Jessica Jones

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Jessica Jones


Promotional art for cover of The Pulse #14.
Art by Mike Mayhew
Pictured clockwise from the top left
Jessica as Jewel; with husband Luke Cage; with her newborn baby; as Knightress
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Alias #1 (November, 2001)
Created by Brian Michael Bendis
Michael Gaydos
Characteristics
Alter ego Jessica "Jess" Campbell Jones
Affiliations The Pulse Magazine, Alias Private Investigations
Notable aliases Jewel, Knightress
Abilities Flight, superhuman strength, high resistance to injury.

Jessica Campbell Jones is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe, created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos. Jones debuted in the series Alias as an embittered former superhero who had used the aliases Jewel and Knightress. After hanging up her cape, she became the owner and sole employee of Alias Private Investigations.

Contents

[edit] Character history

[edit] Origin

Introduced in the Marvel Universe as a retcon character, Midtown High student Jessica Campbell was present when Peter Parker was bitten by the irradiated spider that gave him his powers. She had a crush on him, and had just plucked up the courage to speak to him when he was distracted by the bite. Jessica also had a celebrity crush on teen heart-throb Johnny Storm.

Soon thereafter, Jessica was riding in a car with her family when they collided with a military convoy carrying radioactive chemicals. Her family was killed and, after spending several months in a coma, she was placed in foster care and adopted by the Jones family. Months later she awoke, stirred by the first coming of Galactus outside her hospital room.

Jessica later discovered that the radioactive materials she was exposed to in the accident had granted her super-strength, limited invulnerabilty, and flight (which she never fully mastered). The Joneses re-enrolled Jessica at Midtown High, where she was ostracized by her classmates, especially Flash Thompson. Peter Parker (who had since become Spider-Man) sensed in Jessica a kindred spirit — someone who had also lost family due to a tragic circumstance. Jessica mistook his kind attention and lashed out at him, believing he was merely pitying her. At that time she found out she had super-powers.

[edit] Heroic Career

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

As Jewel, Jessica was an upstart heroine with a fairly uneventful career until she intervened in a distubance at a restaurant involving longtime Daredevil foe Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man. Killgrave effortlessly placed Jessica under his mental control, a situation that would continue for several months. Though she wasn't sexually assaulted herself, Killgrave enslaved and humiliated Jessica, forcing her to watch as he raped a succession of college coeds whom he had abducted and mind-controlled for his amusement. Killgrave also forced Jessica to beg him to have sex with her, often until she broke down in tears, only to deny her, as a form of psychological abuse. After eight months under his control, Jessica began to lose the distinction between his will and her own, developing a kind of Stockholm Syndrome.

In the midst of a temper tantrum, the Purple Man sent Jessica to kill Daredevil, erroneously directing her to the Avengers Mansion. Since Daredevil is not an Avenger, Jessica attacked the first hero she saw there in a red costume — the Scarlet Witch. The mind-control began to wear off and Jessica attempted to flee, but she was caught and received a severe beating at the hands of the Vision (the Scarlet Witch's then-husband), and Thor. She escaped death due to the intervention of the only Avenger who actually knew her, Carol Danvers, who took her to safety.

Jessica remained in a coma for months, under the care of S.H.I.E.L.D., while also undergoing psychic therapy with Jean Grey of the X-Men. In addition to assisting her emergence from the coma, Grey placed a special mental command in Jones' subconscious that would protect her from further mind control. During this time Jessica developed a doomed romantic relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clay Quartermain, who would prove to be a valuable friend and contact for her later in life.

The intensely violating nature of her experience with Killgrave, combined with the fact that no one noticed she had been missing for eight months, forced a demoralized Jessica to give up being a costumed superhero.

Jessica tried being a superhero one final time before giving up, adopting a darker identity as the Knightress. Intercepting a crime meeting between the Owl and a mafioso, she met up with fellow superhero Luke Cage. After defeating the Owl and his goons, she discovered that one of the thugs had brought his children with him. Jessica Jones took off her mask and revealed her identity to the cops so that they would allow her to look after the children for the night. Luke Cage went to her home later that night and the two had a long talk, the first step towards a lasting friendship.

[edit] Private Eye

Main article: Alias (comics)

Jessica Jones, now no longer a superhero, opened a private detective agency, and, given her background, was sought out by clients with superhero connections. Despite her wishes to leave the superhero life, she found herself repeatedly drawn back into it. Longtime friend Carol Danvers set Jessica up with her fellow Avenger Scott Lang (the second Ant-Man), and the two dated for several months. She also had an off-and-on affair with Luke Cage, which led to her becoming pregnant.

Having escaped from high-security incarceration, Killgrave was now obsessed with Jessica and attempted to break her spirit by making her experience her worst nightmares — that she had walked in on both Lang and Cage in bed with her friend Carol Danvers. This time however, the mental defenses Grey had given her allowed Jessica to free herself from his control. She knocked him out and he was recaptured.

In the final issue of Alias, Jessica revealed to Luke that she was pregnant with their child. Luke, elated, admitted his strong feelings for her, and the two entered into a committed relationship.

[edit] The Pulse

Main article: The Pulse (comics)

Following the end of Alias, Jessica took a leave from the detective business and joined the staff of the Daily Bugle as a superhero correspondent and consultant, becoming a main character of the comic book The Pulse, and a contributor to the same-name fictional newspaper supplement within. She also became a supporting cast-member of Young Avengers.

As of 2006, Jessica and Luke are living together, and she has given birth to their child, an unnamed girl. Luke has proposed marriage, and at the close of the final issue of The Pulse (#14), Jessica decided to accept. She and Luke were married in New Avengers Annual #1 (by a priest with an uncanny resemblance to Stan Lee); Jessica Jones has retained her maiden name.

[edit] Civil War

In Marvel's cross-over Civil War, Jessica and Luke are confronted by Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, who urge them to register with the authorities under the provisions of the Superhuman Registration Act. When asked if they intend to sign up, neither actually says "no," though they make their intentions to defy the law very clear, with Luke going so far as to compare the Act to slavery. In order to keep their child safe, Jessica travels with her to Canada, while Luke stays in their home in Harlem. Having eluded the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents dispatched to apprehend him, Luke Cage is currently a member of Captain America's "Secret Avengers."

[edit] Alternate realities

[edit] Trivia

In a 2005 interview [1] Brian Michael Bendis commented that "[o]riginally, Alias was going to star Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), but it became something else entirely. Which is good, because had we used Jessica it would have been off continuity and bad storytelling." Previously, in the letters pages of Powers #11, Bendis commented "I was at one time toying with doing Jessica Drew [in Alias] because she has the best hair of any superhero in comics, but this book is entirely different than what that idea was to be." Although both statements make clear that Jessica Drew was a part of Bendis' earliest conception of Alias, by the time he became actively engaged in developing the title, Jessica Jones was his central character, one with a distinct background and voice from Jessica Drew. [2]

Bendis has stated that he wishes to incorporate Jessica Jones into the Ultimate Marvel universe, placing a teenage Jessica Jones in Peter Parker's high school. [3]

[edit] References

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