Site icon The Thrilling Detective Web Site

Jessica Jones

kevinburtonsmith

Created Brian Michael Bendis

“My greatest weakness is occasionally I give a damn.”

It’s a big leap, going from saving the world — or at least trying to — on a regular basis to getting the goods on some middle-aged hubby bopping the babysitter, but it’s one JESSICA JONES, former super-hero turned New York City private eye, has decided to make. She deals in the humdrum world of missing people and cheating spouses, but it’s set against a world where superheroes are constantly flitting about, making for some interesting twists on both the P.I. and superhero genres.

Like the client who seems more worried that his wife might be a mutant than that she’s possibly been playing slap-and-tickle with the neighbour.

It’s not an entirely original idea (writer Brian Michael Bendis’ own Powers comic book often deals with the same scenarios, almost, except that it features super-powered cops, not a private eye, but this isn’t some cobbled-together world of brand new superheroes. The appeal here is that it’s the Marvel Universe where Jessica plies her trade, full of all your favorites.

Jessica’s past as the costumed superhero Jewel (which Bendis made up in its entirety) included a brief stint as a member of the Avengers, but she pretty much sucked at it. She became a private investigator with her own detective agency, Alias Investigations, and she sucks a little less. But she’s still prone to some major miscalculations and bonehead moves.

Through it all, though, she’s refreshingly human. Yeah, she’s foul-mouthed for sure, drinks and smokes and talks too much, sleeps with guys she probably shouldn’t and the mopey brooding can get wearisome, but it’s those flaws and foibles that keep her interesting. Despite it all, however, she actually has good detective chops and despite her protestations, she does “give a fuck.” You ask me, she’s the most convincing private eye Marvel ever created, and the dark, psychological complexities of her cases are drawn out with wit and compassion.

Plus, it’s fun having all those superhero types popping up. Like, Luke Cage (Hero-for-Hire) and Matt Murdock (Daredevil) show up early in the series, and later on, another of Marvel’s private eyes, Jessica Drew (aka “Spider-Woman”) pops up, while Jessica’s dating Ant Man of the Avengers throughout most of Alias (2001-04), the limited run series in which she made her debut.

The other attraction was that the original comic was published under the then-new Marvel Max imprint, which meant it wasn’t for kids. The situations were decidely adult, and the language was rougher than normal (though how overuse of the word “fuck” automatically makes anything adult is beyond me….). Anyway, just to make sure everyone knew what was going on, in the very first issue (which revolves around a missing persons case involving a woman who seems to be dating Captain America), Jessica and Luke hook up. No nudity, but you didn’t need to be Marvin Gaye to know they were getting it on. Still, the “adult” nature of the comic drew the ire of the printers, American Color Graphics of Sylacauga, Alabama, who literally stopped the presses, claiming the comic was “obscene.”

“I’m literally stunned,” Bendis said, at the time. “There’s nothing in it that you wouldn’t see on The Sopranos.” Marvel subsequently moved the printing to Quebecor, a printer based in Montreal.

And in fact, despite the sometimes rote use of obscenity, one of the highlights of the book is the dialogue — Bendis has always had a way with low life and smartasses, and he was at the top of his game here, and Alias garnered several awards within the industry, winning the Comics Buyer’s Guide Award for “Favorite Comic Series” in 2003, and the Harvey Award for “Best New Series” in 2002, as well as scooping up nominations for two Eisner Awards in 2004 for “Best Continuing Series” and “Best Serialized Story.”

After Alias‘ 28-issue run, Jessica returned as a “superhero consultant” for J. Jonah Jameson of The Daily Bugle, in The Pulse, a more-mainstream Marvel comic that ran from 2004-2006. A major subplot had Jessica and Luke Cage now living together and preparing for the birth of their daughter, Danielle.

Unfortunately, after The Pulse, Jessica once again donned the Barbie spandex, joining Luke in the Avengers or the New Avengers or whatever they’re called it that week, and all that was good and special about her seemed to be fading. Other writers started writing her, and Jessica was in danger of becoming simply another costumed hero with personal problems.

Fortunately, NetFlix saved her from all that. Jessica Jones, an original TV series, made its debut on the streaming service in 2015, revisiting Jessica’s original incarnation as a down-and-dour private dick not entirely at ease with — or able to escape from — her superhero past. Early shots of Krysten Ritter as a downbeat Jessica in street clothes looked promising, and the show more or less delivered, capturing the grim and gritty melancholy that made the original stories by Bendis so enthralling, while adding in an extra hard dollop of feminism fury and angst. Maybe because Bendis himself, who had become one of the major shapers of the Marvel Universe, was on board as one of the producers.

Although the show did take some serious liberties with the original, it zeroed in on Jessica’s obsessive battle with her nemisis, the manipulative supercriminal Kilgrave. Sure, the use of Kilgrave as a feminist symbol of male oppression was overworked at times, but it was still one hell of a potent metaphor, and one that probably rattled the cages of more than one misanthropic fanboy. And Jessica hooking up with Luke Cage seemed to be a good sign for Netflix’ ambitious plans for their own little corner of the Marvel Universe.

The Show’s success led to the welcome announcement that Jessica would be returning to her street-level roots in 2016 in her own monthly Marvel title, Jessica Jones, with original creators Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos back in the saddle and showrunner Melissa Rosenberg keeping it all tight and right, with Jessica going down those mean streets once more, instead of flying high above them. A P.I., not a superhero. And now a mother, as well.

It was a welcome return to form for Jessica, and the second season on Netflix soon followed.

And then Bendis announced in late 2017 that he was leaving Marvel, and heading over to rival DC. The Jessica Jones series wrapped up after eighteen issues, with a  heartbreaker of a final issue, leaving the fate of Jessica in the hands of other Marvel writers

Whether these writers would follow the path Bendis laid out for them, or goosestep Jessica back into the spandex world remains to be seen, but the July 2018 debut of Jessica Jones as a new digital-only series, scripted by Kelly Thompson, who had previously handled the scripting chores on Kate “Hawkeye” Bishop (who runs a detective agency of her own in Venice Beach in LA), boded well.

The only problem? It somehow lacked the noirish grit of the original version of the character (or the TV show). Far better was 2022’s The Variants, a new monthly series scripted by Gail Simone with art by Phil Noto that follows a “variant” Jessica Jones who seems more like the original troubled, kick-ass private eye we all fell in love with. A welcome return to form, which was followed a few years later by the return of Alias in 2026 as a five-part mini-series in their new Red Band line, in which Jessica, now married to Luke, who is now the mayor of New York City (sure), reluctantly teams up with super villain Typhoid Mary to catch a serial killer.

And so it goes…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Bendis first entered the comic world with Goldfish A.K.A. (1995, Caliber), a series of one-shot crime comics about a couple of Cleveland, Ohio lowlifes, followed shortly after by Jinx (1995-96, Caliber), a sort of prequel that introduced tough-as-nails bounty hunter Jinx Alameda (who shared more than a few bad lifestyle choices with Jessica). Neither book really caught on, but Bendis was just getting started. He’s since become one of the biggest names in the comics biz, bouncing from Image (Sam and Twitch),a slew of both creator-owned and licensed titles from assorted indies (the afore-mentioned Powers, and Scarlet  (a provocative and edgy must-read meditation on corruption, vigilantism and personal and social responsibility), to Marvel, where he was one of the dominant forces in shaping the Marvel Universe, thanks to his work on The Ultimate Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil and others) and onto DC, where he worked on Superman.

UNDER OATH

THE EVIDENCE

COMICS

COLLECTIONS

TELEVISION

NOVELS

 

OTHER STUFF

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Exit mobile version