Eduardo Dominguez

Ms. Ghastin
English 3
December 12, 2015
On November, 7, 2014, Marvel announced that it would release four series, and a mini
series exclusively on Netflix. The four series were, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron
Fist, with the mini-series being The Defenders. All of these shows are about classic superheroes,
and one classic team. Jessica Jones however is much different. Whereas the other series originate
from comics published by Marvel, the comic that Jessica Jones is based on originates from
MAX, a more immature, and graphic imprint of Marvel. It also focuses more on Jessica Jones
struggling as a private detective, rather than her powers. In fact, a big plotline in the Alias
comics, is Jessica Jones not wanting to use her superpowers. Although the show and the source
material are vastly different, the overall theme of abuse is ever present in the two.
The show starts off by establishing the shows dark tone. It does this by showing Jessicas
first case of the show, finding out if a mans wife is cheating on him, having Jessica do a job for
Jeri Hogarth, Jessicas lawyer friend, which is to interrogate a strip club owner, and by showing
Jessica have rough sex with Luke Cage. Jessica gets a case from two parents to look for their
daughter. After acquiring information, Jessica suspects that it is Kilgrave, a mind controller who
abused her in the past. Her best friend Trish Walker, a radio ost, consoles her telling her that they
both saw his death certificate. Jessica finds the missing girl, Hope Schlottman, and her fears are
realized. Kilgrave has returned. Jessica gives Hope to her parents, but under Kilgraves control,
Hope kills her parents, instead of leaving, Jessica decides to prove Hopes innocence. Jeri will
not take Hopes case if Jessica doesnt prove that Kilgrave is still alive. Jessica visits the EMT

that was with Kilgrave in the ambulance and discovers that after the incident, he was found
without either of his kidneys, and is now hooked up to a dialysis machine 24/7. Through the
dialysis machine, Jessica finds the surgeon who performed the double nephrectomy, and
discovers that he transplanted them into Kilgrave, who refused to go under anesthesia. This
provides Jessica with the information, that Kilgrave cannot use his powers when he is under.
Jessica helps Luke Cage in a bar fight, and he reveals to her that he has unbreakable skin. Hope
goes on Trishs radio show, and Trish openly insults Kilgrave on radio. Kilgrave calls in and
threatens Trish. Jessica finds the surgical grade anesthesia while Kilgrave sends a police officer
to kill Trish. Jessica gives Trish the anesthesia and convinces the policeman that she is dead.
Jessica follows the policeman to Kilgrave and discovers a room full of pictures of her. Jessica
tries to find out the identity of Kilgraves spy thats taking pictures of her and when she does, she
decides to use the spy, who turns out to be a friend of hers (whose identity I shall not spoil), in
order to find Kilgrave. After figuring out the pattern in which the spy meets Kilgrave, Jessica
contacts Trish, who has started a romantic relationship with Will Simpson, the policeman who
tried to kill her under mind control. Jessica tells Trish of a plan she has constructed to catch
Kilgrave and make him confess to his crimes. Jessica reluctantly allows Simpson to help her
catch Kilgrave. The plan goes off without a hitch, with Simpson tranquilizing Kilgrave, and Trish
driving away the getaway van. When the trio arrive at an abandoned cdc quarantine facility, hired
muscle come and free Kilgrave. Jessica is visited by Luke Cage, who has a case for her. He
wants her to help him find a boy named Antoine Grier. It is later revealed that he was hired by
Antoines sister to find him, in return for information about his deceased wife. Jessica not
wanting Luke to get this information for reasons I will not disclose, tries to get to Antoine before
Luke. Jessica gets kicked out of a bar, and she goes to Jeris wife who has been in bitter divorce

with her, to try and force her to sign the divorce papers. Kilgrave kills Ruben, Jessicas neighbor,
who has been looking for her affection the whole season. Jessica, not wanting anymore innocent
people to die because of her, decides that she is going to get herself locked up in a maximum
security prison. Before this happens she goes to several people and says goodbye. Jessica takes
Rubens severed head to the police precinct, and is interrogated by Detective Clemons. In order
to get herself locked up in a maximum security prison, Jessica demonstrates to Clemons her
powers. The interrogation is cut short, when an officer comes into the interrogation room, and
tells Clemons that Jessica has been released. Infuriated, Jessica exits the interrogation room, and
sees that Kilgrave is in the lobby, and has made everyone hold a gun to someone. Kilgrave tells
Jessica that he is doing all of this for love, and that he never stopped loving her. He also tells her
that if she moves in with him, he will not use his powers on her. Desperate for all the killing to
stop, Jessica moves in with him. It is revealed that Kilgraves house is Jessicas childhood home,
which Kilgrave has replicated exactly. Kilgrave reveals to Jessica that his sadistic behavior is all
a result of childhood torture in the form of medical experiments conducted by his parents.
Hearing this Jessica believes that Kilgrave can be taught to do good, and takes him out to save
lives. Meanwhile Trish and Simpson try to find a way to get rid of Kilgrave, and Jeris divorce
from her wife takes an incredibly bitter turn. Jessica tricks Kilgrave and drugs him in order to
take him to the abandoned CDC quarantine facility and get a confession from him. Simpson tries
to infiltrate Kilgraves home but a bomb critically injures him. Jessica is anxious to extract a
confession from Kilgrave, so she finds Kilgraves parents. Meanwhile, Simpson requests a
specific doctor in the hospital, who supposedly never worked there. The parents explain to her,
that the reason they conducted medical experiments on him was to cure him of a neurological
disease, which inadvertently gave him his powers. Jessica takes Kilgraves parents to his

