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I like how you still try to plan the day even though we do what we do and deal with all that we deal with and our day never goes as planned.
Jessica Jones to Luke Cage, Jessica Jones #12

Jessica Jones is a 2016-2018 comic book published by Marvel Comics. It was written by Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Michael Gaydos and covers by David Mack and served as a Sequel Series to Alias. It lasted a total of 18 issues.

Alias Investigations is back in business, but former-superhero-turned-private-detective Jessica Jones has a mess of problems to deal with. For starters, her life has fallen apart after she took her daughter away from her husband for some unknown reason. She's searching for secrets that are more dangerous than ever, plus she has some secrets from her own haunted past that she doesn't want to get out. And she's taken on a case that may, in fact, kill her.

Just another day in the life of Jessica Jones.

This book was followed by two Marvel Digital Original mini-series: Jessica Jones: Blind Spot and Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter, written by Kelly Thompson, with art by Mattia De Iulis.


    Tropes in Jessica Jones 
  • The Atoner: Since the entire thing was Carol Danvers' plan, after the plan is over, Carol goes to great lengths to try and fix Jessica's life. She still can't get her and Luke to reconcile, however. For that, Jessica herself becomes The Atoner and asks Luke to forgive her. It takes time, but he does.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When the Purple Man walks in the door with the cupcake store doorbell still on it, Jessica laments internally that he's threatened her husband, her baby, and her life – and now he's ruining bakeries for her too.
  • Art Shift: Memories of Jessica and Carol's first meeting are drawn in the Silver Age comics style, but Jessica didn't exist as a character until the late '90s.
  • Assassination Attempt: There's one on Maria Hill, so she hires Jessica to find out who put out a hit on her. It turns out she did it herself.
  • Cassandra Truth: Jessica took the case of a woman whose husband (a regular joe) claimed to come from Another Dimension. This being Jessica Jones, she took it with Arbitrary Skepticism. This guy killed his wife in a gruesome manner before the case could be completed. He was detained, and Jessica was called to hear his testimony. Yes, he claims to come from another dimension... which was destroyed, as part of a huge conspiracy between heroes of this dimension, who plotted to bargain the death of countless dimensions so that this one could live. In the face of such cosmic horror, his petty murder is nothing. Nobody can ever believe such a story, right?
  • Chew Toy: The Armadillo. Even heroes just assume he's a villain fighting the cops when he's just an ordinary giant armadillo-man going about his business surrounded by the police and trying not to get shot, and beat him up.
  • Child Hater: Discussed. Jessica denies having hated babies before she had one. Carol claims she doesn't hate them so much as she just doesn't like being around them, speculating whether it has anything to do with that time she thought she was pregnant, but it turned out to just be her alien boyfriend regenerating himself inside her womb.
  • Conspiracy Theory: A man smoking with his friends suddenly declares that he thinks humanity isn't going to get taken over by mutants, but by spider-people.
  • Continuity Nod: The woman who offers money to Jessica to betray the superheroes is Alison Greene, the same woman that Carol Danvers accused of having a bomb in her briefcase during Civil War II. While she didn't have a bomb, it does appear as if she either was a part of something shady or Captain Marvel's actions drove her to villainy.
  • Driven to Suicide: The Purple Man, on Jessica's advice, decides to finally die, after coming back to life so many times. He walks out in the middle of the street and collapses.
  • Earth All Along: Jessica is kidnapped by someone, and held at a warehouse in some unknown location. The kidnapper actually just wanted to talk, making sure that she wouldn't run away. Once they are done, the kidnapper gives a proof of good will by simply releasing Jessica and letting her go, with no problem whatsoever. The warehouse? It was at the next street to Jessica's home.
  • Faking the Dead: After Maria Hill hires Jessica to track down whoever is trying to kill her, someone bombs Jessica's office, killing her. Only not really, since it was only a Maria Hill LMD.
  • Father's Quest: Luke tries to track down where his daughter Dani is and finally figures out that Jessica left her with her foster mother.
  • Foreshadowing: The Purple Man, speaking through Danielle Cage, tells Jessica and Luke if they ever wondered if her baby would turn out purple. Later on, in Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter, Danielle does turn purple.
  • Happily Adopted: Averted with Jessica and her foster mother — it's very clear that they really never liked one another, although Jessica still goes to her to hide her own daughter, Dani. Jessica's foster mother still tells her that if Dani's father, Luke Cage, ever shows up, she won't keep hiding Dani, because a) Luke is Dani's father and b) Luke is super strong and bulletproof. When Luke shows up, Jessica's foster mother keeps her word and lets him go with Dani.
