Did you watch Jessica Jones? Did you think it was great? The good news is that it doesn’t have to end there! Jessica is part of a universe of amazing stories that you can get to via Marvel comics, and because that universe can be dauntingly huge why not allow this list of titles you might enjoy to guide you gently into it? This is of course by no means an exhaustive list, and other comic book fans you speak to will give you different suggestions, but it’s a great place to start. We’ve marked which of these are on Marvel’s online subscription service Marvel Unlimited, and how much they are from the digital comic book shop Comixology.
It’s also worth noting that Marvel are producing a new comic called Marvel’s Jessica Jones, which is inspired directly by the TV show in the manner of a snake eating its own tail, but we’re not sure how that one’s going to pan out yet.
Alias was the original run of comics featuring Jessica Jones, and the direct inspiration for the Netflix show. It was published under Marvel’s MAX Comics imprint, so it’s decidedly R-Rated and a little darker than Marvel’s standard stuff, especially towards the latter end of the run, which features The Purple Man (the comic book supervillain name for David Tennant’s bad guy Kilgrave from the show) in earnest. It has a similar focus to the TV show, in that it follows Jessica as she explores her past and personality and comes to terms with it all, so it’s probably a safe bet you’ll enjoy it.
Vol. 1 of Alias is £11.99 from Comixology, but isn’t on Marvel Unlimited.
A mini-series from a few years ago, Marvel Noir gave nine of your favourite super heroes their own noir-flavoured alternate story. They all have a pulp fiction slant, so if you liked the P.I. voiceover and smooth jazz atmospheric music aspects of Jessica Jones you’ll probably find something to like in the Marvel Noir serials. Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Deadpool all have notable Noir makeovers, but particular interest to JJ fans might be the Luke Cage Noir story, which casts Cage as wrongly convicted and just released from prison in a prohibition-era Harlem. He ends up investigating the suspicious death of a married woman and a corrupt cop pulling strings in Harlem. Tensions are high and asses are kicked, and the art is great – dark, shadowy, suggestive.
The most interesting part of the Marvel Noir run is that none of the superheroes in it are super – instead they’re regular citizens, albeit extremely driven ones. Luke Cage Noir is particularly powerful in this respect.
The collected Luke Cage Noir is £4.99 from Comixology, and is on Marvel Unlimited.
Natalia Romanova has had a complex life, and, like Jessica Jones, sometimes has trouble dealing with her past (and implanted false childhood memories, touched on briefly in the Age of Ultron film). The new Black Widow standalone comics, which started in 2010, have a striking use of colour and page layout, and explore some of the Black Widow’s loneliness and personal vulnerability, as well as her ability to kick seven shades of shit out of anyone that comes at her.
Vol. 1 of the new Black Widow is £7.49 on Comixology, and the issues up to #17 are on Marvel Unlimited
Thors (plural) is a four-part mini-series that just wrapped up as part of the Secret Wars (Marvel’s latest big cross-comics event, and not to be confused with the Secret War below, or any of the previous events which were also called Secret Wars). It’s a long story, but basically Dr. Doom orchestrated a cataclysmic world-ending event and now a load of Marvel alternate universes, of which there are many, are patched together to form the Battleworld.
Every world needs a police force, though, and this one has the Thors. As in, every conceivable version of Thor (there’s even a Groot version that just says “I am Thor!”). When a Thor screws up he or she has to hand in their hammer. That kind of thing. Yeah, it’s wilfully silly, but it’s also a pretty good mystery with some betrayal and self doubt thrown in, and you get to see the Thors referred to as ‘Thunder-pigs’. Plus in this reality Loki is a criminal informant who lives in a cardboard box and wears fingerless gloves and a wool hat. Wouldn’t see Tom Hiddleston posing for that on the cover of Total Film.
Each issue of Thors is £2.49 on Comixology, but they’re not on Marvel Unlimited yet.
The Spider-Verse (and yes, there are now so many different versions of Spider-Man that it has its own specific story) recently had a big story event whereby all the different arachnid-themed heroes all ended up meeting each other. One of these was a Spider-Woman from a universe where Peter Parker died and Gwen Stacey got bitten by the radioactive spider, and she was such a big hit that she now has her own comic.
