Favorite Female Character: Jessica Jones

[cyberghostface]

My favorite female character has to be Jessica Jones. Bendis's Alias run stands as one of my top comic runs. Unfortunately, I found the follow-up The Pulse to be a bit lukewarm and after that Jessica has mostly been relegated to the sidelines as a supporting character far as I can tell. I'd really love to see her return in her own title, preferably under the MAX imprint. 

I liked Jessica because she's an interesting, flawed human being and not your typical comics protagonist (at least one that regularly interacts with the Marvel Universe). When the series begins she's washed up former superhero and her character grows from here. 

Disclaimer: All of these scans were taken from my earlier Alias posts, so they still fit within the 1/3 limit. There's also some language and mild sexual content.

From Alias #3, we have a scene where Jessica is interrogated for a murder she didn't commit.



Jessica admits to lying about not knowing about the murder because she was freaked out. She thinks she's being set up and got paranoid. The detective thinks she's full of it, and the situation escalates.






Next I decided to post her origin story from Alias #22-23.


The story begins with a flashback to the events of Amazing Fantasy #15, where we see Jessica was sitting on the stairs the entire time pining for Peter.





Establishing her as the Forrest Gump of the Marvel Universe, after later leaving, she's almost hit by a truck carrying hazardous chemicals (the same one that hit Matt Murdock apparently).


(The following was a double-page spread that I cut in half for the 1/3 limit, although it's still pretty easy to see what's happening)





The following two pages were also spreads that I had to show only half of.

In the car with her family, Jessica gets into a fight with her younger brother.



They collide with an army truck.



That cannister, if it's not clear enough, is on Jessica's lap before the car goes off the road. Jessica's entire family is killed, and Jessica goes into a coma.

Six months later, Jessica wakes in the hospital when there's a power surge due to a fight at the Baxter Building outside between Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

Later, Jessica is at a house for wayward children, and the owner tells Jessica that a family called the Jones is looking to adopt her.



#23...

At school, Jessica is picked on the other kids (including Flash Thompson) for being 'Coma Girl'.





As she starts to run, her life flashes before her eyes and...



Of course, Jessica still doesn't know how to work her powers and she ends up in the river and almost drowns when Thor saves her.



Later while watching TV with her stepfather, Jessica asks him why does the public like some superheroes (like the Fantastic Four) and not others (Spider-Man).



Jessica tests her powers, and discover that she's strong enough to push over a tree. She tries to fly again, and she ends up landing on the Scorpion who is currently in the midst of a robbery.

Comments

[silverhammerman]

Neat. Kinda mixed feelings on her Gumping it around the Marvel U though. That kind of stuff always annoys me, it strikes me as overly coincidental and very small world-y.
That flashback art is really nice.

[beyondthefringe]

To be fair, you just described the entire Marvel Universe anyway. Where superheroes can't go ten feet without encountering other superheroes, supervillains, monsters, aliens, or world-shattering threats.

Given that literally every single member of Peter Parker's supporting cast has become a superhero or villain, or is at least related to one of them, or is in some way, shape, or form coincidentally associated with the superhuman side of things... (Aunt May, romanced by Doc Ock! Marcy Kane, an alien! Sally Avril, superhero! Flash Thompson, supersoldier! Professor Warren, mad scientist!) I can accept that the girl Peter never noticed in high school also gets powers, courtesy of one of the MANY MANY MANY accidents waiting to happen.

And of course Matt Murdock is her lawyer, he's everyone's lawyer.

There are days when I could almost believe that Jessica Jones, AKA Jewel, was a failed six issue series from the '70s, brought out of obscurity by Bendis. Thy threw a lot of stuff at the walls in the '70s...

I just finished the latest Essential Marvel Team-Up, so obscure Marvel stuff from the 70s is on the brain. Like the girl Peter Parker dated for several issues until her scientist father was kidnapped by an evil Russian general and Peter had to fight some of the Russian superhumans and... well, we never did see Cissy Ironwood after that.

Spidey's Karma..

[steverodgers5]

I remember once in a letters page seeing an idea that all the craziness that happens to Spidey, and all his nearest and dearest, was some kind of karmic retribution for the way he continually gets to cheat fate with his Spider sense. I almost kind of wish someone would build a story around that.

I think the closest we ever got to it one one very strange Spidey issue with Thanos and Death that sort of hinted at similar ideas... Though it may just have been Thanos messing with his head!

Re: Spidey's Karma..

[goattoucher]

Whether or not that is actually the case, that is a perfect thing to tell Peter to make him crazy.

Re: Spidey's Karma..

[steverodgers5]

Yeah, you can just imagine the guilt trip that would come out of that notion for him! ;)

[cyberghostface]

Well in the case of Murdock being her lawyer it was because they were both friends with Luke Cage and Cage asked him to help.

