Alias #8
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Michael Gaydos
Published by Marvel Comics
Well, Bendis is having us all on in some manner here, it just remains to be seen how.
A friend asked me about this issue, which hinges on Rick Jones being married to someone most certainly not the woman who has been seen to be his wife Marlo in various titles, including one now written by Peter David but for some reason I can't think of the title.
My friend's theory, or one of them, is that perhaps this Rick Jones here is a skrull. While that's a valid theory (for anyone that cares to really wonder about this stuff for long), I just assumed, and still do, that the character calling himself Rick Jones is a fake. Someone who calls himself Rick Jones to get laid, and it worked only too well -- now he's married to someone who thinks he's a famous friend of The Avengers.
Thing is, I don't really care what the reason is for Rick's odd behaviour here; what I enjoyed about the issue was the spectacular interplay between Rick and Jessica Jones, as they spend the entire issue bantering and chatting and talking and arguing and there's no one in comics today, or maybe ever, that has handled dialogue as well as this.
Bendis's naturalistic approach breathes life into these characters, lifting them up off the page and allowing them to have their squabbles and fights and discussions and, man, that's really what Alias has proved to be all about: People talking. The plot is secondary, the action only occasional and almost accidental, and that's fine.
The MAX line, which this is a part of, has had exactly one success, and Alias is it. Pick up a few issues and check it out and you'll see why. Bendis's dialogue is nicely complemented by Gaydos's expressive, moody art (here accompanied by a nice Bill Sienkiewicz illo, too), and while I'm loathe to support a line that is 90 percent utter shit, Alias is too good to ignore. Grade: 4/5