Jessica Jones (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"A big part of the job is looking for the worst in people. Turns out I excel at that."

- Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones is the titular protagonist of the Netflix TV series Jessica Jones. She is a private investigator from New York City who was orphaned at a young age, and taken in by Dorothy Walker, developing a sisterly bond with her daughter, Trish. During adolescence, Jones discovered she possessed superhuman strength and used her ability in adulthood to fight crime as a superhero. However, a fateful encounter with Kilgrave, a vicious man with mind controlling powers, tarnished her superhero career and she spent a torturous tenure as Kilgrave's slave before finally breaking free of his control. The experience left Jones suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, prompting her to hang up her secret identity and open her own detective agency.

She is portrayed by Krysten Ritter.

Early life
She was born to Brian and Alisa Jones. She grew to be an antisocial young woman. She was orphaned when she was a teenager when she lost her parents and brother in a car accident, which Jessica herself was a soul surivivor. She was later adopted by Dorothy Walker who was a talent agent. She would soon discover she was abusive towards both her and her adopted sister, Trish Walker. Though she managed to protect her sister using her super strength to shove Dorothy against a wall.

Adult
"Luke: The way I see it, being a hero just puts a target on your back. Jessica: Yeah, been there, done that."

- Jessica recalling her failed attempts as a hero

Less desirable jobs
As an adult, she would get crappy jobs. One being an office job where she had to endure her boss's sexual harrassment until she discovered his fraudlant offenses. She blackmailed him into giving her six months pay and a reputable recommendation for future employment elsewhere. As she left, he insulted her dead parents. Understandly angry, Jessica shoved down filing cabinets as she left. She later got a job at a sandwich shop which she worked to advertise the place. It involved her wearing a ridiclous sandwich costume and handing out flyers for the restaurant. One night while she was in her sandwich costume, doing her job, she noticed a young girl about to get hit by a taxi. She ran towards the girl and stopped the taxi with her barehands. The girl thanked her and Jessica realized she needed to become a hero.

Becoming a hero and being Kilgrave's slave
Jessica would go out through the city and help those who can't help themselves until she ran into a man who called himself Kilgrave. She got under his mind controling powers as they spoke and he desired to have her so for months he kept her as a slave. Under his power, he would rape her constantly, though in Kilgrave's demented mind, it was a real relationship. After a time, Jessica could not endure this anymore and attempted to kill herself. Kilgrave stopped her and for punishment, he ordered her to slice off her ear. After she got started slicing off her ear, Kilgrave stopped her and hugged her.

Freedom, Starting a private investigation company, and reunion with Kilgrave
Kilgrave discovered this woman, Reva Connors, was a threat to her. He had Jessica murder her. The shock of killing someone was enough to break Kilgrave's control over Jessica. She would then shortly after open Alias Investigations and worked for herself as a private investigator. Kilgrave would return in her life, torturing her mentally by hurting and killing those who were in her life. However with the help of Luke Cage, another superpowered being like Jessica, and her friends, and her sister, Trish Walker, she would eventually kill Kilgrave.

Personality
"Despite her callous, hard bitten and frankly poorly styled vizard, despite her several problems she still hopes that at her core she might just be a hero."

- Kilgrave's description of Jessica Jessica Jones could easily come off as being cold, rude, brutal and sarcastic. Towards others, she is nothing less than disdainful and blunt, carrying herself and her opinions out loud with little forethought or regret to insulting or showing disrespect to anyone. If aggravated or extremely annoyed by someone in her disfavor, Jessica could become an intimidating figure such as her rude neighbor Robyn. According to her childhood neighbor, she had been an introvert since she was a girl and only opens up to a select few of people, and even those she has difficulty expressing up to openly and truly. Despite her hard-bitten demeanour lies a more vulnerable side, plagued by self-loathing and guilt.

Beneath her flaws, Jessica is a good person at heart and chose not to waste her super-strength that was given to her at the cost of her family's lives and become a hero to help people. The harrowing encounter with Kilgrave who controlled her to do everything he wanted to, including being raped repeatedly and murdering a woman before breaking out of his control, caused Jessica to give up her life as a hero, as she could no longer view herself as one and decide to keep a low profile instead by becoming a private investigator. Though she refused to class herself as the sort, Jessica does show signs of heroism as she is deeply sympathetic towards other individuals who have been "Kilgraved", including Malcolm Ducasse and Hope Schlottman, though she was also fearful enough that she came close to leaving town and leaving Hope with Kilgrave to protect herself, thinking she could not save her.