  • Hurl It into the Sun: Carol throws the Purple Man's body into the sun.
  • The Infiltration: The first arc has Jessica's life completely falling apart...so that she can hit her lowest point and be offered a part in a villainous plan to start another superhero civil war. Once this happens, Jessica quickly signals for Carol Danvers and SHIELD to swoop in and arrest everyone. Then Jessica has to go and rebuild her life again.
  • Infodump: When someone takes a chair at Alias and starts to explain what the case is all about, get ready for this.
  • Insult Backfire: Inverted in the last issue of Bendis's run. A client calls her a "magnificent, fabulous bitch" over the phone. Jessica starts to apologize, then realizes it was intended as a compliment.
  • Meaningful Name: Daisy Schilling is loaded.
  • Missing Child: In order to protect her daughter Dani while she pretends to hit rock bottom, Jessica leaves her with the one person that nobody will suspect: Jessica's foster mother, whom she hates. But since she doesn't tell anybody things, Luke Cage (the father) is pissed. The first thing he says to her is, "Hi, honey. Where's our daughter?"
  • The Mole: Alison Greene, the leader of the group that wants to start another superhero civil war, was waiting for a superhero to hit rock bottom in order to offer them a chance to become a mole for them. Too bad Jessica was already a mole for Carol Danvers.
  • No, You: The Purple Man does a version of this. When trying to convince Jessica to use him as her personal genie, she argues that he would likely turn on her the moment he became annoyed with her, because he is volatile. He retorts that so is she, as if that has anything to do with anything.
  • Oh, Crap!: The moment after Carol tells Jessica that Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, has escaped from the Raft.
  • Papa Wolf: Luke Cage. God help you if you take his kid away from him.
  • Parents as People: Both Jessica and her foster mother fall into this trap: they both tried to do what was best for their children, but ended up making mistakes. Jessica does not like her foster mother, but still goes to her for help. In the end, Jessica herself tries to do better and even manages to get back together with Luke.
  • Properly Paranoid: When Maria Hill turns up in the 2016 series, Jessica speculates that she has faked her injuries to trick her into some ploy that will end with her dying in a Latverian prison. As it happens, Hill is (relatively) honest this time, but Jessica's suspicions were reasonable.
  • Resurrective Immortality: The Purple Man can't die. Every time he does, he just gets back up again. That's the real reason he's come to talk to Jessica: he wants Jessica to tell him what to do next. She tells him to just die. So he does.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In Civil War II, Ulysses made a prophecy that a woman named Alison Greene would commit acts of terror. After being treated like a terrorist by SHIELD, she certainly would..
  • Shameless Self-Promoter: One issue has a background TV announcing that "Brian Michael Bendis saves the world."
  • Shout-Out
    • This line:
      Agent Carter: Yeah, to quote the great General Solo: That is not how any of this works
    • Jessica's mother thinks Danielle's newly acquired walking skills look more like falling forward.
      Jessica: With style
    • When Jessica shows up at the police station to see a homicide detective about a recent case, they're bringing in a woman who is cosplaying as Gwenpool.
    • That same homicide detective tells her it's not like on Law & Order.
    • Jessica refers to Carol as "Miss Bippity Boppity Boo".
    • Raindrop's security guys sit around claiming they are, respectively, Emma Stoned, Sharon Stoned and Oliver Stoned. After sharing his spider-people conspiracy theory, the others concede that the last one is Oliver Stoned.
    • Maria Hill claims not to have slept since Cold Case went off the air.
    • Maria Hill calls Jessica "more human than human".
    • Jessica tells Miles she doesn't want him getting in detention and joining The Breakfast Club.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: Jessica and Vernon Hill separately arrived at the conclusion that, 1) Maria Hill and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. people are professional liars, and 2) there is no special secret club for people with children.
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: Alison Greene was detained and accused of being a terrorist back in Civil War II. She was innocent at the time, but out of spite she has since taken up the murdering innocents and bombing schools business.
  • Time Travel: Dreams of an encounter with an adult version of her daughter Dani in issue 3 of her 2016 series. She's from around 30 years in the future, and has the combined powers of Jessica, Luke, and Captain America.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In issue 13, Dani starts speaking in entire complete sentences...because she's been taken over by the Purple Man.
  • Villainous Crush: The Purple Man still has one on Jessica. It turns out that because she's the only person who can resist his power, he trusts her to tell him what to do next.
  • Where da White Women At?: Jessica says to her daughter that being the product of an interracial relationship and two superheroes is enough to make her life hard. The new Power Man also had a problem with the original, her husband Luke Cage, for dating a white woman.

