Should I or Shouldn't I?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 61.9%
  • No

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • Never Read It

    Votes: 7 33.3%

  • Total voters
    21

thee great one

Master of TOG-fu.
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A complete set collecting all the issues of Bendis' Alias. It is around 60 bucks. Is it worth getting? I've never read it. The only place I've seen Jessica Jones is in the few issues of Pulse.
 
How about "maybe"? I still think it's Bendis' best work, mostly because he started and ended the series with a clear vision for who Jessica Jones WAS and where she was going. Yeah, it's the typical "wandery" Bendis, but it always has a direction and, what's rarer in his writing, a POINT. He likes to throw his characters into bad situations and see what happens, and sometimes what happens is fairly unclear and pointless (or, worse, unbelievable) but not so in ALIAS. If I had a quibble with it, it'd be in the last trade, where we find out about Jessica's history with the Avengers - the previous trades develop Jessica's neuroses and history carefully, almost subtly, building it like a house of cards - and then the last trade is as though he turned a leaf blower on the carefully constructed house of cards. Not subtle at all and I expected more.

But I do think this is the strongest example of his writing skills and the type of character/writing that suits his single style.

So the maybe comes in here as - do you want to read a series of books about a dysfunctional, self-loathing PI who used to be a fringe superheroine - never quite famous or a member of any group?
 
i read the 1st trade, and really liked it. i won't say it's the ONLY good thing Bendis wrote down, but i have to admit that his recent work (outside of Daredevil) is running thin.

at any rate, it depends on what you like. ALIAS is one of those comics that has very clear characterizations, where the plot isn't completely spelled out for you, where you read the end and wonder if you actually got everything. also, it ain't exactly a "feel-good" title, it's very serious and "realistic".

if you do get it, let me know what you think :)
 
Its a good series I think. I like the last arc the best where Bendis takes a B list loser like Purple Man and makes him into a very scarey psycho.
 
It's Bendis' best work for Marvel as it marries the meandering nature of his largely ignored indie work with the sense of characterization that he mastered in his earlier 'sell-out' work.

I think Rhyo put it best:
Rhyo said:
Yeah, it's the typical "wandery" Bendis, but it always has a direction and, what's rarer in his writing, a POINT. He likes to throw his characters into bad situations and see what happens, and sometimes what happens is fairly unclear and pointless (or, worse, unbelievable) but not so in ALIAS.
When Bendis throws his characters into bad situations, sometimes its not clear what he's trying to do with them, or what he's trying to explore. Which is kind of my problem with some of the earlier parts of his run on Daredevil.

Rhyo said:
So the maybe comes in here as - do you want to read a series of books about a dysfunctional, self-loathing PI who used to be a fringe superheroine - never quite famous or a member of any group?
I think an important piece of information to add here if you're going to 'answer' the worth of Alias with a question is to take note of another thing:

If you've read a lot of Bendis you'll notice he has a tendency to drabble on about the importance of heroic figures and how individuals relate to them. Whereas most other times it comes of masturbatory fanboy wanking, Alias makes the best use of this schtick.

So the question is how much do you care for a book that juxtaposes a self-loathing former superhero turned private eye with the larger than life figures she happens to be connected to in that weird six degrees way? How much do you care for a book that drabbles on about the multi-faceted relationship we have with legends, gods and celebrities?
 
I downloaded it all. The beginning was kinda of boring but I enjoyed the last couple of arcs. Especially the Purple Man one.

B-


I still havn't decided if I should get it or not.
 
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I reread this whole series over the holidays.....


It's still ****ing amazing. Especially the fluidity of the dialouge. The art I'm still not so crazy about....but everything else is awesome. And his work with The Purple Man was great.
 
I never saw this thread. If I had got to it in time I would have said definitely but the Omnibus (which I assume TOG was talking about) is out of print and costs and arm and a leg - Amazon has them used, 3rd party for around $220.

Definitely one of my favorite books ever.
 
I downloaded to decide and I wasn't that impressed.


I hated the art, there was some good moments and the Purple Man arc was really awesome.



At the time I just couldn't justify spending that much on it.
 
I never saw this thread. If I had got to it in time I would have said definitely but the Omnibus (which I assume TOG was talking about) is out of print and costs and arm and a leg - Amazon has them used, 3rd party for around $220.

Definitely one of my favorite books ever.

It really is. Granted I don't own the omnibus....but the story and how well it flowed into current 616 continuity still astounds me.

I really want a TV of this.
 
It really is. Granted I don't own the omnibus....but the story and how well it flowed into current 616 continuity still astounds me.

It really does. I loved the Peter Parker flashback scene - that was great. I love stuff like that in comics.

I bought the first volume in WWDallas. i can't find anything else beyond that. what gives?

They might be out of print, but I also seem to remember that some of the issues were not collected in TPB. I could be wrong. The Omnibus has everything inlcluding a What If issue (What if Jessica joined the Avengers or something like that).

It might be time to break that out and reread it.
 
Man, I just read this again. I forgot how much I loved it...

That's how this series is.

It's a truly great read, then you put it away on your shelf and you barely even look at the book's spine for almost a year. In the meantime, you piss on Bendis' mediocre work and then you decide to read Alias because you can't remember just how Jessica and Luke hooked up....and then it hits you:

ALIAS IS ****ING AWESOME!
 
That's how this series is.

It's a truly great read, then you put it away on your shelf and you barely even look at the book's spine for almost a year. In the meantime, you piss on Bendis' mediocre work and then you decide to read Alias because you can't remember just how Jessica and Luke hooked up....and then it hits you:

ALIAS IS ****ING AWESOME!

because she got ****ed in the ***!
 
Rereading this now...I wish Bendis could write like this again. Or at least steer more toward this kind of book and not overreach his talent taking on books that don't cater to his strengths.

The familiar Bendis speech patterns are there but they are more subtle than his more recent work and not nearly as annoying.

I loved issue #10 where she cons J Jonah Jameson into paying for her charity work. The experimental layout and structure didn't quite work but the story was great.
 

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