In the wake of the overwhelming success of Marvel Entertainment's "Daredevil," yet another TV series will be premiering this Friday, Nov. 20. This time, we'll be looking at a rather new comic book character, Jessica Jones. Now, when I say “new”, I mean around 14 years old, which for a comic book character is pretty new considering Bruce Wayne has been the Dark Knight since 1939 and Peter Parker has been your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man since 1962. 14 years old is basically newborn in the world of comic books.
So who exactly is this Jessica Jones and what makes her so super? I'm so glad you asked — well, you didn't ask, but you clicked on the article, which is kind of the same. Jessica Jones was created by Brian Michael Bendis (writer of the Age of Ultron comic book story arc, Uncanny X-Men and creator of Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man ) and David Mack (artist for the Civil War tie-in of Ms. Marvel and writer for Daredevil: End of Day) in 2003 with her first appearance in the 2001-2004 comic book series Alias (not in any relation to the 2001-2006 TV series) issue number one.
Jessica Jones’ origin story is found in Vol. 4 of the graphic novel collection of Alias (issues 22-23), but a brief rundown (and when I say brief, I do mean that I am cutting out some less pertinent parts; you go read the comics yourself!) is as follows: The Campbell family was on the road when a truck carrying radioactive chemicals hit their car, exploded, and killed Jessica’s parents. Jessica was then adopted by the Jones family, hence the surname Jones. Some time later, Jessica realized that the explosion had given her special powers that are as follows: flight, super-strength, and resistance to physical injury. Jessica Jones is also a reasonably skilled detective, as the series Alias follows her as a detective. She was also on the roster for the New Avengers under the alias of Power Woman for quite some time.
As far as the TV series goes, this looks, from the trailer, to be mostly based around the Alias comic series, which follows her after she steps down as a hero for a time. The show will more than likely tie in with the "Daredevil" series, since she works alongside with Matt Murdock (Daredevil) in the comics, and will most definitely tie in with the upcoming "Luke Cage" series (expected to release in Apr. of 2016 according to IMDb.com) since she married Luke Cage in the comic books. The role of Jessica Jones will be played by actress Krysten Ritter, who is known for roles in Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), Big Eyes (2014) and What Happens in Vegas (2010).
As stated earlier, the series will be released in its entirety (binge-watchers unite!) on Friday, Nov. 20. The first season will consist of 13 episodes with a runtime around 50 minutes per episode. The recent release of "Daredevil" was given a five-star user rating on Netflix and 8.9 stars out of 10 on IMDb as well. From the looks of the trailer, the show looks like it will have the same gritty, dark feel as "Daredevil" had, which, in my not so humble opinion, will be a very good thing. If "Jessica Jones" is written even half as well as "Daredevil", then we’re in for quite a treat for this fall.
How do you think the show will be? What do you think of the rise of these new superhero shows on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!
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