This is all characterised via Bendis’ prodigious facility for naturalistic dialogue. Before then we witness her fears, her irrationality, drunken liaisons and an almost pathological urge to eradicate any relationship before it has an opportunity to develop. It’s only in the final chapters that it’s revealed how she became so fractured, and a truly horrifying story it remains. Over the course of the series Bendis delivers plots encompassing everything that the reader of a crime series wants: investigations with mystery, tension and variety, but his story is Jessica herself.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis began his comic writing career with crime stories, but he’s now more experienced, and in the Marvel universe he has a convincing backdrop he doesn’t have to create from whole cloth into which he can drop Jessica, delivering her as someone with a past and connections. Jessica Jones had been a superhero, but that’s now long behind her, and she’s pushing the self-destruct button while earning a living as a private investigator.

Then there are numerous extras including two stories not in the trades, and the bonus material includes Bendis’ pitch for the series, which is a fascinating read in itself. At the most prosaic level, the problems of the four paperbacks it collects are avoided by ensuring art and dialogue spread across two pages doesn’t disappear into the central gutter. Thrust into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels, has Jessica burned too many bridges to turn to old friends for help? Plus: Jessica investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl rumored to be a mutant in a prejudiced small town.With Jessica Jones now the star of her own TV series, for those that can afford it this is the format to sample her solo series. But Jessica's life becomes expendable when she uncovers a famous hero's true identity. Now a chain-smoking, self-destructive alcoholic, Jessica runs Alias Investigati ons - a one-woman private-investigative firm specializing in superhuman cases. Thrust into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels, has Jessica burned too many bridges to turn to old friends for help? Plus: Jessica investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl rumored to be a.

Alias Omnibus by Brian Michael Bendis