However, the combined trauma of losing her family and experience with Kilgrave has also made Jessica a somewhat unstable individual. She suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress and Survivor's Guilt, occasionally undergoing hallucinations and flashbacks of her time in Kilgrave's grasp. These hallucinations usually involve Kilgrave either whispering to her or being otherwise intimate, while she is surrounded by purple lighting, referencing the purple lighting in the back of the restaurant Il Rosso, where Kilgrave always had their table. In these instances she can act out more erratic and violent such as punching the window of a subway train after remembering one of Kilgrave's commands. After the death of her family, no matter how close she bonded with a person, Jessica had great difficulty fully forming emotional connections to a person as she couldn't even tell Trish Walker, her adoptive sister and closest friend "I love you". Following having killed Kilgrave, she appears to have put several demons to rest and is more affectionate and possibly closer to everyone than before.

Jessica has an alcoholic side to her personality which she uses to cope with her repeated tragedies. Due to her superhuman metabolism, she is able to consume vast quantities of alcohol without damage to her liver and appears to have high tolerance, being able to quickly drink an entire bottle of wine during dinner with Kilgrave's then nonchalantly asking for another one. When inebriated, Jessica can become more violent such as threatening Jeri Hogarth's ex-wife, Wendy to sign her divorce papers.

Jessica is a highly independent woman and shows no interest in being in a relationship, although for a while she did engage in a sexual and later romantic one with Luke Cage, bonding over their shared powers. She refused to allow herself or her friends be disrespected by anyone, especially men and humiliated a man who spoke rudely to Trish.

Powers & Abilities

 * Superhuman Strength: Jones has strength beyond that of a regular human, especially notable regarding her size. She was able to completely crush an alarm clock by slapping down on it with her open hand or throw a shoe into the ceiling hard enough to crack it, both times when she had tried to sleep off a hangover. She also could effortlessly lift the back of a slow moving car, throw a gun through a wall, break metal chains, locks and hinges, bend metal bars and panels, smash through glass and marble with her fist and gently push down several metal cabinets like dominoes. Even as a child, she was strong enough to break a bathroom sink off a wall by accident and then lift it over her head with one hand. In combat, she can use her strength to easily overpower or rag doll humans, throw a person across a room or even send someone flying across a street with her full strength, the latter of which she did to kill Reva Connorsvia one strike to the chest. However, she is not invincible and it is not impossible for normal humans to overpower her, which was demonstrated when she was attacked by various people that Kilgrave controlled, as well as members of the Kilgrave Victim Support Group and Len Sirkes' men. In addition, Luke Cage is able to match, or possibly outmatch her, in strength, as he had the upper hand through his fight with her while he was under Kilgrave's influence. Will Simpson also was able to overpower her while she was injured and while using Combat Enhancers.


 * Enhanced Speed: Jones' overall strength allows her to run at speeds superior to the average human. She was able to catch up to a car fairly easily, move across a street in a second or less to stop a car from hitting a little girl and stated she can run a mile in under four minutes. She also ran across New York from Niku to the Shlottman's residence without tiring or stopping for breath.
 * Enhanced Resilience: Jones has durability far beyond that of a regular human, being able to resist multiple beatings with little to no visible injuries. This resilience also allows her to perform greater feats of strength without injuring herself, such as smashing a mirror with her fists or breaking a window with her elbow. Her stamina was enough to allow her to run across New York from Niku to the Shlottman's residence without tiring or stopping for breath. However, she is still vulnerable to gunshots and explosions, though the former can mildly affect her unless she is shot in a vital area, as being grazed in the shoulder with Audrey Eastman did only caused her brief pain. She was able to somewhat shrug off being hit by a truck, which broke her ribs and caused one of them to pierce her liver, though she seemed weakened enough to be overpowered by Will Simpson while he was using Combat Enhancers. She was also slowed down by being repeatedly tasered by Kilgrave's guards when she first tried abducting him, though Trish was immediately knocked out by them, and Robyn was able to knock her out with a wooden plank by hitting her head with it, causing her head to bleed.


 * Regenerative Healing Factor: Jones' augmented metabolism heals faster than an ordinary human being. She is capable of completely healing minor scratches and injuries in mere hours, and major injuries like broken ribs in just a single day. It may also allow her to not be affected by the harmful and long term affects of alcohol, leaving her only to experience intoxication and hangover while not experiencing any signs of toxicity.
 * Flight: Jones is able to fly, though she has never mastered this ability. She can propel herself off a surface and through the air at various speeds and altitudes, but she sometimes gets injured while landing. Jones refers to this as being "more like jumping and then falling" or as "guided falling". She regularly used this ability to jump several stories to reach rooftops, fire escapes and balconies, as well as once to perch in-between two buildings while following Audrey Eastman. Notably she used the ability to climb onto a fire escape of a building across from Luke's, as well as to reach Trish Walker's Apartment balcony. She attempted to fly over Luke Cage, who was controlled by Kilgrave at the time, to chase after the latter, only to be grabbed by the leg and thrown away. When she managed to capture Kilgrave, she escaped Will Simpson and his unit by jumping into the sky. Later on, when Kilgrave had Robyn and members of the Kilgrave Victim Support Group attempt to hang themselves at Niku, she jumped into the ceiling and onto the pipe that held up their nooses so she could break it off and free them.