You shoot that gun at me—I will pull that bullet out of my ruined four hundred dollar leather jacket…and I will shove it up your ass with my pinky finger. And which one of us do you think that hurt more? - Jessica Jones
Hey everyone. With the recent confirmation of Krysten Ritter's casting as the titular role in Marvel's AKA Jessica Jones, it occurred to me that a great many deal of you have never read Brian Michael Bendis's cult classic Alias. So here I am, educating y'all. Jessica Jones is way more than just that chick who got pregnant with Luke Cage's baby and went to high school with Peter Parker. ?WARNING: there will be spoilers for Alias and there for possible spoilers for AKA Jessica Jones. You have been warned.
Alias follows Jessica Jones. When the story starts Jessica is a young woman and retired super hero turned private investigator (despite never having been seen as a hero in a comic prior). She smokes like a chimney, swears a LOT and is generally a complete mess. The cause of her powers (bullet proof, super strength and flight) or the traumatic event that caused her retirement and severe PTSD remain a mystery for most of the run of Alias.
Jessica makes a living as a private eye. Her work involves everything from pretending to be a gay dude in a chat room to find out if a client's closeted husband is meeting dudes on the downlow to finding missing mutants. Her first arc has her filming Steve Rogers, not realizing she is being used as part of a conspiracy against Captain America.
Alias is one of the first MAX imprints and as such it's full of curse words, sex, violence and adult themes. While the show was originally in development for ABC, it's much better suited to Netflix where it will have freedom to be f**ked up.
Arguably the most essential arc in relation to the show is the Purple story line. Luke Cage asks why Jessica is so screwed up. He goes so far as to come out and ask if she was raped. She takes offense to the insinuation but in reality many would consider rape synonymous with the torture she endured.
Back when Jessica was operating as Jewel she came across a crime being committed. The criminal being Zebediah Killgrave aka The Purple Man. A minor villain from Daredevil, Purple Man's body releases a pheromone that allows him complete and utter control over those around him. He takes Jessica as a pet. His powers allow him to make her feel as though she is staying of her own free will. He makes her feel intense sexual desire for him, so that he can derive pleasure from denying her. He uses his powers to rape countless women (who are pheremoned into thinking they want him). Jessica is forced to watch, being made to wish it could be her.
She is his slave for 8 months before he gets bored and decides to send her to kill Daredevil. She ends up at Avengers Mansion and starts beating the shit out of Scarlet Witch, acting on the red costume. She gets her shit messed up but ends up being saved at the last minute by Carol Danvers who knows her. She spends several months in a coma under the care of SHIELD. When it's all said and done she gives up and becomes a private eye.
If the show respects the source material which it seems like they plan to, it has the opportunity to be the darkest thing Marvel has done (maybe second darkest next to Daredevil). There is a very good chance that in addition to Luke Cage we will get appearances from Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) who is Jessica's lawyer and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) who Jessica has a failed romance with. Jessica is also very good friends with Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, who makes several appearances in Alias. And a fan favorite character that has long been missing from the MCU, Agent Clay Quartermain who Jessica had been involved with after recovering from the Avengers induced coma.
?AKA Jessica Jones stars Krysten Ritter and comes to Netflix in 2015.