The romance of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage

[xdoop]

[Banned]

Comments

[taggerung301]

this has blown me away - I knew about the basic plotline before I've read some of the Alias posts here, but I never knew just how amazingly well-written this was
I'm just going to have to buy this

[shadowpsykie]

yes, this series was greatness.

[arilou_skiff]

It's pretty much what earned Bendis a place in may little heart for ever.

Even should he turn into Miller, he'll always have Alias.

[freezer]

...Was this supposed to make people like Jessica? 'Cuz it doesn't. From the pages here, she goes from self-centered twit to abused Woobie with apparently nothing in between. There may be some other materials out there that bridge the "fleshed-out character" gap, but this?

This still says "Bendis' Pet Character."

[xdoop]

I essentially only did the beginning and the ending of the series (with #15 in between).

[freezer]

Ah, so there is more to it. Good to know.

Probably still wouldn't change my my mind on her, but still...

[shadowpsykie]

well Jessica does more of her growing int "The Pulse"

Bendis seems to be taking the long long long road with her.

He set up Jessica as the superhero Cautionary tale. what happens when some one who is not prepared for the world of superheroing goes in over their head?

Chapter one of Jessica's life is "Alias," the aftermath of all that. she is one hell of a messed up person. you get her origin spritzed in there, but essentially Jessica was the failed superhero. like cage says here, the end of Alias is the end of that phase of her life and the start of a new chapter.

The Pulse was chapter 2 in Jessica's life. there she started becoming more self confident and growing into her new place. she's still not all "whole and cured," but she is not in the same dark place as she was before.

post the Pulse we have seen little of Jessica other than every now and then in NEw Avengers and a decent subplot in the civil war and secret invasion.

it seems that BEndins is positioning her to rise again with New Avengers Annual #3 (which i am VERY much looking forward to) actually now that i think about it, i think it happened earlier (if anyone can tell me what issue of NEw Avengers it was i would be happy)

but she has a conversation with spider-man (forgive me if i am paraphrasing totally wrong as i dont have the issue in hand) and he basically says. hey' you would be a good hero, you are not the person you were before, your smarter now. you have been given a gift, and you have a responsibility to. (and my favorite line "Your daughter will be proud of you no matter what you do")

then NAA 3 comes around (it seems Luke is gona retire) and Jessica takes his place on the team...

if it means more stage time for Jessica (who i have loved since Alias) i am all for it

[starwolf_oakley]

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<i<He set up Jessica as the superhero Cautionary tale. what happens when some one who is not prepared for the world of superheroing goes in over their head?</i>

It seemed to me more like Jessica was someone who had the powers and decided to become a superhero... and just wasn't very good at it. Some have said that wasn't Bendis' point, but it seemed to be what happened anyway.

[auggie18]

There's a lot of stuff missing here, this is pretty much just the where the series took off and where it ended up. She deals with Mattie Franklin and some other people. The scene with Jean was nice, it put her in a more understandable light.

[ravenous_raven]

I dunno...she seemed a little unlikable with the way she handled Luke after interrupting him, but "abused woobie"? that I have to disagree with.

the scene where she explains to Luke about that Purple guy...I didn't read it as pathetic or "beautiful suffering" (yes, I had to look it up on TV Tropes). it's hard to explain why. maybe it's because just saying what happened, just "hearing the words," as Jessica put it, itself is an act of rebellion against that 8 month period. she hasn't told anyone else, so she's coming to terms with the whole issue...it's the first step, and the hardest one...and it's also messy as heck. Jessica is probably feeling hateful, disgusted, murderous, guilty, sad, pathetic, rebellious...and the first three are probably also directed at herself in equal, if not greater, measure.

[toasty_fresh]

Huh, I actually didn't have that reaction at all . . .

[neuhallidae]

I'm hoping to God this went through a lot of rewriting after editorial mandate smacked him on the nose with a newspaper. Because if this is the same story that he originally wanted Jessica Drew for and to kill Scott Lang in, I will be pissed.

Also, the art during the conversation between Jessica and Carol bothers the shit out of me. The rest of it's not bad, but that one section is just... yeah.

[cyberghostface]

The title Bendis initially planned for Jessica Drew and this title are two completely different things. It's not like he had written Spider-Woman and changed the last name at the last minute.

[neuhallidae]

Good.

...

This is still the story he was mad about not getting to kill Scott Lang in, though, isn't it? Please say no.

[cyberghostface]

I haven't heard anything official, no.

[cyberghostface]

I miss Alias. Jessica just hasn't been the same since its end. Her character has been redefined now as "Luke Cage's wife/mother of his child".

[auggie18]

She was pretty cool in Young Avengers, though a fair amount of that was about her adjusting to the idea of motherhood. I wish we could see her hang out with them more often.

[iskander]

This book would have sold twice as well it it had a better title. I myself missed the first book cause I thought it was based on that spy TV show.

[foxhack]

Motto.

[queenanthai]

Tell me this series is in trade.

[auggie18]

Yep, all of it.

[bariman]

I think there's a big omnibus of the whole series.

[bwhahahabeck]

I love Luke and now I have to get this. Thanks.

