Jessica Jones has a show coming out soon! Very exciting times, hoping it’s a good show. Lots of folks are wondering who Jessica is, what she can do. That’s where this article comes in! So enough dilly dallying, let’s get to it!
Jessica Campbell was just a normal Midtown High student. She had a crush on a boy in her class, Peter. Jessica sometimes has the most rotten luck, just as she worked up the courage to ask him out, the poor guy gets a nasty spider bite that ends up disrupting her whole plan. Even worse luck, when her family is on their way to a Disney park, they crash into a military convoy that was carrying radioactive material. Jessica loses her entire family and winds up in a coma for months.
When Jessica awakens it’s to a world on the brink, a giant alien being known as Galactus is ready to eat the Earth until a weird family saves the day. Jessica is adopted by the Jones family and goes back to Midtown High. That Peter boy tries to sympathize with Jessica, he’d lost his uncle recently and his parents died when he was a kid, so he could relate on loss of family but Jessica thought he was just pitying her.
Another thing Jessica was dealing with? She’d gained superpowers. She kept them a secret until one day at school she saw Spider-Man fighting Doctor Octopus. This inspired her to don a costume herself and use her powers to help the world. Calling herself Jewel, Jessica would be kind of low on the radar for most heroes and villains, only drawing attention from a few.
Sadly, one of the worst villains took notice of her. Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, has the ability to make you do whatever he says. “Go kill that person for me.” “Give me all your money.” are a few of his favorite commands. They aren’t even his worst ones. Jessica met him and was caught in his commands for 8 months straight. For nearly a year Jessica was Killgrave’s muscle and was beginning to wonder how much of her brutality was under his will or her own.
Angered by a newspaper article, Killgrave glibly commands Jessica to kill that red-wearing jerk where the superhero frat is. He meant for her to kill Daredevil, but while she was away from his direct influence, she just attacked the first red clad hero she saw. Attacking Scarlet Witch, she’d end up in a fight with Vision and Iron Man getting badly injured in the process. Not until Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel at the time, recognized Jessica and took her to S.H.I.E.L.D. for recovery did Jessica begin to heal from her mind controlled state.
Spending time with Jean Grey, Jessica would be given mental defenses and therapy for what Killgrave had done to her and forced her to do. After she was released from care she turned into a darker hero, Knightress and took on criminals like the Owl and the mob. This case would be how she met Luke Cage and the two would team up to take down the Owl and company. When she’d find out that one of the mob had brought his children she would reveal her secret identity to the authorities so she could look after the kids for the night. Heroics were proving to be too much and Jessica decided to retire from costumed crime fighting. She’d open up shop as a private detective, her reputation as a superhero would garner her many cases tied with that community.
Trying to lead as normal a life as she could, Jessica would struggle with her past as well as her clients. Dealing with a variety of cases and interacting with more heroes and villains than she had as a superhero. Through all of it, she and Luke Cage would grow closer and closer, eventually leading to Jessica being pregnant and the two realizing what they meant to one another.
Deciding her private investigation business was too much, Jessica would move into the world of journalism working at The Daily Bugle. As a reporter, Jessica would find new dangers and threats in her life. One such dangerous threat was Norman Osborn being exposed as the Green Goblin. When a group of teen heroes break out onto the scene. Jessica begins investigating the Young Avengers team learning all she can about the kids and even becomes something of a confidant with some of them. She would be present when the team dissolved due to the loss of several members.
When the Bugle writes a story besmirching the New Avengers unfairly, Jessica quits and has her baby. Danielle is named after Luke’s best friend, Danny Rand, the Iron Fist. Jessica marries Luke and the new family lives together in Harlem until the Superhero Registration Act goes into effect. Jessica takes Danielle to Canada while Luke stays behind at their home to help who he can. Siding with the anti-registration, she would on occasion help her friends until it became a threat to Danielle. She would register for the sake of her child despite holding her anti-registration beliefs.
Skrull invasion leads to Danielle being kidnapped and a massive search goes underway to rescue her. Unbeknownst to Jessica, Luke must team up with Norman Osborn to rescue their daughter but is grateful to have her daughter home safe. When she learns that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, the two reminisce to back when she was had a crush on him in high school. Peter suggests she maybe go back to heroics full time as an inspiration to her daughter.
Back on the scene as a hero with Squirrel Girl as Danielle’s nanny, Jessica joins Luke’s New Avengers team for a time until their new home at Avengers Mansion is nearly destroyed too many times and she moves out with Danielle for her child’s safety. When Luke would begin the Mighty Avengers Jessica would move Danielle to a home nearby their new headquarters working with her husband on running this new street level team.
There you have it folks! Jessica Jones has quite the history for only being around for 15 years. I kind of glossed over a lot of her P.I. days cause I don’t want to inadvertently spoil the show, just in case. Here’s hoping we have a great show to look forward to and I hope this gets you interested in reading her books! See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Alias
The Pulse
New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