[silverhammerman]

Well I can accept that his life and relationships would be all weird and super and stuff after he comes Spidey, because Spider-Man's just kind of a weirdness magnet and it's just something I accept about the genre. But the idea that like, even someone he interacted with so tangentially stretches it a bit far. It's like when Peter's parents turned out to be spies who fought the Russian Red Skull, it's kind of weird and unnecessary.
Maybe it's the idea that she had a crush on Peter though, I'm a sucker for failed ships. Plus OG Peter is kind of a mopey, angry misanthrope, so the idea that she'd be into him is weird to me.
I think you're right about this feeling like a lost 70's series though, if this wasn't being retconned in I probably wouldn't even question it.

[sigmund_droid]

The marvel universe is heavily invested in the idea of "destiny". It works a lot of ways but it gives characters a connection to the world around them, which I like. I like the fact that she has connection to another hero that is outside the costumes.

[turtlefu]

I didn't like it when they did it with the Sentry, but I do like it here. I wonder what the difference is?

[leoboiko]

Dunno, I kind of enjoy the absurdity of it. I mean the same single truck is responsible for Jessica, Daredevil, and the Ninja Turtles!

[sigmund_droid]

Great scans, I was very very tempted to post some of when Jessica decked the Purple man.

[chrisdv]

Wait, Jessica Jones as in Jewel?

[cyberghostface]

Yeah.

[big_daddy_d]

I been playing the Marvel Heroes Beta and Jessica Jones is in the Avengers Tower! They actually provide a voice for her.

[rainspirit]

I just got an invitation to the closed beta - is it at all worth playing?

[big_daddy_d]

I think so. Mostly point and click. Click a spot and your character goes there. Click left or right key when in combat triggers basic or special attack as well as they being key triggers. Think you can set up your controls but I haven't tried it yet. Also with the beta, you get 2000G. So while you initially only have a choice out of Hawkeye, Storm, Thing, Scarlet Witch, and two others (I picked Scarlet Witch), you can buy additional characters with the G's and alternate costumes. I bought Ms. Marvel and her Captain Marvel suit and Hawkeye in his Marvel Now suit. Also got Scarlet Witch's NOW costume too. Also you may have to deal with lag depending on if your pc meets requirements or not. And with that, it may take a while to initiate and instal before playing.

[rainspirit]

My PC's pretty sturdy. I may take some time to check it out. Thanks for your 2 cents!

[ablackraptor]

Ahh, you're playing that? Man, I signed up for that Closed Beta months ago, and I haven't gotten an invite. I feel so unloved.

[big_daddy_d]

I only just got my invite this week. Think they are still sending them out.

[salinea]

I love that series.

The Thor page never fails to make me laugh..

[steverodgers5]

Someone should show the Thor interaction here to Fraction. (As I never could stand the way he wrote Thor in Fear Itself..or indeed in general..)

But yeah I also saw Marvel's Thor as being very 'princely' in his language. So his reaction here is very funny!

[his_spiffynesss]

I always thought they should have given Jewel a Marvel Adventures series. The idea of a teen girl superhero dealing with her powers, school, family, self esteem issues and supervillains might have been a winning formula.

[domino_blue]

Maybe but I could also understand why Jewel would not....work exactly because of the connection with Alias....I'm not saying it's a bad idea I just know that it would be very hard not to read Jewel then read Alias....it's would be kind of a downer.

[icon_uk]

Constantly referencing the fact she swears doesn't really work for me. Most supervillains don't swear either, so one just has to believe that swearing isn't that common in the MU. It just seems like it's trying to hard to be "edgy" by showing "Look, she swears a bluestreak!!"

[ablackraptor]

I've noticed characters tend to swear a lot more in Bendis' work then in others. Now, its not the Silver or Bronze Age, and just about every writer has written someone as a potty mouth, but Bendis seems to write everyone as having a tendency to swear. Admittedly, some characters, it fits them. Others, not so much.

[cyberghostface]

Maybe at first with the opening arc but overall I think Alias is probably one of the few "mature" titles that I've read that didn't try too hard to be edgy. Jessica's swearing is just who she is.

[turtlefu]

I think it has to do with how she's a teenage girl. Peter Parker's a goody two shoes and Thor says "young lady" so I think that has to do with it. Jessica Jones looks petite and sweet but she has the mouth of a sailor

[ablackraptor]

Anyone else think her foster dad looks a lot like Martin Sheen? Especially with the last panel he's in. It makes the fact he's now Uncle Ben all the more amusing to me.

[freezer]

I admit to disliking the character. But I also cop to the fact that I didn't read Alias until long after the Creator's Pet treatment of her in Avengers soured me on the character.

The "Remember The New Guy" treatment didn't help.