Once upon a time there was a book called Alias and it was, by a considerable distance, the best female-fronted superhero comic that has ever been published. It was written by Bendis, drawn by Gaydos, and for its entire run of 28 issues you could barely hope to encounter a finer title on the shelves.

Then, one day, the series accidentally ended. According to Bendis’ take on things, he finished issue 28, then realised he’d just written the last issue of the series. And by god, it’s only been a few years but it feels like decades have passed since then. After her brief stint in 2004’s aborted “The Pulse” series, which never really found its feet, Bendis took Jessica Jones and folded her into the New Avengers cast. In 2006’s New Avengers Annual #1, we witnessed Jessica and Cage marry, and in 2008, we’re watching them break up over that most common motivator of divorce - ideological difficulties.

It’s fitting that Gaydos should be brought back to collaborate with Bendis on this issue of New Avengers, because one thing that’s been made abundantly clear is that Jessica Jones only really looks like Jessica Jones when Gaydos is the man doing the drawing. It would be criminal to let anyone else draw such an important chapter in Jessica’s life. It’s almost like having Alias back. Almost.

Gaydos’ artwork in New Avengers is considerably brighter than it was last time we saw it, and he manages to meld the vastly different tones of Alias and New Avengers into something believably between the two. The story is pretty much talking heads the entire issue, as Cage and Jones fight over her defection, but Gaydos brings such a range of expression to every face in every panel that it’s hard to imagine caring that the height of action in the issue is a telephone being crushed.

Elsewhere, now unable to use Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, the New Avengers are set up by Danny “Iron Fist” Rand in a nice apartment where they plan continue their unregistered superheroics. The issue ends with a pointed shot of the cause of all their fighting - Cage and Jones’ baby. Is that another hint of green in her eyes?

Tags: Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, secret invasion
Publisher: Marvel