[thandrak]

Carol and Jessica are bashing Peter's outfit? One of the two best costumes of the Silver Age?

[bariman]

Bendis seems to have a running gag in his works that people think Spidey's costume looks stupid. It pops up a lot in Ultimate Spider-Man, for instance.

[thandrak]

What. The. Hell?

Well, now we know why Iron Spider.

[colonel_green]

That was JMS' idea, I believe (or someone else in the Spider-Office).

[sailorlibra]

Let's be honest: who wouldn't sex Shulkie if she was at all your type?

word!

[jazzypom]

I like the fact that Shulkie comes across as a woman who likes sex. She's manslinging enough to leave Hercules bemused and confused.

Get it, gal.

[bariman]

In one of the issues where Shulkie was going around as a bounty hunter, there was an otherwise straight woman who grabber her ass, because it was She-Hulk and when would she have another opportunity? Jen agreed.

[jlbarnett]

blerg. I want superheroes I'd want to hang around. I would walk away if I saw these people coming.

[tsunamiwombat]

This is a remarkebly... REAL story. Huh.

[shadeedge]

What I like most about this is how it doesn't warp the rest of the universe around with it. Jessica's story seems very real, but that's put into even greater perspective when you still have Spider-man swinging around with jokes, heroes in general having the less real, comic-y story. You end up feeling more for her because she isn't surrounded by reality - she's essentially having a real story in the midst of everyone being fantastic and amazing and sharing the chortle-laugh at the end of the show.

It's probably one of my favourite stories ever, because of that odd interaction.

[geoffsebesta]

This is one of my favorite stories of Bendis's career, and one of the ones that I would most like to last.

You know, if superheroes weren't so damn crisis-centric, they might have a chance of raising this child in peace. It's strange that our collective imagination is such a hostile place that children cannot grow up there.

[mullon]

That art repeats itself a lot.

[timgueugen]

Yeah, its annoying and very distracting. Seeing the same drawing used for a half dozen panels makes the story seem very static and the art seem lazy.

Yes, the art is lazy

[jazzypom]

That's the first thing I thought. It's really off putting.

Re: Yes, the art is lazy

[thehefner]

Fucking MOTTO.

So many of Bendis' comics do this that I have to think he actually tells the artists in his scripts to repeat images. It's one of my biggest pet peeves in comics, and Bendis abuses it all the goddamn time.

It's what really keeps me from loving even his great stuff like above. I scanned over this once, and it looked like several pages had been posted multiple times, because it's the same images over and fucking over again.

[lamashtar]

Ya know, she had this one moment when she thought she was thinking too much of Matt Murdock. Then she thought, "OMG I AM IN LOVE WITH MATT MURDOCK!" Bendis never really deals with that, except in the Jessica telling Luke he isn't half the man Matt is.

[tzipwich]

I always thought it was just a crush.

[julian]

Huh.

This is a lot better than I expect from Bendis.

And the slow growing and realizing/working with PTSD process. (Working with /badly/, at times.) I like that.

[crabby_lioness]

That was pretty amazing.

[sun_man]

awesome!

[proteus_lives]

If Bendis is real about Jessica and Luke, they won't end up together. It's great dialogue and a great story but couples who are based are a accidental baby rarely end well. I would like them as good friends raising the kid.

I liked Jessica/Scott better. They were both losers in ther own ways. Jess had her numberous problems and Scott had his.

Plus, I hate how JJ is treated by other writers. She's pretty much just "Mrs. Cage." She should have stayed in MAX. A struggling super-detective with a kid to raise. The only thing I've liked with her since then is the scene in NA with Peter after his re-reveal about her crush. That was good.

Make JJ her own character again!

Well... their story isn't over

[jazzypom]

If Bendis is real about Jessica and Luke, they won't end up together. It's great dialogue and a great story but couples who are based are a accidental baby rarely end well. I would like them as good friends raising the kid.

Their story isn't over.

On the other hand, you got the feeling that they actually liked and respected each other before this predicament. They worked out issues (Jess' mindf*ck, etc), and the pushing and pulling. In addition, there's the feeling that they've made the best of it (the fact that both of them wanted Danni) and remember, during NA Luke wanted to marry Jess and Jess kept putting it off (to be fair, she was absorbed with Danni, etc), and that felt real. The fact that Luke wanted more, wanted a commitment in the true sense of the word, and Jess kept holding it off until Luke got her in a weak moment.

I do have a soft spot for Jess and Luke though, and hope that these crazy kids make it.

[foxhack]

It's these stories that make me wonder why I hate Bendis' work so much.

[darkblade]

Because he doesn't write stories like this anymore?

[tzipwich]

I always thought it was pretty stupid what Carol said there about Luke being a "cape-chaser."

Luke Cage doesn't have a secret identity. If he has a history of getting involved only with other superheroes, isn't that a good thing? It's better than dating civilians who can't defend themselves if a supervillian comes into town wanting to kill all his friends and family.

[neuhallidae]

And besides, he's badass in his own right. They act like he's just some loser groupie wanting a piece of celebrity, not someone who's been a hero himself.