Comics 101: Jessica Jones

Who Is Jessica Jones?

Netflix and Marvel are getting ready to debut the second of their "street level" adaptations and their choice is an... unconventional one.  Most people had heard of Daredevil through Ben Affleck and 20th Century Fox's ill-advised red leather adaptation.  It was ripe for re-interpretation and the Netflix version was Daredevil done right.  

Jessica Jones is a character that people, outside of the most Marvel devout, probably hadn't heard of until this series was announced.  That is a shame, because Jessica is one of the most authentic, fully realized female characters in the Marvel or DC Universes.  Jessica was created by Brian Michael Bendis and made her debut in "Alias" #1 in November 2001.  It's hard to introduce a brand new, compelling character in the modern age, but that is exactly what Bendis did.  He made Jessica relatable.  She comes off as a real person.  She has edges and doesn't feel at home in the super hero world, even though she has multiple connections to it.  Since there are lots of people who will watching anything with the Marvel logo, it stands to reason that this weekend folks will be spending time with Jessica Jones for the first time.  Here are five things to know about your new favorite Marvel heroine.

1. Her origin.  Jessica has a classic super hero origin with a connection to one of Marvel's most famous costumed heroes.  Jessica was a student at Midtown High and had a crush on her class mate slash recipient of irradiated spider bite, Peter Parker.  On their way to a Tony Stark sponsored trip to Disney World, her families car collided with a truck carrying radioactive chemicals.  Jessica's family was killed and she went into a coma.  When she awoke, she was placed in foster care and eventually adopted by the Joneses.  She also awoke with powers including super strength, limited invulnerability and flight.  She went back to Midtown High and attracted the attention of her one-time crush, but when Peter approached her she shut him down pretty hard believing he was only reaching out to her out of pity.  She was inspired by his alter-ego, Spider-Man and after seeing him battle the Sandman, she decided to use her powers to become the costumed super hero, Jewel.

2. She's no Black Widow or Agent Carter and that is a great thing.  If you've watched any of the teaser of full length trailers, you've probably sussed out that Jessica is a hard drinking, hard loving, hard boiled private investigator.  Jessica brings sex to the MCU, which up to this point, has been pretty sterile.  Jessica is not ashamed of her sexuality and it will be nice to see that play out.  Chaste kisses, fleeting looks and flirting are nice, but even comic book characters want some grown up love once in a while.

3. Her nemesis There is a saying that we've all heard before: "This time it's personal."  Never has a saying been more true in the case of Jessica and her main antagonist, Zebediah Kilgrave aka The Purple Man.  During her career as Jewel, Kilgrave took notice of Jessica and used his mind control powers to make Jessica his puppet.  Jessica was eventually saved by The Avengers, after almost being killed by them.  X-Man Jean Grey put psychic blocks in Jessica's mind to keep her from falling under Kilgrave's influence in the future.  This is another thing that the show will have to tweak and I'm interested to find out how Jessica frees herself from Kilgrave and prevents him from using his powers on her.  It's just not criminal activity that Kilgrave forces Jessica to do and I'm curious to see how the series handles the assault on her mind and body.  There has been a spotlight shone on this issue recently and I think this show can really explore this in a tasteful and non-salacious way.

4.  Her fantastic friends In the regular Marvel U, Jennifer is best friends with the some of the most amazing heroines out there.  She counts Carol Danvers, the cosmic powered Captain Marvel as her BFF, but since the MCU has their own plans for Carol, she is being replaced by Patsy Walker.  Patsy has her superhero identity, Hellcat.  It will be interesting to see if they head in that direction with her or if the introduce Jennifer's other pal, Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman in a potential season two.

5. She's a Marvel mom Potential spoiler alert: Jessica and her husband, Luke Cage, are the proud parents of baby Danielle.  There are very few Marvel mom's and it would be cool to see that explored.  I'm not thinking that Jessica will be with child by the time the first season ends, but I do hope it's something that happens should the series get picked up.

So, there you have it.  Some information about Jessica Jones, so you're not going in blind.  I'm excited to hear people's reactions as they binge the newest offering from Marvel.