Writer: Brian Michael Bendis / Artist: Michael Gaydos / Marvel Comics
The Jessica Jones series continues as an unfortunate waste of a great character. The series relies on the strength of Jess’ emotional appeal that, while truly strong, is not strong enough to carry the weight of practically missing a plot, and now, worse, is in between plots as Jessica Jones deals with the fallout from the previous arc – where she had to kidnap her child and hide her from her father – while establishing a new one. One can hope this new arc takes better form than the previous, but so far, all signs point to a continuation of the “can Jessica get her life back on track?” formula, one shown not to work very well.
The fallout comes in the form of Jessica finding her daughter and having to explain herself to Luke, who, understandably, is less than compelled with her story after having his daughter hidden from him. We’re supposed to feel Jessica’s emotional strain, the impossibility of the situation in which she was placed, as we see her browsing whiskey aisles, having pleading conversations with Danny Rand, and doing her best to explain herself to Luke, only that emotional pull has been used up with Luke as much as it has been used up with readers. It’s almost funny, really, his “heard it all before” mistrust of Jessica mirroring how readers feel about this series itself. Still, where the series has consistently shone is its artwork that polishes certain scenes into expressive glimpses.
As the arc gets started, we are best off starting fresh with the potential of what Maria Hill brings to the story as she cameos in what appears to be an important role in what Jessica is getting into next. Again, trouble finds Jessica and she is set up to be a misunderstood victim of her circumstances, a woman trapped in an impossible situation in which she can only do her best when her best is never enough… so we may have seen this before. But here’s hoping for something new, something intriguing, or at least something with higher stakes than unseen potential victims or Luke Cage’s stern disapproval.
Reading Jessica Jones? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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