Jessica Campbell Jones attended Midtown High school and had a crush on her wallflower of a classmate, Peter Parker. On the day that she finally gathered the courage to ask him out, she followed Peter to a science expo demonstrating the powers of radiation. However, a spider bite forced Peter to leave the expo early.
On their way to Disney World on vacation, Jessicas family car collided with a military convoy transporting radioactive materials. Though her family was killed, Jessica survived and spent several months in a coma. After emerging from her coma, Jessica was adopted by the Jones family and re-enrolled at Midtown High. It was during this time, that Jessica discovered that the accident imbued her with super-strength, limited invulnerability and the ability to fly. So she did what any young person that discovered that they had super powers would do. She put on a costume and fought crime.
As the super-hero Jewel, Jessica was only ok she was good, but nothing spectacular. Something of a B or C-list hero. Her defining moment, the one that changed the course of her life from there on out occurred when she stopped a brawl initiated by Zebediah Killgrave, The Purple Man. Usually one of Daredevils rogues, The Purple Man possesses the power of mind control. He usually uses his abilities for petty larceny or his own amusement. Once Jessica arrived on the scene and attempted to break up the fight, Killgrave decided that he could have much more fun with her. He kept Jessica as his slave for several months. His twisted assault on Jessica was not physical, he never once laid a finger on her. Instead he forced her to watch while he raped a succession of other women that he placed under his powers. In addition, Killgrave would force Jessica to humiliate herself and beg him for his attention and sex, to the point where she would be left in tears when he refused to oblige her. Repeated exposure to Killgraves mind control left Jessica unaware of where her will ended and his began.
After a particularly humiliating defeat at the hands of Daredevil, Killgrave ordered Jessica to kill him. Unfortunately, Killgrave told Jessica to look for him at Avengers Mansion. Once she arrived, she attacked the first person she saw wearing red. In this case, Scarlet Witch. Being away from Killgrave for such an extended time cause his mind control to wear off. Seeing what she had done, Jessica fled, but not before the other Avengers and the Defenders took chase . Vision and Thor laid quite the smack down on her before Ms. Marvel recognized Jessica from her days as Jewel. Again, Jessica ended up in a coma, this time under the watchful eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D. While she was in her coma, Jessica received psychic therapy from Jean Grey. Jean helped Jessica by giving her a subconscious trigger that would prevent her from ever falling prey to mind control again.
Once she emerged from her second coma, Jessica was offered a position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to the Avengers by Executive Director Nick Fury. However, her humiliating treatment at the hands of Purple Man, coupled with the fact that no one seemed to notice that she was missing for the entire 8 month span that she was being held, caused Jessica to turn down the offer and decide that the heroing game wasnt for her. Jessica left the costumed crime fighter gig for good. Or at least for a little while.
Jessica decided to give crime-fighting one last shot. She dubbed herself Knightress took on a much darker persona and costume. Knightress lasted about a week. Her last case involved an illicit deal between the mid-tier villain The Owl and his business associates. Jessica startled the criminals and tried to fight them off. However, Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Iron Fist arrived to bust up the deal too. Owl managed to slice Jessica on her back before she cold-cocked him. Once the police arrived on the scene, Jessica, Iron Fist and Luke discovered that one of the criminals brought his children to the deal and left them in his car. As an alternative to the children having to spend the night at the police station, Jessica offered to take them in for the night until any other relatives could be found. The police officer on the scene advised that the NYPD were not in the habit of turning children over to masked vigilantes. Jessica de-masked and told the officer that Nick Fury could vouch for her, but she wanted to make sure the kids didnt have to sleep in a police station. Later that night Luke Cage visited to check on Jessica and the kids. This was how Luke Cage and Jessica Jones first met.
Several years removed from her last adventure as Knightress, Jessica opened a private detective agency called Alias Investigations. She never mentions her costumed past unless asked, and she hates to be asked. She is living in a cycle of serious self-loathing and self-destructive behavior. In between heavy drinking and social isolation and some anonymous sex, Jessica solves cases to keep her lights on and pay the rent. She finds a few runaways and missing persons. She even gets a high profile body guarding gig, when a tabloid runs a story that a blind lawyer is actually the masked crime-fighter known as Daredevil. But her biggest case turns out to be her last one. The relatives of some of Purple Mans victims ask Jessica to confront him in prison to get some closure in their lives. Jessica reluctantly agrees to visit Killgrave in the high security facility The Vault/Raft.
