Really, he was going to use an established minor heroine named Jessica with a connection to the Avengers and SHIELD that became a PI after quitting costumed crimefrighting. But instead he used a BRAND NEW minor heroine named Jessica with a connection to the Avengers and SHIELD that became a PI after quitting costumed crimefrighting.

Personally,I don’t see how Alias would’ve been so differant with Jessica Drew. She wasn’t exacly a well-defined character at that time and had been out of the spotlight so long Bendis most likely could’ve done whatever he wanted with her. I got the old Spider-Woman series (hooray quarter bins!) and there really wasn’t anything that would have to be altered about her any less radically than the retcon-o-rama going on in Spider-Woman: Origin.

And since the whole reason for Bendis taking the characters from Alias to The Pulse was Marvel wouldn’t let him use their more well-known characters in an “adult” comic (hence the first arc in The Pulse involved Spider-Man), his latest statements sound more like damage control afer he realized his previous statements didn’t make his bosses too good. Especially that one saying he wanted to use Spider-Woman in New Avengers where no one would “be mad or care.” Gee, sounds kinda like he had some trouble with using Jessica Drew somewhere in the past…

http://www.kordey.com/kordey/pages/archive/inks-archive/27.html

little bit of [sloppy of my part, as I forgot wher I read about it] context:

Igor Kordey was the second fill-in artist for Morison’s NEW X-MEN; Ethan Van Sciver was brought in when Frank Quitely was assigned whole arcs that were scripted ahead of time, as Marvel realized FQ wasn’t able to produce a full book month in and month out.

but EVS apparently couldn’t also, or it was an X-Office fuck-up, I don’t know, so Kordey was called in last minute. and did a very good job, given the circunstances.

I second the SMOKE recommendation. great thriller.

It’s really absurd, in that Bendis, in his own zeal to be succinct, is helping to foster the very urban legend he bemoaned FIVE years ago!

Bendis was going to do a book – it was going to star Jessica Drew. His ideas developed and he moved on from that idea (which was Jessica Drew, Agent of SHIELD) until he came up with the idea that became Alias. Jessica Drew was never part of the deal for “Alias,” which is the urban legend – that the Jessica Jones we see in Alias was just Jessica Drew redone when Marvel told him he couldn’t use Jessica Drew in the title.

So when Bendis says “She was originally going to star in Alias,” he means “She was originally going to star in the comic book that, after I changed the idea behind the book, became Alias.”

So yeah, I totally agree that Bendis is not helping to clarify things, which is quite annoying.

That being said, Bendis gives a detailed history on the evolution of Alias in the Alias Omnibus from last (or was it this year?) year, and that history matches his comments from five years ago fully.

But I agree, him being unclear is annoying.

WWC, DAY 1 – SPIDER-LOVE: BENDIS ON “SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN” AND NEW ONGOING SERIES
by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: August 5, 2005

quote from the Bendis interview: “Originally, “Alias” was going to star Jessica Drew, but it became something else entirely. Which is good, because had we used Jessica it would have been off continuity and bad storytelling. So, when we were putting together “New Avengers,” I put her because I had all these ideas for her and thought this was a place where I could finally do it and no one will be mad or care.”

————————

You say the myth is “Alias was originally going to star Jessica Drew, but Bendis was forced to change it to a new character named Jessica Jones”, and that Bendis denies it, but one year ago said “Alias was going to star Jessica Drew.” Sounds like history rewriting itself. Is Joe Quesada punching a hole in reality somewhere?

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?threadid=36281

BENDIS: …Marvel came at me guns a blazin’. They know exactly how to hit my geek buttons. My first book at Marvel in ‘94 or ‘95 or so was to be a Spider-Woman series with art by Rick Mays. They offered me and Rick this little chance to relive what almost was. I couldn’t say no.

I’ve never seen him specify who that character was (and all the similarities made people presume it was a clumsily-disguised Jessica Drew) but I’m positive I’ve seen him say that Alias originally was about an establish and discarded character.

My roommate used to say that Jessica Jones’ situation perfectly fit a minor Avengers character who’s name I always forget…. Shatterstar?

And yeah, that was in the works, too, but Spider-Woman was in costume in that series, from the cover art, which has survived, so it was a different type of pitch (although certainly she could have been an Agent of SHIELD as well, just a superhero agent of SHIELD).

The series was canceled when Marvel shut down their west coast offices and let a bunch of employees go, including the editor Bendis was working with on this project. As I recall nobody else seemingly wanted the title (editor wise), so it was cut from the schedule and Bendis didn’t appear at Marvel in any capacity for another three, four years I think.

And, dammit, I’ve had that Manhunter trade on my list for ages. Now I have to get it.