read something like this.

[thanekos]

The upside of Bendis's pacing is getting to see lots of whoever's on art's take on static poses and scenes.

(There's a thought- what would the critical reception be for Bendis plot and script coupled with art that wasn't immediately recognizable as good, that was distinctive in a way considered bad? Probably not the best.)

[cyberghostface]

(There's a thought- what would the critical reception be for Bendis plot and script coupled with art that wasn't immediately recognizable as good, that was distinctive in a way considered bad? Probably not the best.)

Probably the same. Most critics can separate art from writing.

[scelestus]

You know, for the most part this sort of thing irritates the shit out of me. It bugged me when he was doing the Avengers. But in Alias? Man, I really dig this. It just seems ...right, somehow. I need to go back and re-read my trades.

[starwolf_oakley]

Some wonder if he's trying to bring a David Mamet/Aaron Sorkin style to comic books. But people don't repeat themselves THAT often in Mamet and Sorkin scripts... do they?

[stolisomancer]

Mamet often does.

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Glengarry-Glen-Gross.html

It's an attempt to write naturalistic dialogue, but particularly with Bendis, it's something that's very easy to suddenly notice. It's the prose equivalent of the arrow in the FedEx logo; once you notice what he's doing, you can never see it again.

[chalicother]

"I was drunk"
"Your a big girl"
Man, I have soft spots for black heroes and I really like Luke Cage, but this scene...it sounds really bad...Is it just me?

I am a straight edge-person and I don't drink, but my thoughts have been that having sex with someone when their drunk is taking advantage of them...right?

[cyberghostface]

Well if you reread the first issue she's not inebriated; she knows what she's doing. She even has a whole monologue about how she wants to feel something because she's so apathetic. It's not a case of Luke taking advantage of someone who's unable to consent.

[chalicother]

Point. I have read those scans multiple times. It's one of those time when you read something out of order. Still , point.