Open Mike Night - Jessica Jones (2016) #1

Jessica Jones #1

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Michael Gaydos
Colored by: Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by: VC’s Cory Petit

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price:  $3.99

Mike Maillaro: This issue starts with Jessica Jones being released from prison. Almost immediately, she is confronted in her office by Misty Knight demanding to know “where is the baby?”  It seems like something happened to make Jessica Jones take Danielle Cage away from Luke and put her into hiding…  Luke’s friends are pretty pissed, and the issue ends with Luke Cage arriving with questions of his own.

Meanwhile, Jessica is hired by a woman whose husband claims to have “slipped” into an alternate reality where he is married to someone else and has a child. I actually loved this idea.  It falls in line with some things Bendis has done in Alias and Powers, not to mention one of my favorite Astro City stories (Astro City ½).  I actually found this a lot more compelling than Misty and Spider-Woman demanding to know what happened to Danielle Cage.

I don’t want to hog the conversation, but up front I want to say I loved Bendis and Gaydos work on Alias.  This seems to pick up where that series left off….BUT, the problem with that is that to make that work, you kind of have to ignore a lot of what Jessica has been through in the years since that series ended.  This Jessica doesn’t quite feel like the Jessica we’ve been reading about.  We don’t know why she’s in prison or what happened to Danielle, so MAYBE, there are clear reasons for this regression...But so much of the story seems to exist in Off-Panelia, and I hate that.

Mike Weaver: This felt like it was almost vintage Alias, but it didn’t feel quite right.  The “main universe” people weren’t side parts of the story that occasionally popped up, they were the clear antagonists...well, except the Champions, who appear to show up just to show up.  Jessica’s case is the most interesting part of this to me, it reminded me of some of the post-Crisis stuff where suddenly people are set up totally differently (well, differently to some of the heroes) due to the combining realities.  I do wonder if this was related to a specific Marvel retcon or story or if it was random, I guess time will tell.

Maillaro: I was thinking it might have been connected to Secret Wars.  Other than Miles Morales, this is the first time Marvel really acknowledged things might have have not fit back together 100%.  Though she does mention Peter Parker, so maybe this goes all the way back to One More Day?

For me, and I have talked about this before, Marvel keeps creating continuity messes.  Just a week ago, we saw Luke and Jessica in martial bliss in Spider Man also written by Bendis.  But, something clearly happens at some point (Civil War II maybe) that causes Jessica to end up in jail, her and Luke to have a falling out and something bad to happen to the kid.  It's all a little much to play catch up on for me.  And you should never have have to play that much catch up in first issue.

Weaver: I believe that I’ve recently defended the idea of having post-big event stuff print before the end of the big event, but this is basically the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.  The current state of Jessica’s personal/professional life is hard to understand without more context, and Alias was always a series that sprinkled a bit of personal life along with the focus of the case du jour.  It’s very hard to read it when you immediately have to accept a bunch of stuff that seems left field, especially since it appears everyone in the whole universe knows something about it except for us.  Well, as long as you assume everyone in the universe means “every streetwise female character in New York.”

Maillaro: I also was wondering if if they were hinting Luke was cheating with Misty (Jessica refers to her as “the competition”).  That seems way out of character for Luke.  A friend of mine asked me if I thought they were trying to make things more like the Netflix series, which I guess is possible (I have not seen Luke Cage yet).  Then again who knows how much time has passed in continuity since we saw Luke and Jessica as a happy couple.  They could have been separated or divorced for some time.  

Another wrinkle to this is that we have seen a future version of Danielle Cage in previews for the upcoming US Avengers. Could she have been sent to the future, like they did with Franklin Richards back in the day?  

I feel like I am getting way off track.  I actually did enjoy a lot about this comic, especially the way it feels like Alias, but there was just so many questions that I couldn’t turn my brain off enough to consider this a perfect comic.  

Weaver: I felt much the same.  I was really getting into it when Jessica was interviewing her new client, which really harkened back to everything I liked about Alias, but then it gets cut off by a Jessica Drew sighting.  And then she’s spying on the dude then...Luke Cage sighting.  Let the girl work, damn it.

For scores on this, I’m giving the writing a 4 and the art a 4.5.  Why just a 4.5 on the art?  Because they didn’t get Mark Bagley to do the Champions page.

Maillaro: BTW, this is the first time in history you will hear me complain about too much Misty Knight and Jessica Drew (not to mention Luke Cage). I normally enjoy those characters quite a bit, but they just did not feel like a great fit here.  

While I love the flashback sequences Bagley used to do in Alias, I don’t think it would have quite fit for the Champions here. I have always loved the gritty look Gaydos used on Alias, and I have to go a 5 for the art.  It just fit this book perfectly, just like it always did.  But I definitely agree with a 4 for the writing.  Lots of good stuff here, but bogged down by some static that comes close to ruining the whole book.

Final Scores