We wrap this block with 2 more weird tangents. This post, we’re looking at Alias, the book wherein Bendis, Michael Gaydos and Matt Hollingsworth gave the world Jessica Jones. Here, approaching the 2nd year of the book, the team revealed how she got her powers. Like much of Alias, it is tragic, dark and worthy of the “adult” label on the cover. Not much of either of these issues is pertinent to this blog, so I’m covering very little of each, but you’ll never guess why.
What?
That’s right, Jessica Jones was such a nerd that she had a secret crush on Midtown High’s only professional wallflower. Today may be the day for Jessica, but today is also another day…
She was there! I would say it’s sort of surprising Marvel would allow this, but it’s the Jemas/Quesada era of course they would. Jessica isn’t the last person to get retrofitted into this scene, either, believe it or not. It’s very busy. Well, after that Jessica was nearly hit by the same kind of chemical truck that gave Daredevil his powers, just for an extra layer of weirdness, then she goes on living her teenage life until, on a road trip, her family’s car is in a terrible accident with some military vehicles carrying weird chemicals, which leaves their vehicle crushed and on fire on the side of the road. Then, the very night the FF first fought Galactus, Jessica woke up from a coma she’d been in ever since. Which is years, even in the sliding timeline, we jump from Amazing Fantasy 15 to the month ASM 36 came out. She learns she was the only member of her family to survive the accident, and is soon placed in foster care.
This issue, Bendis really gets into the weeds by saying it’s only been a year since AF 15. That’s pretty categorically untrue, and things are further complicated by the art setting it firmly in the 70s, as Jessica returns to Midtown High and all the girls have Farrah Fawcett haircuts and things. So it’s earlier than it should have been, looks later than it actually was, and really should be happening in the 90s if we were being realistic. Headspinning and it’s just the page one splash. Jessica is treated like a weird curiosity by her peers as “coma girl” returns to the student population, including some typically thoughtless comments from one Flash Thompson.
Now there’s some language you wouldn’t get in the 60s/70s/90s! Feels very Ultimate Flash Thompson as opposed to Amazing Flash Thompson, but what can ya do?
I think what’s great about this is Peter is trying to help and commiserate, but one poor choice of words sending it all off the rails is really the ol’ Parker luck.
And so, Jessica’s strange, tragic journey to superherodom and beyond began. Alias was a really good series. Too good, in some ways, as they began wanting to integrate Jessica more into the main Marvel U. The MAX adult line was pretty intentionally set apart, made to look like something a kid wouldn’t like, not too involved with other Marvel comics. Jessica had to get watered down and censored to join the rest of the world. But she surely becomes a big part of it. This would not be the last time she crossed paths with Peter Parker. Due to Jessica being introduced via Gaydos’ realistic art style (The model for Jessica Jones was his wife at the time), she has, to me, been one of the few comic characters you can draw incorrectly. Everyone has their own take on Spider-Man or Batman, but Jessica Jones wasn’t just a drawing, she was a real woman. She had more of a visual identity than any superhero, and it became very frustrating when other artists just drew Some Lady. As she became more popular and appeared in more things, she stopped being “on model” at all, anywhere. It was hard to accept Kristen Ritter as Jessica for the same reason, but she did a great job on the show. Now comic book people draw her more like she looked on the show, but still just however they want. It’s frustrating to me. Like a character on a TV show suddenly being a different actor every episode.