The next Marvel series from Netflix, Jessica Jones, is officially arriving on Nov. 20. And with it, of course, comes lots of questions from people who have never read the comics. So, for the edification of non-nerds, here’s a look at Jessica Jones.
So, is Jessica Jones an old Marvel hero or something?
Not quite. The series is based on a comic book called Alias. Yes, just like the TV show. Yes, they both came out around the same time. Yes, it was extremely confusing for a few years there.
Anyway, the comic follows Jones, who briefly spent time as a superhero before something terrible happened to her and she dropped out of the superhero scene. Jessica uses what amounts to her 15 minutes of fame to run a detective agency specializing in finding missing superheroes.
It also had the distinction of kicking off Marvel’s MAX line of books, “R-rated” comics that dealt with more adult themes. When it arrived in 2001, it immediately got critical acclaim and fans began clamoring for an adaptation, so this has been on the way for a while.
So it’s a noir?
Pretty much. Jessica is a mess; we learn later on that what drove her out of the Avengers was horrific, and is also probably a spoiler for the show, so we’ll avoid discussing it in any detail. Suffice to say, often Jessica’s personal problems and her cases intersect in surprising ways, and her personal demons sometimes drive her to make poor personal choices. Fortunately, a few of them pay off, like hooking up with Luke Cage.
Ah, so that’s how it’s tied to the other series.
More or less. Jessica and Luke have something of a torrid relationship at first, largely thanks to Luke’s propensity for butt stuff with superheroines, something writer Brian Michael Bendis won’t live down even if he discovers the cure for cancer. It seems likely, especially considering what we’ve seen of Luke in the series, that this romantic connection will form… hopefully minus the butt stuff.
Will the show tie into Daredevil at all?
Most likely. Jessica, on the show, is a private investigator. Gumshoes and defense attorneys tend to hang out together, so one suspects at least a few cast members will turn up. Rosario Dawson is already confirmed to appear, and it won’t be terribly surprising if, say, Foggy Nelson has some work for Jessica.
Should I read the comics before watching the show?
It probably won’t be necessary. Daredevil pulled from a huge number of comics to put together its plot and characters and even reinvented some of them: Vincent D’Onofrio’s uncomfortable, angry Kingpin is a long way from the cool-minded criminal maestro of the comics. But if you’d like to, by a total coincidence, Marvel is publishing the first nine issues in a new edition, which will give you a good sense of the series.
