Unlike Daredevil, who had several outings in other media before his defining role in the MCU with his Netflix series, Jessica Jones could be considered a relative unknown to those who enjoy the standard Marvel fair. She's not an Avenger, she's not a Guardian, and come the arrival of her series, she's not even a costumed super hero. But she is a wonderful character, who is integral to the Netflix Defenders and more than deserves to have her own series in the more mature side of the MCU. But who is Jessica Jones?
Jones, Alias: Jewel
Alias focused on Jessica Jones as a private investigator, operating 'Alias Investigations', where she specialises in taking on superhuman related cases. As she solves small cases in Hells Kitchen, she enters into a relationship with bar owner Luke Cage, which working alongside Matt Murdock on one case. During the events of Alias, we learn that Jessica is an ex-superhero who went under the name Jewel, who quit after a traumatic event at the hands of The Purple Man. More on all of these characters in a bit.
The Colour Purple
Killgrave then falls on hard times in his criminal career and goes into hiding, presumed dead by many. During this time, Killgrave uses his mind control powers to influence people to better his own selfish lifestyle, including a younger superhero called Jewel, who he imprisons for a period of eight months. Other this time, he forces her to beg for sex and freedom, which he never gives her. Her imprisonment ends when he forces her to attack the Avengers, which ends with Jessica getting beaten in a brawl by Scarlet Witch, and then helped to block Killgrave's pheremones by Jean Grey. Jones later founds Alias Investigations and quits the supehero life. Shortly after, Killgrave returns and attempts to mentally torment Jones, who overcomes his abilities and beats him to within an inch of his life, before Daredevil imprisons him on The Raft, a high security supervillain prison.
Cage Fighter
There, he meets Jessica Jones, and after a one night stand, bonds with her whilst working with Matt Murdock. The pair work together to defeat The Purple Man on two separate occasions, which causes them fall in love. They later get married and have a child, whilst continuing to be superheroes and working with The Avengers. Later, they hang up their costumes to live a normal life. But a hero's work is never done, and the pair have continued to jump back into using their powers on multiple occasions, whilst struggling to find a suitable superhuman babysitter for their daughter, Danielle.
The Hellcat Cometh?
Hell's Kitchen is a Small Place...
However, Rosario Dawson, who played Claire Temple in Daredevil, will be making an appearance in the series, which makes sense in many ways. Not only was she previously romantically involved with Luke Cage, but will possibly be seen attending to battle wounds for either Jones or Cage, given her identity as Night Nurse, of which has become slightly more grounded for use in the MCU.
Some Speculations
Another potential cross-over reference is with the Super Soldier Program. Luke Cage technically counts as part of one of the Super Soldier experiments like Captain America, The Winter Soldier, Red Skull, Hulk, The Abomination, Deathlok and Scorch. Cage was subjugated to a similar physical enhancement experiment that Steve Rogers and co. were partial to at other points in the MCU. Whether this gets explored in this series or his own has yet to be seen, though.
Similarly, this would also mean that Jones would have to be aware of who Daredevil would be, meaning a potential for Matt Murdock to make a cameo appearance. Even though no such cameo has been confirmed, it is in the realm of possibility, given that they will later team up in The Defenders.
Marvel's Jessica Jones premieres tomorrow, 20th November 2015, on Netflix. All 13 episodes will be instantly available for streaming. Check back in the coming days for a Pop Culture Club series review.
@ThatMikeOwen
The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of our podcasts, and currently pens Pop Culture Club and The Death of Video Games