Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter

by Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis, Felipe Andrade, and Stephanie Paitreau
Collects Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter MDO Digital Comic #1-3
volume one | two

Purple Daughter is a magical combo of two writing pitfalls in superhero books: no one stays dead, and marriage is only interesting when the relationship is threatened.

Jessica spirals into depression and drinking (she makes up for not taking a single shot last volume), when she and Luke find their daughter Dani has turned purple. But after a seemingly final death from Bendis, a controversial, unique and intensely disturbing villain has become an exhausting rehash – god forbid Jessica has a rogue other than the Purple Man! Jessica finally leaves the bar, and also leaves Luke and Dani, to investigate the Purple Problem. It’s fun to see her paired with the newly minted Black King, Emma Frost, and Jessica clearly shines with another badass female character. And I haven’t enjoyed Emma this much in ages.

But truthfully, Jessica’s team up really should have been with Luke.

Back in the last issue of volume one, Luke accidentally buys purple balloons for Dani’s birthday, which triggers Jessica. Luke recognizes that he doesn’t fully understand Jessica’s trauma, and he tells her to be vulnerable with him – so why doesn’t Luke (and Thompson) make good on that promise?

This is, perhaps, the most vulnerable state their relationship could ever be in: Luke and Jessica can’t help but question if their marriage is a lie, if Jessica is still being controlled, if Dani is truly Luke’s daughter…it’s heavy shit. And yet, Jessica doesn’t let Luke investigate with her as she returns to her traumatic past. Luke doesn’t bribe Iron Fist to babysit Dani, and then insist that he not let Jessica do this alone.

Plus, there’s a major plot development at the end that would almost guarantee some significant trust issues and insecurity on both ends, but everything is wrapped up with a nice bow, and somehow the relationship doesn’t change much. Aside from both agreeing about Emma Frost’s boobs, I guess.

Thompson is great at writing heroines (Jessica, Kate Bishop, Elsa Bloodstone), but her villains are often convoluted and far fetched. Kate Bishop’s first villains were a hate cult that used stickers for mind control; in West Coast Avengers, M.O.D.O.K. builds himself a hot bod and zaps women into giant animals. The theme continues in Purple Daughter, with a convoluted, confusing and predictable villain; a hugely surprising, self-violating choice by Jessica that doesn’t seem to leave any emotional scars; and an infuriating escape that still robs Jessica of her peace. (How Jessica doesn’t just move into a therapist’s office is beyond me – though I was actually hoping we’d at least see her visit the support group again.)

The biggest highlight of the book is Mattia De Iulis’ gorgeous art. Everything is clean and sharp, and he uses a combination of blurring and color to show depth and movement. His texturing and shadowing work is also incredible, particularly Jessica’s leather pants and lovely hair detail too. Some of the fighting scenes just crackle on the page and De Iulis’ strong facial expressions really bring characters to life. Even though an artist switch during one issue fit the narrative, Andrade’s style was a bit too rough and unfinished for my liking. Perhaps that’s what the story was going for, but I would have preferred De Iulis use his style more creatively to get the same point across.

There’s no confirmation online, but I believe the series is on hiatus but there’s more Jessica Jones to come (mostly based on this post on De Iulis’ Instagram, which shows some new art). I’m still on board for future issues, Thompson remains one of my favorite writers and De Iulis is fast becoming a favorite artist too…I just hope Purple villains have been put to rest, permanently.

Jessica Jones: Blind Spot

by Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis and Rachelle Rosenberg
collects Jessica Jones #1-6
volume one | two

The newest Jessica Jones series, headed up by Thompson and De Iulis, started out as a digital three part story arc on Comixology, along with a bunch of other exclusively digital titles including Iron Fist, Captain Marvel and Luke Cage (the three “parts” were double sized issues). I’m curious how the sales piece is working out for Marvel (releasing issues digitally and trades in print seems like a bit of a risk), but I’m glad they’re at least willing to try with popular characters and especially Jessica’s case, a top of the line writer too.

Thompson and De Iulis take the best things about Bendis’ Jessica Jones run and, for the most part, make it better. Thompson has a great handle on the voice and inner turmoil of Jessica (without Bendis’ walls of text), even though her bad habits are somewhat mediated now that she has a family with new hubby Luke Cage and daughter Dani. (Does she even have a drink this whole volume?)

Jessica and Luke have a sweet and protective relationship, and for two people who naturally put up walls, it’s really humanizing for both of them. In the final issue, Luke realizes a mistake he made and tells Jessica she can be vulnerable with him in a really powerful scene. Giving Jessica a loving partner and a safe space with him makes her try harder to be better for her family, and that’s more interesting than where she started.

Also, look at those arms. Daaaaamn.

In Blind Spot, one of Jessica’s old clients, who ended as a cold case, literally turns up cold on her office floor. Jessica goes from murder suspect to PI with a vengeance, to one of the victims herself. The mystery is interesting with some unexpected twists, and of course lots of cameos – at this point, just expect Strange and Carol cameos in every Marvel comic.

