Jessica Jones #2 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

Reunited and It Feels So Good

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: Michael Gaydos, Matt Hollingsworth
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 16, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The first issue of Jessica Jones was nothing special. It basically just set everything up and picked up from a story that I knew nothing about. I don’t know if it will be addressed later in the series or if it was a part of Civil War II or something. Either way, the issue did provide a decent base for which to build a story upon and it gave us a really interesting cliffhanger that had me excited for this issue. This series seems like it is going to be a slow burn type of story and that’s not something that we get a whole lot in superhero comics so this should be a pleasant breath of fresh air. So will we get some answers to the burning questions we have? Will we finally know what happened prior to the first issue? Let’s find out.

The issue begins with a flashback to the day of Danielle’s birth. Luke and Jessica are huddled together and Luke is telling some outlandish story about him facing Doctor Doom in order to keep Jessica’s mind off of the pain. This is when Jessica tells him that she is scared because both of them have been tampered with in the past and that’s how they’ve gotten their abilities. She is scared because she doesn’t want those traits to be passed down to their child but Luke comforts her. We then cut to where we left in the previous issue with Luke standing outside of Jessica’s car and asking where their daughter is. When Jessica doesn’t tell him, Luke simply rips the car door off and asks again but Jessica isn’t intimidated. The two of them continue arguing and it would seem that their marriage is all but over at this point. During the argument, Jessica’s mark gets away and she chooses to leave the conversation by leaping away. Luke gets angry and begins smashing the already removed car door, unaware that he is being recorded.

Jessica lands on a building and falls, still unable to properly land when she jumps. She freaks out for a second before finally calming down. Jessica begins moving her way back to her home from rooftop to rooftop but after another fall decides that she is not going to go home this way. Jessica feels selfish for taking a case in order to feel normal. She feels guilty because she is dealing with someone’s life just to make herself feel better. She finally arrives at her apartment but chooses not to go in because there are plenty of people that could be inside. There could be cops or even other superheroes. The superheroes that did nothing to help her before she ended up in jail.

Jessica walks out and finds her car with the car door taped back on to the frame and a note from Luke that says “I have your camera”. Jessica goes to a local hotel and grabs a room in order to get some rest. After resting for a bit, there is a knock at the door and she opens it to find her mother and Danielle. Jessica’s mother puts Danielle down and she walks slowly over to Jessica. Jessica is so happy to see her daughter walk but also sad because she missed when it happened. Jessica is worried because even though she doesn’t think that Luke will be able to find her mother, if he does there isn’t anything that she could do to stop him. Jessica’s mother suggests that she leave New York but Jessica ignores the advice and simply tells her that she is going to fix it.

Jessica cleans herself up and then picks up her phone seeing some missed calls. She assumes one is from her client and she calls the phone and man picks it up. Turns out that it is a homicide detective with the NYPD and he believes that Jessica’s client was murdered by her husband and wants Jessica to come in and give a statement. Jessica agrees when suddenly a small hole appears and a spotted hand fires out and punches Jessica. She stumbles around and knocks into another person on the street and hits him thinking he was the one attacking her. The hand appears again and slams Jessica’s head into a van, knocking her out. The hand then throws Jessica into the van and the van drives off. This is where the issue leaves us.

Now, I am far from an expert in storytelling. However, I do know what I like and how to structure a story accordingly. When it comes to a mystery like this, the whole idea is to reveal certain things about the story slowly while introducing new mysteries from those revelations. This gives the reader satisfaction by learning new parts of the story while keeping them interested in what hasn’t been reveled yet. The section that deals with Danielle does this pretty well. We learn that Danielle is still alive and staying with Jessica’s mother. However, the rest of the issue just gives us more and more questions. We already had a large number of questions already but now our pile of questions has grown into a large pile of papers in the corner that no one knows where to start with. Despite the small answer that we got and the conversation between Luke and Jessica, there isn’t a whole lot to like about this issue. I still won’t say that it is a bad issue at all but if this keeps up, my patience will run thin.

Bits and Pieces

Jessica Jones gives us one small answer to one of the dozens of questions that we had after the first issue and introduces a brand new batch of questions going forward. Gaydos’ art is really hit or miss for me and this issue felt like a big miss and the dialogue is done so carefully so as not to spoil any of the questions that we have already. I understand wanting to leave the reader in suspense, however the book is suffering from it heavily at this point.

5.5/10