Jessica Jones #14 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis / Artist: Michael Gaydos / Marvel Comics There’s a lot going on, like Brian Michael Bendis moving to DC Comics with an exclusivity deal just as Jessica Jones is starting get to get good. Focused on that latter though, Jessica Jones #14 picks up where the promise of issue #13 left off by having a complete conversation between Jessica and Killgrave through the voice of her own daughter, and it’s as creepy as you could have imagined. The last page of issue #13 – that nerve-rattling climax – multiplied by about 7 pages as one-third of the issue takes place with Jessica gripped in fear and inner dialogue on the moral quandary of her most evil villain speaking to her through the most beloved person in her life, a child any parent would protect. If the child were to attack her, would she kill her own child being used as a tool for Killgrave? Or would she let herself die, and her child live the rest of their life knowing they killed their mother with no explanation of why? Lose-lose.

The issue also bases itself in our favorite friendship between Jessica and Carol Danvers, a friendship of love and mutual respect. And trust, most of all. Artistically, Gaydos does a great job capturing the mannerisms and expressions of a person being mind-controlled versus when they return to themselves, and it manifests in an especially creepy way when the person being mind-controlled is a child. The downward-tilting camera angle, the slight smirk of amusement and control …