Books like Alias, Vol. 1

\ Four stars AKA I really liked!\ This TPB collected the comic book issues #1-9 of “Jessica Jones: Alias”.Creative Team:Writer: Brian Michael BendisIllustrators: Michael Gaydos with Bill Sienkiewicz (“Sidekick” sections) & David Mack (cover)\ COMICS FOR ADULTS\ It’s funny how comic books (or any other format to tell a story) is “made for adults” if there are f-words, smocking, sexual scenes, sexual preferences, nudes, etc… even if they aren’t necessary to tell that story.I remember that when I was a kid, I watched basically the same TV shows than my parents but now I honestly don’t know what TV shows can watch kids different than the kiddie stuff in the cable channels designed to show that. Maybe not all, but a large quantity of TV shows always have here and there some of the mentioned “taboo” elements making that kids not being able to watch those TV shows. I don’t know in what state of mind the nowadays kids will grow up if they pass their childhood only watching talking trains, dancing dinosaurs and retarted colorful beings.Sure, maybe TV shows like Airwolf, Knight Rider and The A-Team weren’t exactly proper conduct guiding programs to become a productive adult (but a lot of fun!), but along with those, I was able to watch also The Little House in the Prairie, Eight is Enough and Highway to Heaven full of timeless lessons about life. Back then, I think that any kid can watch any TV show……but now? In the quest of “more matured series”, almost any successful TV show includes various of the already mentioned elements making them “exclusive for adults”. I noticed the same tendency in many films in the latest years (curiously enough, in those selected for the Oscars) where you are watching a good story that anybody not matter the age should watch BUT since the production decided to include some of the already mentioned elements, the kids will have to wait 10 years to watch those films that ironically most likely they won’t want to watch, since by then, those movies will be “something too old” for them. A shame.Certainly some stories need to present some (or several) of those elements but honestly I think that in many cases, they aren’t necessary, they only put them there “to be taken seriously” by the critics. Adulthood isn’t a “licence to live la vida loca”, it’s just another phase in life with its own priorities and responsabilities, so I believe that it’s laughable to think that a story magically is “made for adults” only because they insert taboo topics in the middle of a story that isn’t directly related to any of those elements.I wouldn’t be surprised if many kids think that we, adults, are just a bunch a foul-mouthed vicious perverts, since almost all the material labeled as “recommended only for adult audiences” are full of drugs, sex and profanity. I am not a prude, far FAR from it. I am just saying that writers (in any media format) should ponder how really indispensable is to add a “taboo topic” in their stories.And believe it or not, I am reaching my point here!This first volume of Jessica Jones: Alias is a really smart tale, but it’s funny (and not in the ha-ha sense) that you find a “Explicit Content” label on the cover along with the fact that the title is part of the “MAX” line of Marvel Comics designed to tell stories for “mature readers” that they can’t tell in its regular titles, only because……yes, you guessed right,……you happen to find: f-words, smocking, sexual scenes, sexual preferences, nudes.Kids are smarter than you think, and most of them can understand and enjoy stories like this one, if you don’t intentionally make “forbidden” to read them just because they contain “adult elements”.\ JESSICA JONES V. JESSICA JONES: DAWN OF MEDIA\ I bought this TPB because I watched the first season of Jessica Jones in Netflix.Yes, the TV series also has all those wonderful “adult elements”. (Honestly, I don’t know what decent TV show the kids can watch these days!) in the TV adaptation you have a LOT more of sex and even more fighting scenes, than in the comic book (at least in this first TPB).Jessica’s background is kinda different here (that obviously is the original one) since in the TV show, she is an orphan that she was adopted later, and that it’s a major issue in the storyline. In the comic book she is an orphan adopted by Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones, so in the comic “Jones” is her adopted last name, while in the TV series her “real last name” is Jones. While in the TV series you have some very few characters from the Marvel Universe as support cast to Jessica Jones, there is quite limited. However, in the comic book, you have a lot more presence of many relevant characters from the Marvel Universe. And cool enough, some of those appearances aren’t what you normally expected. Jessica Jones has powers: super-strength and limited flight. In the comic book, she was once a super-heroine named “Jewel” and even she had “contact” with The Avengers, but her times of costumes are gone and now she makes a living as a private detective, having her own agency: “Alias Investigations”. In the TV show, it’s not clear if she spared some time in costume, definitely she doesn’t met any Avenger, but she is a private detective alright.You won’t meet the main villain of the TV series, Killgrave, in the first TPB, I understand that he will appear alright but in further volumes of the title, BUT I believe that there is a small “cameo” if you know what to look and having the help of having watched the TV series and being aware of his “super-villain” codename.So, while in the TV series, Jessica Jones is dealing with the resurfacing of Killgrave and the dangers of his powers. In the first volume of the comic book, she investigates two different cases, involving in an indirectly way, the super-hero community of Marvel’s New York.Finally, the TV series is a solid product, with a good cast, but I think that a whole season (13 episodes) with only one villain was kinda tedious, and don’t take me wrong, it was a really good season, but I think it could a lot better with more villains and/or separate cases involved. In the comic book, you have two different cases, but I felt that Jessica was fooled too easy, too often, which isn’t a situation that you want to read about the lead character, and about the first case, it evolves in something so big way out of Jessica’s level, needing too much help of others, another situation that you don’t want to read about a lead character in her own solo title, being not a team title.However, this TPB is still a really good reading, showing a very different face of the Marvel Universe. I hope to read the rest of the run in the near future.