‘Jessica Jones’ breaks new superhero ground
Daring comics get small-screen adaptation
Just like the comic book on which it is based, Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” is a revelation.
The 13-episode first season, all of which became available Nov. 20, is based on a 2001 Marvel Comics series that was no ordinary Marvel Comics series. It was the first in Marvel’s adults-only “MAX” line — and as if to punctuate that distinction, the first word spoken on the first page was an F-bomb.
That original Jessica Jones series was named “Alias,” which wasn’t an option for the TV series. (Jennifer Garner, also known for her role in the “Daredevil” and “Elektra” movies, starred in an ABC series named “Alias” from 2001 to 2006.) Marvel still managed to name Jessica’s business “Alias Investigations” as a nod to the comics.
But that wasn’t the only reference to Jessica’s original medium, as the entire series has been lifted almost whole from print to screen. In addition, there are a lot of comics references that weren’t in the original series but fit in nicely.
But the most impressive aspect of “Jessica Jones” is just how daring both the comics and the series are in their depiction of the lead char-
acter. Never before had I seen a series offer me a lead character who was so unlikable that she didn’t even like herself! Jones, at the beginning of both comic book and TV series, is a bed-hopping, self-loathing alcoholic with a traumatic past who is slowly circling the drain.
And, sure, detective noir is chockablock with male characters who answer, in varying degrees, to the description above. But for comics to offer a leading lady who wasn’t a paragon of virtue was pretty daring in 2001.
Moreover, the reason that Jessica is so unlikable is the real thunderbolt. Although writer Brian Michael Bendis strung out the mystery in the comics longer than the TV show did, the trauma was due to a minor Daredevil villain named Killgrave (Kilgrave on TV) who has the power to control minds. He can make anyone do anything, just by telling them to do it. No one can resist.
Despite this incredible power, Killgrave was minor because he was a lazy jerk. He didn’t want to control the world; he just gratified all of his petty and selfish impulses. So he lived in five-star hotels or mansions, and ate only gourmet meals, leaving in his wake mystified employees who got fired or homeowners who couldn’t account for weeks of time. He would force pretty girls to have sex with him while ordering their boyfriends to commit suicide. It’s all pretty stomach-churning, but his destructive acts were on a personal, not global, scale. He fought Daredevil, after all, not the Avengers.
But minor villain or not, his effect on individuals is catastrophic. One such was Jessica herself. In the comics, she was under his control for months, forced to do all sorts of terrible things. In the end, one of Killgrave’s orders resulted in her attacking the Avengers, of which she was a member (as the superhero “Jewel”). She was saved from critical injury by her close friend Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers, but that pretty much ended her superhero career.
That wasn’t the worst part. The effect of Killgrave’s repeated rape — of both mind and body — was to traumatize Jessica so badly that she could barely function. She built up walls around herself emotionally, chased away people who tried to help, engaged in rough sex to punish herself and drank to forget. She was haunted by Killgrave — an abuser from whom you could never be safe — and suffered flashbacks of her torture.
Now, a very good article on Salon.com by Sonia Saraiya makes the case that Jessica’s experience and resulting terror is a huge metaphor for domestic abuse. I admire the premise and the conclusion but don’t feel qualified to comment further.
I can only comment on my own reaction, which was to see Jessica as a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder. “Jessica Jones” is, as Arthur Chu phrases it on Slate.com, “one of the grimmest, darkest, boldest shows out there: a TV show that’s essentially 13 hours of PTSD related to the aftermath of sexual assault.”
Interestingly, Kilgrave is one of the few men of any note in the series. There’s also Malcolm, a junkie cobbled together from various comics characters. And Luke Cage, a superhero(ish) character who is pretty much the same on the show as he was in “Alias.” There is also Sgt. Simpson, who turned out to be part of an experimental military group who can take red pills to become moreor-less superhuman — and out of control. This mirrors a comics character named Nuke who, once again, was a Daredevil villain.
Marvel is reprinting the original 28-issue series in four volumes titled “Jessica Jones: Alias.” Two volumes are already out; Volume 3 arrived at comic shops last week, and Volume 4 is scheduled for January 2016.