4 issue test #37 - Jessica Jones

Next and actually last in the Marvel now stuff is Jessica Jones, a title I specifically picked up because of the Netflix series, for those wondering my opinions on DD season 2 and Luke Cage. I thought DD started strong but ultimately went off track around the half-way mark and was overly depressing and Luke Cage was average if not a little higher.

I know I'm cheating a little with this image but... I also don't care

Writing this comic is Brian Michael Bendis, who’s writing Spider-man which somehow I’m still reading and Civil War II, which was utter utter utter utter sh*t (see my recent editorial). So yeah, Bendis is hit and miss with me and mostly miss but the was the one responsible for the interpretation of Jessica Jones the Netflix series was adapted from so maybe he’s struck again, let’s take a look.

We open with Jessica Jones in prison for reasons to be explained later, in issue 4 no less. The guards call her and tell her she’s being released, they give her her belongings and she jumps from the offshore prison to shore. She heads back home and takes a shower and is about to listen to her messages when Misty Knight bursts through the door, she wants to know where Luke and Jessica’s daughter is but Jessica isn’t telling, even through a fight. She knows Luke sent her.

OK question mark time, last time we saw Luke and Jessica in the same comic was during a spider-man issue that Bendis wrote, they were a fine couple. Care to explain what happened the she doesn’t trust him with her child? No? Moving on… She gets a call from Sophie Brownlee, she has an issue she’d wish to discuss with Jessica. Jessica needs money and heads to meet her.

Her husband woke up one morning and believed that he was married and with child to someone named Gwen 8 months ago, but they’ve been married 11 years, he won’t go to a therapist and she can’t even have children. She thinks he might be an alternate universe version of himself or something. Jessica suggests that there could be more reasonable explanations but when Sophie doesn’t back down she agrees to take the case, she notices someone crawling on the wall and heads off to confront.

It’s Jessica Drew aka Spider-woman, she asks if the child is even still alive. Jessica says that either way, there’s gonna be trouble if Luke sends any more of his super-friends, and walks away. She begins surveying her target but Luke confronts her himself.

#2 opens with Jessica experiencing the baby kicking and her and Luke discussing what would become of a baby of 2 humans who have been genetically altered. Luke rips the door off her car and asks where the baby is. Jessica says she’s alive and safe and that Luke can’t protect her for reasons I’m still unsure about. Her target is gone and she heads off in pursuit, leaving an annoyed Luke. He smashes the car door but is caught on camera by a mysterious woman.

Jessica has lost her target, unable to carry a smooth landing and finds herself unable to go into her house, less people are waiting there. She heads back to the car but whilst the door has been taped back on, Luke now has her camera. She checks into a hotel, using cash she doesn’t have to bribe away from card checks. She gets a visit from her mother, who isn’t dead in this reality, the baby’s taking her first steps. Her mother recommends she move out of New York where there are fewer super-heroes smashing into each other.

She calls her client, after receiving 4 missed calls but finds that it’s Homicide Detective Brad Costello. Sophie was murdered by her husband. She offers to come in and starts to head out but it jumped by someone who can use polka-dot holes, after accidentally punching a passer-by, she’s dragged into a van and driven away.

#3 opens with Jessica being rescued by her now grown up daughter... 

Back in reality her attacker, who we now know is called Spot punches Jessica repeatedly whilst she threatens to do more and more disgusting things to him because this is the most adult we’ve gotten in 3 issues. His boss is a woman who identifies as Allison. She’s a part of an anti-superhero organisation and wants Jessica to dump everyone and throw them under the bus. She was also a prisoner of Captain Marvel a while back, more on this later.

Luke cage visits Jessica’s house and is looking around when Detective Costello pays a visit. He explains why he’s here to Luke, during the call it sounded like she’d been jumped. Needing time to earn her trust, Allison lets Jessica go, finding she’s literally across the street from her apartment. She jumps away upon seeing Luke.

#4 opens with Misty Knight confronting Luke. The picture of him smashing the door has made the web. They argue and ultimately embrace as the photographer takes another photo. Jessica is writing a letter in a diner and upon seeing her tail is not there takes off to a roof where she meets Carol Danvers.

They’re at an off-the-books S.H.I.E.L.D. safe-house, confiscated from Viper aka Madame Hydra. Jessica reveals she was contacted and goes through details from the previous issue and mentions that they particularly hate her. Upon her mentioning the name Allison, Captain Marvel recognises that it was Allison Greene. The not-really HYDRA agent she arrested back in Civil War II which became the centre of the only actual battle between multiple super-heroes in the entire book.

This was all a ploy, getting Jessica into prison was to make it look like she’d hit rock bottom. She offers to talk to Luke but Jessica laughs that off. Spot calls Greene and says she’s lost her, she stays silent to scare him as she enters a board meeting about brand synergy or something.

Carol has 3 murders linked to whatever this organisation is, 2 of them were inhumans, easy pickings, the other was an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Now there’s concerns about others, like the Champions who are all over the net (see, you can do continuity, Bendis – do it more often)

Jessica heads to the police station and takes down a guy in a frog suit who says he’s innocent of something. Detective Costello gives Jessica back her phone and asks if she feels threatened by her husband, revealing the image of him damaging the door and embracing Misty Knight. Jessica says he’d never be violent to her, and he agrees to drop the subject and bring it round to Sophie’s husband. He’s her and he’s been asking about her.

So that was #1-4 of Jessica Jones, what are my thoughts, let’s take a look.

Well, #4 kind of explains why Jessica couldn’t give the baby to Luke, she needed it to look like she’d cut ties with him and him having the baby would destroy that illusion, and she couldn’t tell him in case she was being tailed.

I like what I’ve read so far in this book, it provides an interesting mystery whilst providing a little bit of action and drama, even providing a few continuity nods to Civil War II and its aftermath.

The artwork is not the best I’ve ever seen but it’s passable, it’s not a detraction but it’s not the thing that gets me reading either. The covers have a very unique style which is actually really cool, even if the covers to #1 and #4 look really similar. I honestly have little else to say.

Rating

#1 7.5/10

#2 7.5/10

#3 7.5/10

#4 8/10

Overall 7.625/10

Recommendation: This is a book that’s worth picking up, it’s got what I wanted in a Jessica Jones title, though it’s not perfect.

Images/clips used in this review are from Jessica Jones and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use