A year after the fact, Civil War keeps finding new ways to pull the heart out of my chest. You know it is time to step away from the comics when the Superhuman Registration Act upsets you more than actual legislation passed by the real, living Congress.

But if this world and its laws have such a strong effect on me, that only serves as a testament to the skill with which writers like Brian Bendis makes the people in that world come to life. Jessica Jones is one of the richest characters in comics today, and since Alias is pretty much single-handedly responsible for my reading comics at all I can't help but be emotionally invested in her story.

That said, this issue evoked some pretty complicated feelings. See, nobody's wrong in this fight. Luke is absolutely right, and I was in his corner throughout... but Jessica has every reason to do what she did, no matter how much I'd like to take her by the lapels of her army jacket and shake her. I kept thinking, "My God, Jessica, not The Man!!" but an equally loud voice in my head kept saying, "Hey, you've got a kid that age. What life would you pick for your kid? Hmm?"

Luckily, whenever faced with such troubling moral complexities, I can fall back on the scapegoat Marvel's provided and just exclaim, "God, I wish someone would murder Iron Man and Reed," like I always do.

As for the Skrull stuff? It's still my position that the whole story would be a lot more interesting if it turned out Elektra was the only Skrull on the planet, but part of the reason I've said that is because I've so enjoyed the way most of my favorite characters have been written lately, particularly by Bendis. (Carol Danvers repeatedly letting her old friends off the hook rather than arresting them, while now officially bordering on the hilarious, still strikes me as completely believable. I perceive Ms. Marvel as someone who chose her side with misgivings that have only increased the longer she's been the "leader" of Tony's team.) After this issue, though, if I found out Jessica was a Skrull it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. We're old friends now, and I hate it when we disagree.