Get To Know a Hero: Jessica Jones

All information herein can be found, minus the asides and snarky commentary at Marvel.com.

image via marvel.com

Alias(es): Jessica Campbell Jones, Jewel, Knightress

Vital Statistics: Born in US, likely Forest Hills, NY; attended Midtown High with Peter Parker

First Appearance: Alias #1 (November, 2001)

Powers: Super strength, enhanced resistance to injury, flight

Affiliations: The Avengers, Alias Investigations, Daredevil, The Defenders

Romantic Partners: Clay Quartermain, Scott Lang (Ant Man), Luke Cage

The Lowdown:  Jessica was a lonely kid who found herself orphaned after a car accident took the lives of her parents and her brother and exposed her to military- grade radioactive material.  She spent several months in a coma and wasn’t aware she had developed superpowers until, running home from school upset, found herself flying.  She crash landed in “the bay,” was rescued by Thor, and defeated  her first criminal, mostly by accident, not long after.  She took the hero name of Jewel.

image via girl-wonder.org

Jewel was active for around four years until becoming involved in a riot provoked by The Purple Man.  He used his powers to enslave Jessica, torturing her mentally and physically in retaliation for defeats he suffered at the hands of other superheroes (bad stuff.  Very, very bad stuff.  Mind-bendingly bad stuff).  The Purple Man eventually sent her to Avengers Mansion to kill Daredevil, where she encountered Scarlet Witch instead.  She broke The Purple Man’s programming, but unable to explain her actions, was pursued by The Avengers.  Ms. Marvel stepped in to protect Jessica, but Vision attacked and puts Jessica into another coma.  She was cared for in a SHIELD facility and eventually able to rehab with the assistance of Phoenix and the X-Men.  She was offered the position of SHIELD liaison to The Avengers, but severe PTSD from her time as The Purple Man’s slave had, very understandable and tragically, destroyed her confidence in her abilities and in herself.

image via thereelworld.com

A sparsely detailed period follows, though Jessica apparently had several disastrous relationships and, on a kinder note, developed a friendship with Ms. Marvel.  Jessica attempted to return to action as Knightress, but found herself unable to do so due to trauma (see above – this is what it does to people, folks.  It robs them of their essence.  A reminder to be kind to those you know who have experience trauma of any sort).  She eventually obtained a private investigator’s license.

Lots of cases.  Kerfuffle with Captain America’s secret identity; stuff with Rick Jones; accepted J. Jonah Jameson’s commission to expose Spider-Man and, instead of doing so, took Jameson’s money and donated it to charity (I totally love this).

Comes the time Matt Murdoch is exposed as Daredevil and hired both Jessica and Luke Cage as bodyguards.  They had a brief fling, broke up, experienced awkwardness, and became friends.  Jessica started dating Scott Lang (set up courtesy of her good friend, Carol Danvers).

image via dreamwidth.com

Another break.

Jessica was next seen investigating the Mutant Growth Hormone Trade with Jessica Drew, but returned as Murdoch’s bodyguard when Kingpin sent Typhoid Mary after the lawyer.

Jessica’s “greatest challenge” came when relatives of some of The Purple Man’s other victims ask her to confront him and convince him to admit to the murders so those family members can have closure.  Which, quite frankly, while good story making, in an unbelievably shitty thing to do someone hanging on by her fingernails.  It is a testament to Jessica’s strength (not the physical kind) that she did it and survived the encounter with Cage’s help, though she wasn’t able to get any information out of The Purple Man.  He broke out of prison and came for her, she resisted (again, a testament to her crazy resilience) with the assistance of a defense mechanism Phoenix left in her mind during her rehabilitation years earlier, and kicked his ass, which must have been satisfying as fuck.

In the aftermath, Jessica broke up with Scott, explaining she was pregnant with another man’s child.  In what was likely a surprise to no one, the other man was Luke Cage; he and Jessica moved in together and, after the birth of their daughter, got married.  Her current job is super-consultant to the Daily Bugle, where she works with Ben Urich to cover the hero beat.

image via moviepilot.com

Looking forward to the show even more now?  Me too.  I think it’s going to be a tough watch, since Netflix opened to utilize The Purple Man storyline, but also an important and affecting one.  As Luke is always saying, comic aren’t just about superheroes.