    Tropes in Jessica Jones: Blind Spot 
See here.

    Tropes in Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter 
  • Antagonistic Offspring: Benjamin Killgrave, the son of the Purple Man.
  • Back from the Dead: Zebediah Killgrave. It turns out that Carol was tricked into thinking she threw his body into the sun by Benjamin Killgrave, his son, who then kept his body until it resurrected and then kept him in a drug-induced coma, using his blood to take control of people.
  • Dirty Mind-Reading: Emma Frost in Purple Daughter #3 finds it quite amusing to telepathically overhear Jessica musing that Emma has a pretty impressive rack.
  • Parental Favoritism: It's highly implied from the statements of one of Killgrave sons is that out of all children he has sired, Zebediah views Kara Killgrave (who was a member of Alpha Flight and a hero) as the favorite despite the fact she is (morally) nothing like him.
  • The Reveal: Purple Daughter Chapter 4 (second half of issue #2) reveals that the Purple Man has been alive and has been used by his newly-revealed son Benjamin to create a special serum with their blood to create stronger mind-controlled people.
  • Superdickery: In Purple Daughter #1, the issue opens with Jessica seemingly drowning a woman while musing this is how she becomes a supervillain. In context, it turns out the woman is Kara Killgrave, who Jessica is dousing to make sure Kara can't use her mind control powers. That said, it was still quite a dick move since Kara had no hostility towards Jessica and was perfectly willing to help her.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Benjamin Kilgrave, Purple Man's son, is this, as he doesn't have his skin color and seemingly not his powers. He tells Jessica that Kilgrave was always disappointed in him because of this. He gets his revenge by putting Kilgrave in an induced coma and stealing his blood to create a stronger hypnosis serum by mixing it with his own.
  • Wham Shot:
    • The final page of Issue #6 of the 2018 series shows Dani returning home with purple skin, causing her to visually resemble the Purple Man.
    • The last panel in Issue #2 of Purple Daughter shows that the Purple Man is no longer purple.
  • Who's Your Daddy?: In Purple Daughter, this becomes a question. Danielle has always looked like a mixed-race black and white baby, but one day her skin turns purple, and her parents start to wonder if they have been hallucinating the whole time. At the end of Purple Daughter, it's revealed that Danielle is still Jessica and Luke's biological daughter and that the purple effect was a cry for help from Zebediah Kilgrave while he was kept in a coma by his son, Benjamin. At any rate, Luke has said he considers her his whether or not the biology checks out.


Alternative Title(s): Jessica Jones 2016, Jessica Jones Purple Daughter

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