The cover of each issue of Spider-Gwen is absolutely beautiful, and may remind you a lot of the opening credits of Jessica Jones. This is carried over into the pages of the comics, and if you like strong, reluctant, kick-ass lady-heroes with a bit of a mouth on them then you should definitely check out Spider-Gwen.
Individual issues of Spider-Gwen are £2.49 on Comixology, but she’s still pretty new so isn’t on Marvel Unlimited.
Don’t be put off by the fact that every attempt at a Punisher film has been about as well made and enjoyable as a ropy kebab that you get on a whim stumbling home from an all-nighter – you know, the kind where the takeaway has one broken window already, and the lads outside who smell vaguely of weed and piss are eyeing up the other – because the his comics are some high quality stuff.
Granted there’s much more violence than Jessica Jones, but if you liked the bits of her show that got dark, that got a bit blood-spraying-on-glass and a bit morally grey, then the Punisher might be your best next stop, and I can’t think of a better intro to Frank Castle than the collection known as Welcome Back, Frank, a run that started in 2000. Corrupt cops, organised crime, and blood and bullets all over the furnishings. It’s great stuff, and Frank is set to appear in the second season of Daredevil, so Welcome Back, Frank is a good primer for what kind of man he is if you’re planning to watch it.
The individual issues of this run of The Punisher are £1.49 on Comixology, but not available on Marvel Unlimited.
The Pulse is another series that features Jessica Jones herself very prominently, although it will (probably) contain some spoilers for future events of the TV show. It follows Jessica as she starts working for The Bugle in New York, on a regular column in the newspaper that exclusively follows superheroes. As well as having some unique storylines of its own, The Pulse also ties in with some other Marvel stories, like Secret War (see below). Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are heroes that are more in touch with the people they’re trying to protect and The Pulse works well as part of that, showing some of the otherwise unseen consequences of heroics. There’s also really great use of panels – extreme close ups on eyes and faces with little dialogue, leaving you to infer the bigger story yourself.
The collected Jessica Jones issues of the Pulse are £17.49 on Comixology. All issues of the Pulse are on Marvel Unlimited.
Secret War ran for five issues about a decade ago now, but it’s still a very striking comic. Nick Fury takes an elite team of superheroes – including Luke Cage – on a covert, blacker-than-black ops mission to overthrow a government, and the consequences are somewhat dire.
It’s a classic spy-thriller story (only much less tedious than Captain America: The Winter Soldier was), and drawn in a way that suits it. The colours are muted, with no sharp delineations or bold lines that you might associate with comic books. There’s a fantastic use of light and shadow, and visual cues to guide you between the past and present without having to explicitly state what’s going on. Secret War is subtle, and leans more towards the kind of realism of look that Jessica Jones has. The kind of realism with all-American super-soldiers and Canadians with metal skeletons, anyway.
The collected Secret War is £5.99 from Comixology, and all issues are on Marvel Unlimited.
Jessica Jones crosses paths with Matt Murdock quite a lot: in the comics he is, in fact, her lawyer. While his comics aren’t quite as dark as her TV show (or his own, come to think of it) they're still a good read, and give some background on Jessica Jones’ world while you’re at it. Daredevil is a good place to start for anyone whose interest in the larger Marvel universe has been piqued, but be warned that you could stumble across spoilers for future episodes of Netflix shows, if you’re the kind of person who think spoilers count for characters that have technically existed for decades already.
Collected volumes of Daredevil start at £5.99 on Comixology, and many issues are available on Marvel Unlimited.
Powers is published under the Marvel imprint Icon, and Brian Michael Bendis, one of the writers, was also a name behind the creation of Alias as well as countless well known Marvel stories including Secret War, House of M, and Age of Ultron. It’s another pulp-fiction-y, noir-y, murder mystery and investigation story, following detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim (who reps Jessica well with her no-nonsense attitude) as they work homicide cases that are a bit more unusual than others.
Powers has a unique, simplistic-looking style but a story filled with intrigue and complexity, and is a great standalone comic for anyone who liked the private investigations flavour of Jessica Jones, but doesn’t want to get too embroiled in the nonsense that is the Marvel Universe proper. And it is a lot of nonsense, I’ll tell you that for nothing.
Vol. 1 of Powers is £7.49 on Comixology, but not available through Marvel Unlimited.