After Killgrave refuses to tell the Jessica what became of his victims she leaves. The next day Killgrave manages to escape from his cell and comes after Jessica with a vengeance. Jessica stands up to him and stops him from hurting any more people by knocking him the fuck out. After S.H.I.E.L.D. pick up Killgrave and returns him to prison, Jessica has a talk with Luke Cage. They both admit that their feelings have moved beyond friendship. She also tells him that she is pregnant with his child. After getting over the initial shock, Cage decides that he wants to live with Jessica as a more permanent part of his life. Jessica decides that she needs a new job. She doesnt feel that a private detectives life is safe for a pregnant woman. Also, insurance would be nice. Thus, the doors shut on Alias Investigations.
Jessica eventually gets a job offer from one of her old clients and publisher of
The Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson. JJJ was starting a new section of the paper and wanted Jessica on board as a special consultant. The Pulse would focus on the lives of super heroes in NY. Where they eat, who they date, what they think, etc. He felt like he needed an authentic touch, a former hero who knew the ropes, and could help his star reporter Ben Urich. Jessica reluctantly accepted. She may not have liked Jameson as a human, but she and Luke needed the money and security for the baby. On her very first case, Jessica helped Ben Urich solve a murder that led to the public unmasking of industrialist Norman Osborn as the costumed criminal, The Green Goblin.
After helping contain a breakout at the super criminal high-security prison, The Raft, Captain America personally invites Luke Cage to join the New Avengers. Luke enthusiastically agrees, saying that after she is born, he would like his daughter to know that he was once an Avenger. However, tragedy strikes the young couple, when Nick Fury enlists Luke (along with Wolverine, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Captain America, and Black Widow) to take part in his Secret War in Latvaria. After licking their wounds a while, the criminals returned to New York and attacked the heroes in their own homes, including Luke and Jessica. Luke protected his pregnant girlfriend from the attack, but their apartment was destroyed, and Luke was knocked unconscious. Nick Fury arrived at the hospital to apologize for what happened, but Captain America interrupted and had Lukes best friend Iron Fist move him to a more secure location. He left just in time, as the villains arrived and attacked the hospital.
Jessica and Ben Urich tried to find out where Luke was and what happened the night before, but they kept coming up against dead ends. The emotional and physical stress of these events took their toll on Jessica and she collapsed on the street. She was kidnapped by the terrorist organization HYDRA. They offered to take her to Luke and to pay her obscene amounts of money to spy on the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. for them. When she refused, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents broke in and rescued her. Ben and Jessica finally found the Night Nurse Clinic where Luke was being cared for. Upon finally seeing him again, Jessica said she loved him for the first time their relationship; showing that she finally started breaking down the walls of isolation that she had erected around herself and used to cut herself off from others.
After a lunch date with the original "super mom", Sue Richards, Jessica helps Luke decide on new costume designs (Yellow blouses and silver tiaras are
soooo 1975). While looking at the choices Janet van Dyne had on display, Jessica's water broke, after only a six month pregnancy. Ms. Marvel rushes Jessica to a hospital, where an administrator tells the doctors they are not permitted to assist with the delivery inside of the hospital. The administrator doesn't want to take responsibility if the child is born a mutant and kills patients and employees upon birth. The Avengers arrive on the scene and take Jessica to Dr. Strange. The good doctor assists with the delivery of a healthy, happy baby girl. Moments after their daughter is born, Luke Cage proposes to Jessica. She is aghast and doesn't give him an answer. Later that night, after telling her newborn daughter about the night that Jessica met Luke, Jessica decides that she wants to and can be with Luke. She decides that she will marry him.
Jessica Jones is the best new comic book character of the last 6 years. It may not sound like much, but she is also one of the best comic characters of all-time. Notice I did not say "super-hero". Because, let's face it, Jess' career as a super hero was mediocre at best. That is not where her strength lies. Her strength lies in the fact that she is about as imperfect, and by extension as real, as you can get. Jessica reminds me a lot of people I know, and even myself to an extent. She has had tragic events in her past that affected her life as an adult. She is inspirational because she fails. Seriously. She fails just like all of us do. She fails large and she fails small. She loses patience with the people around her, she shuts out friends and family because she doesn't know how to deal with their genuine affection for her. She falls backwards into self-destructive patterns and habits because they are comfortable and familiar. When faced with change, she is hesitant to accept it, if she accepts it at all. So why is she an inspiration? Because through out all of her self-absorbed, self-centeredness, Jess still does the right thing whenever she can. She cannot help herself from helping people. She still cares about random strangers that need her assistance. And, in the end, she gets her shit together. She didn't need Cage or the baby to get her shit together. She faced her "purple" demon and defeated him. That was the first step on her path towards accepting herself and letting go of her past. No, she did all of that on her own, the man that she loves and their child were not the impetus, they were the icing on the cake. Jessica is an inspiration because she shows that it's never to late to get it right and that you never have to stop caring about others, no matter how you feel about yourself.
I love Jessica Jones.
