Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

The Pulse #1

By Nathan Patton
February 20, 2004 - 13:02

So there I was, not many months ago, with my head in my hands, metaphorically. My favorite ongoing series of the moment--my second favorite ongoing series ever (next to Preacher), Alias, was cancelled. But it was to be reworked and morphed into The Pulse. "I 'm okay with that." I thought. "I don't care if I read a bunch of symbols instead of an actual f-word. I just want my Jessica Jones, ex-superhero turned private detective, to read about every month. Well here we are with the first issue of a new ongoing starring Ms. Jones. She has taken on a new job as superhero columnist for the Daily Bugle. She has also taken on a new boyfriend in Luke Cage, formerly known as Power Man.

So I guess I got what I wanted in theory, but I don't feel quite satisfied. I mean, Jessica barely says more than ten words in the whole book when she used to say almost one hundred per page in Alias. This book seems to be more about J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Urich at this point. But it is the first issue. It takes time to build an empire I suppose. I am definitely intrigued as to where this is going to go and I like the cast of characters enough to stay with it throughout at least the first arc.

Ultimate Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley lends his prolific pencils to the first arc and I must say I am impressed. He definitely captured the darker mood of this book a lot better than I expected him to. Still, I think he's a better fit on superhero books. There's a brightness to his characters that transcends the colors and settings. But I would like to reiterate that he did a great job here.

Best Features: Jessica and Luke in a relationship makes so much sense.
Worst Flaws: It seemed to not have much identity and jumped around a bit too much.
The Flub: the cliffhanger of an unidentifiable women being found dead. It had no impact or weight but it felt like it was supposed to.

Rating: 7 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12