10 Years Later, Rewatch This Overlooked Marvel TV Show With a 93% Fresh Grade If You Are Missing Daredevil

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With the latest TV adaptation of a Marvel Comic, Disney Plus’s Daredevil: Born Again, coming to an exciting close, fans are clamoring for more. With Daredevil: Born Again being a surprisingly faithful continuation of the original Daredevil series on Netflix, fans have found themselves revisiting the original lineup of Marvel heroes and their Netflix shows.

One of the most notable additions to the Netflix lineup, and the first series to follow in the wake of Daredevil, was the excellent Jessica Jones — a superhero mystery drama based on the critically-acclaimed Alias Marvel series from writer Brian Michael Bendis. With the Netflix series and their characters seemingly primed to return to the MCU, a rewatch of Jessica Jones would be perfect for fans looking for more quality Marvel TV content.

Jessica Jones Was Easily the Second Best Marvel Netflix Series

The First Season of Jessica Jones Was Arguably On-Par With Much of Daredevil

While Daredevil was an established character with decades worth of stories to adapt and take inspiration from, Jessica Jones was a much more recent addition to the Marvel Comics Universe. This meant that her live-action adaptation had less to adapt, but it didn’t stop Jessica Jones from being one of the most compelling television series that Netflix ever produced. The highly acclaimed first season of Jessica Jones followed the titular character, a hard-boiled, super-powered private detective with a bad attitude and a seemingly traumatic past. Featuring an incredible lead performance by Krysten Ritter as the titular hero, Jessica Jones surprised viewers who had very little context for the character outside of the fact that she was originally featured in Marvel Comics books.

Over the course of the first season of Jessica Jones, viewers got a glimpse into the psyche of its damaged and complex hero, and Jessica quickly became one of the most compelling and emotionally engaging heroes that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had ever seen. Her struggles to connect with the people around her, her bad habits and closed-off emotional presence, and her general dislike for her own abilities and associated responsibility made Jessica an incredibly interesting lead character to follow. Fans wanted nothing more than to see her character change, evolve, and grow, and they wanted to understand her past and what brought her to where she is in the series. With as incredible source material as Brian Michael Bendis’ Alias to jump off of, it’s no wonder that the first season of Jessica Jones was so well-received, even earning a 93% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The first season of Jessica Jones also had one of the best villains in the entire Netflix Marvel lineup, as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole: David Tennant’s portrayal of Kilgrave, aka the Purple Man. Kilgrave’s sadistic personality, bizarre charisma, and terrifying superpower made him one of the most unique villains to ever appear in a live-action comic book project, and his relationship to Jessica Jones made the series all the more dramatic and emotionally compelling. An abuser twisted by trauma himself, Kilgrave was the perfect opponent for Jessica Jones in her first season, and the evolution of their rivalry throughout the season is one of the highlights of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jessica Jones Gave the First Look at the Rest of Marvel’s Street Level Heroes

The Series Featured the Debut of Mike Colter as the Iconic Hero Luke Cage

In the wake of Daredevil‘s incredible success, Marvel continued to flesh out the street-level side of their cinematic universe with Netflix. Jessica Jones was, of course, the first follow-up, but series like Luke Cage, The Punisher, Iron Fist, and The Defenders all came in the wake of Daredevil as well. Jessica Jones’ first season even introduced one of the major players in this corner of the Marvel Universe, the iconic unbreakable-skinned hero, Luke Cage. Featured as a major supporting character in the first season of Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s portrayal of Luke Cage immediately won over fans of the character in the comics. His iteration of the character was complicated, but ultimately just as heroic and inspiring as his comic book counterpart. Luke Cage is one of the best characters in Marvel Comics history, and his leadership skills, heroism, and dedication to right and wrong have made him a fan-favorite character for decades.

An incredibly faithful portrayal of the iconic hero, Colter’s Luke Cage was moral, upstanding, and heroic. His relationship to Jessica, though extremely complicated, was a light in the darkness for the titular character. Their initial romance and subsequent friendship was a major part of Jessica’s growth as a character and as a hero, and though the first season of Jessica Jones saw the two characters drift apart in the wake of shocking reveals about their joint past, the pair reunited in later series like The Defenders, where they joined other superpowered allies to defend New York City from the nefarious forces of the Hand.

Jessica Jones’ first season is arguably just as good as the original Daredevil series, despite the fact that it is much slower, less action-packed, and focuses on a lesser-known hero. Though the subsequent seasons never reached the heights of the original, Jessica Jones remained a major player in Netflix’s corner of the Marvel Universe. Later series like Luke Cage and Iron Fist clearly took influence from Jessica Jones and its style of storytelling, and although they did not achieve the same level of quality, there were still moments of impressive comic book storytelling in both shows.

Jessica Jones Could Potentially Return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Daredevil: Born Again Could Easily Bring Back the Fan-Favorite Character in Season 2

Daredevil: Born Again‘s first season has ended, and though many fans didn’t find it to be on the same level of quality as the original series, it has been generally regarded as a worthy follow-up. During the events of Born Again, Jon Bernthal’s iconic portrayal of the Punisher returned to fight alongside Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. The first major character from one of the other Netflix series to return to the MCU, Punisher, is even set to get his own special on Disney+ in the near future. Frank Castle’s return has gotten many fans speculating about who else might be coming back to the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in upcoming series, and Jessica Jones is at the top of that list.

Jessica Jones is an obvious choice for a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Krysten Ritter’s portrayal of the damaged superhero was one of the very best live-action adaptations of a comic book character in decades, and fans have clamored for her to return for years. It was even rumored that she was going to appear in Daredevil: Born Again‘s first season, but that turned out not to be true once the season was fully released. With Daredevil: Born Again seemingly hinting at numerous heroes coming together in the future to face off against Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, it would only make sense for characters like Jessica Jones to return to assist Daredevil in the fight against his nemesis. Heroes like Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Echo could all also very easily slot into the street-level battle against the forces of evil.

With the possibility of Jessica Jones returning to the MCU, now is the perfect time for fans to go back and revisit her original series. Whether it’s been a while since they’ve watched it, or they’ve simply never explored any of the Marvel live-action Netflix series except for Daredevil, Jessica Jones is absolutely worthy of attention, even ten years later. Many fans have debated the quality of shows like Iron Fist and The Defenders, but there’s virtually no argument about the first season of Jessica Jones. It is definitely the best series after Daredevil, and it deserves as much of a spotlight as any of the other Marvel adaptations of the era. If Daredevil: Born Again and its connection to the original series are anything to go by, Jessica Jones could very easily become required viewing for the character’s triumphant return. With such compelling character drama, villain relationships, and investigative intrigue, Jessica Jones’ first season is more than worth revisiting.

“}]] The Netflix Marvel shows were a major hit with fans, and with Daredevil: Born Again coming to a close, this one is due for a rewatch.  Read More