Jessica Jones: Blind Spot
Here we are, Jessica Jones’ first solo adventure in the post-Bendis Marvel Era. We’ve got the very talented Kelly Thompson writing this story along with Mattia De Iuis providing some very nice art for the majority of the volume, with Marcio Takara pitching in at the end. It begins with Jessica chained to a chair in a Ms. Marvel costume (the old bikini-style one) arguing with the unknown individual who put her in this situation. The story then flashes back to happier times, Jessica hanging out in the park with Luke Cage and their daughter Danielle, before the superpowered private investigator finds a dead body in her office. Said body belongs to one Dia Slone, who came to Jessica a while back asking for the P.I.’s help in investigating her scumbag boyfriend. Now Jessica has to find out if this boyfriend is the reason Dia wound up dead in her office. Well, that’s what Jessica would do if she wasn’t shot in the head at the end of the first issue.
Fortunately we’re spared the adventures of “Jessica Jones: Brain-Dead Investigator” and we get a solid detective story as she tries to track down who did this to her and, presumably, Dia. Thompson’s take on the character is missing her trademark self-destructiveness, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jessica is as smart, driven, and smart-alecky as she ever was and remains a captivating lead. It’s also a lot of fun to see her mix it up with the likes of Doctor Strange and Misty Knight, though the award for best team-up in this issue has to go with the badass-and-she-knows-it Elsa Bloodstone.
While the overall story is solid, it’s dragged down a bit by the nature of the superpowers at the core of it. They’re vaguely-defined reality-warping wishing powers and their lack of specificity has them coming off as more plot-device-y than anything else. Things take on a lighter note for the final issue, which has Jessica and Luke celebrating Dani’s birthday and the superhero-related shenanigans which always follow these things. Much of it is good fun, even though Jennifer Walter’s bit part here does nothing to convince me that making her into “The Hulk” was a good idea from a storytelling perspective. Even when compared against the last-page-reveal about Dani which just has me going, “Too soon…”