Alias Volume 1

With the current Netflix Original show Jessica Jones currently available in its complete first season, a number of my friends have been watching. The show is dark and sits uncomfortably in the soul. It explores the concept of "the devil made me do it" in a very tangible sense: a mutant in the Marvel Universe with the ability of mind-control.

As a fan of the Marvel Universe, I know most of the major, overarching plot threads of the universe up until the late nineties. So, when my friends started talking about Jessica Jones, I was intrigued, and also started watching the show. When I realized I couldn't separate out Krysten Ritter's performance from her role in "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," I figured reading the original source, the comics, was probably the best move to understand what's going on.

This graphic novel is a collection of Alias 1-9, starting with a back story of how the series came to be. I'm intrigued that it started just around the time I stopped reading comics, but my timing has never been that great in a lot of things. I likely wouldn't have picked up the comic, but I'm enjoying them now.

A number of minor, and not so minor, Marvel Universe characters appear in the series, causing me to go off to catch up on the series. Yay for wikipedia and its like.

If you're a fan of the show, read the comics. Much better backstory. Different plot. Fun read.