Jessica also teams up with Elsa Bloodstone, a monster hunter constantly bleeped out with tiny skulls for letters. This was my introduction to the character and her no nonsense badassery made her a great pair with Jessica. Their banter during a squelchy fish monster battle in the Hudson River (yes you read that right) was a highlight of the book.

The story was definitely propelled not just by Jessica but other women whether they help Jessica get a phone number (Kate! Nico! Karolina!), kill fish monsters, or get in her way (Misty Knight). It’s a good balance since women are also all the victims, and it doesn’t feel too forced. The end brings in some #metoo metaphors that might be on the nose for some but considering Jessica’s personal history and the theme of the book, it absolutely works.

This is my first time seeing De Iulis’ art and it reminded me a bit of Cat Staggs’ also awesome work in Crosswind. The realistic style definitely works in Jessica’s world and was especially cool during the fighting scenes, but other times characters looked a bit wooden and lacked expression – very rarely did characters have creases on their foreheads and around the eyes so it looked really polished, but not too expressive. Jessica’s observations come in the form of black and white photos overlaying what she’s seeing with a short explanation, a cool visual addition that also reminded me of a similar style from Leonardo Romero’s Kate Bishop run. Movement was also an issue, the few panels above with Elsa tossing the axe and Jessica flying through the aren’t as exciting or kinetic as they should be.

Rosenberg’s art in #6 was very off putting but that might have also been because it was so jarring from De Iulis – where De Iulis is exact, Rosenberg was a bit looser, and going from one to the other it felt all over the place. I might not have felt that Rosenberg’s art was sloppy and difficult to put up with – especially with the good one shot story – had it not come at the end of De Iulis’ art.

Blind Spot finishes with a surprising cliffhanger. Looking forward to volume two and I’m thrilled that even with this experimental media format, Jessica Jones remains an excellent title.

Alias

by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (and guest artists), and Matt Hollingsworth
Omnibus collects Alias #1-28 and “What If” (complete series)

If you love the Jessica Jones TV show and are looking for something to tide you over before its final season (out…sometime this year), look no further than Alias. 

Jessica’s solo series and the show’s source material for of the first season, Alias covers Jessica’s origin story, her PI job, relationships with Daredevil and Cage (along with many others, like Carol Danvers and Peter Parker, not in the show because MCU reasons), and most of all, her past and confrontation with Killgrave, or “The Purple Man,” who is literally purple (but if you’ve seen the show, good luck not hearing David Tennant’s voice as you read).

Alias was also one of Marvel’s “Max” explicit comics, which meant drugs, sex and swearing were all fair game – and pretty much necessary for the alcoholic, self-destructive Jones. But Bendis writes her well so she seems like a real person – a real woman too, which surprised me from his treatment of women in other books – and while sometimes the swearing feels gratuitous, the sex (usually just an excuse for the male gaze when a female lead is involved) is not. Though it would have been nice if Jessica was getting down and liking it.

But damn, does Bendis love dialogue. He looOooOOoves the sound of his own dialogue and eventually it’s just tedious filler, especially when one page memoir excerpts are thrown in. Y’know the adage ‘less is more?’ Bendis never learned it. There’s no doubt the show  improves the slow dialogue and pacing (though he does have writing credits there too), and while much of Alias focuses on Jessica’s relationships with men, the show’s greater emphasis on Jessica and her sister Trish were largely thanks to Melissa Rosenberg, show creator and writer. (Funny how women writing about women leads to more stories about sisterhood.) (Also, Jessica enjoys sex in the show too. Progress!)

Along with the Bendis slog – which was just interesting enough to keep going – Michael Gaydos’ art was not my cup of tea. Thankfully Jessica wasn’t overly beautiful or sexualized, but at times the art just looked sloppy and she had a Mr Potato nose and a clay, lumpy face. The supporting characters (especially Steve Rogers and Scott Lang), also had lazy eyes or mushy faces – if we were supposed to be seeing the world through Jessica’s drunkenness that never got across. His already static characters along with the tidal wave of Bendis’ dialogue usually resulted in a ton of small panels, or a wall of text, which looked exhausting as was reading it. Also, Gaydos loves to do this thing where he gradually zooms in on a person’s face with each resulting panel and that was claustrophobic as hell. Guest artist’s Mark Bagley’s Jewel sequences were also sloppy, boobsy and cartoonish.

For Alias’ 28 issues, there wasn’t one I enjoyed looking at.

Jessica Jones is a great character in that she’s multifaceted with an emotional past and very human flaws, and her story of abuse is important too. If you looOooOOoved the Jessica Jones show and want more, this is perfect. If you liked season one but wouldn’t watch it again, or if JJ is still in your Netflix queue, don’t bother with Alias – because this might be the source material, but the TV show does it better.