containment cell, and things go violent, when his mom disrupts an otherwise tender moment, by
trying to stab him in the neck. Kilgrave orders his parents to kill themselves. A panic ensues and
Kilgrave escapes, and after a confrontation, Jessica realizes that she is immune to his powers.
Simpson pulls a full recovery, in an impossible amount of time. He seems to be ruthless in his
quest to kill Kilgrave, which is fueled by red pills that up his adrenaline. He has a confrontati0n
with Jessica and Trish, who defeat him. Kilgrave kidnaps his father in order for him to make his
powers greater, and does something that changes Jessicas agenda. Luke and Jessica confront
Kilgrave in a nightclub, where he demonstrates his greater powers by making Luke attack
Jessica. Jessica shoots Luke in the face with a shotgun in self-defense. Jessica takes Luke where
he is treated by Claire Temple, a nurse for another famous superhero from Hells Kitchen. Jessica
then has one final confrontation with Kilgrave.
In the comic book, Alias, is presented with a case of a missing sister who found a man
and has since not communicated with her family. Jessica finds the sister, and discovers that the
man she is with is Captain America. Jessica becomes very paranoid because she has a tape
revealing the identity of Captain America. She becomes more paranoid when the sister she was
hired turns up dead. What Jessica uncovers, turns out to be a corporate conspiracy. Jessica is than
hired to find a missing Rick Jones, who is paranoid after the Kree-Skrull War. After this Jessica
is assigned to find a missing teenager who is suspected to be a mutant, in a town with prejudice
against mutants. Coming home, Jessica discovers a girl dressed as Spider-Man in her bathroom.
She then subsequently jumps out the window and escapes. Jessica teams up with Jessica Drew,
the original Spider-Woman, to find her. Jessica then gets a case of a missing girl, and it sounds
oddly familiar to what happened to her during her days as a superhero. Her origin, and reason for
retiring from being a superhero are revealed.

The most glaring difference between the comic book and the television show, is the
serious lack of superheroes. The comic featured many superheroes, who were important to the
plot, such as Ant Man, Captain America, and the Avengers. These heroes are incredibly
important to the plot of the comic, as they are crucial points in many storylines. These characters
were most likely left out of the show, because they are all, already established heroes in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it would cost too much to have the actors reprise their roles.
The second reason that these characters are not present in the television adaptation is that the
story is vastly different. The shows story revolves around Kilgrave from the start. Kilgraves
comic book counterpart, the Purple Man, isn't specifically mentioned in the twenty-eight comic
series until the last four issues. Even in these issues, the first few are about Jessicas origin. The
majority of the comic series was Jessica was off doing her job as private detective, by solving
various cases. Although Jessica does solve cases in the show, all but one are connected with
Kilgrave. Kilgrave himself was vastly different from his comic book counterpart, as he came off
as just another sadistic villain, in the comics. In the show however, David Tennants performance
as Kilgrave makes him seem more human, as he admits that he is causing all this chaos, because
he loves Jessica and wants her back.
Although the two are incredibly enjoyable, I thoroughly enjoyed the television show
much more. It might've been because of the stellar performances from Krysten Ritter as Jessica
Jones, David Tennant as Kilgrave, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker. Krysten Ritter really brings
her all to the role of Jessica Jones, taking the realness of Jessica Jones from the comics and
cranks it to eleven. Jessica in the show, is a bad mouthed, alcoholic private eye. She often wears
the same clothes, has rough, realistic sex. She also only showers once in the whole series, which
takes place during a week or two. While comic Jessica Jones was more real than other comic

book characters, she was at worst a potty mouth. The comic series got rather boring at times, as it
was broken up into multiple storylines as opposed to the overarching plot of Kilgrave coming
back into Jessicas life that the show had. The only two gripes I have about Jessica Jones was
Simpsons transformation into Nuke, and Robyn. Simpsons transformation into Nuke felt
sudden, and rushed, and threw away the connection that Simpson and Trish were developing.
The theme of his radicalism towards crime fighting also came out of nowhere. The worst part of
the entire series however, has got to be Robyn. Rubens twin sister is present for most of the
season, and is really just there to show Malcolms transformation from junkie to someone who
helps people out of the good of his heart. Although the show tries to make the viewers
sympathize with her because her brother died, she just comes off as an annoying and otherwise
unnecessary side character. The comic was breath of fresh air for Marvel fans, as up to that point,
the year 2000,Marvel comics were fairly toned down. DC had had a mature imprint for seven
years, but they did not really implement those stories into their main universe. When Alias
bestowed MAX upon the comic world, it did something that Vertigo, Dc Comics mature imprint,
didnt. It incorporated its stories into its ,main universe. This meant that Jessica Jones interacted
with other heroes from Marvel. This comic also seemed to focus less on Jessicas superpowers,
and more on her work as a private detective. It is split up into four story arcs, with the last story
arc being the best, as it explains Jessicas origin and reason she stopped being a hero.It is a good
comic series, however i got bored in some instances due to the fact that there is no overarching
plot. The closest thing we get to an overarching plot is the subtle mentioning of why she is no
longer a superhero. This all gets explained in the last seven comics, where Jessica explains to
Luke Cage how the Purple Man abused of her with his mind control, and made her fight the
Avengers and the Defenders, which nearly killed her.

In conclusion, both Jessica Jones, and Alias, are well crafted stories. Although they are
vastly different other than the theme of abuse, and the realism of how it portrays life in New
York, they are both entertaining stories. Despite the comic being slightly inferior to the show,
nobody will be disappointed by the story of Jessica Jones.