While we sadly don't have the Marvel Netflix streaming shows to watch anymore (though hope remains for some of the characters?) the series remain to binge, dissect and wonder what might have been. Jessica Jones was one of the best of the MCU-ish series, both for the show's fidelity to the source material and the changes it made in translating to the small screen.
Some of those changes are minor. Some are pretty big. Let's take a look at some of the ways that Jessica Jones is accurate to the original comics character and some ways she's not.
10 Inaccurate: Purple Hair
This is probably the most obvious difference. Jessica Jones first appeared in comics in Alias #1 back in 2001, courtesy of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos. Before she becomes the owner of the Alias Private Investigations, she was a superhero named Jewel. A bad run-in with the Purple Man brought an end to her spandex days and that amazing purple hair. Krysten Ritter doesn't sport any lavender locks in the series, and the character features some other key differences from her superhero origins that we'll get to in a bit.
9 Accurate: Private Detective
Jessica Jones owns Alias Private Investigations in the comics. In the show, it's simply Alias Investigations but the basic premise from the comics is the same. After a terrible experience being manipulated and mind-controlled by Kilgrave (The Villain Formerly Known As Purple Man) into killing someone, she goes into business for herself. Jessica struggles to stay afloat with her own personal demons, including PTSD, but she's committed to helping others with her superstrength. Unfortunately for her, Kilgrave is still around, as she discovers after she takes a case to find a missing girl named Hope.
8 Inaccurate: Not Jewel
Though her awful encounter with the Purple Man is largely the same in the show as it in the comics, the names are different for both. Purple Man is simply Kilgrave, and Jessica was never a costumed hero named Jewel. The concept of costumed heroes is somewhat eschewed in the series and the small family of Netflix Marvel series, despite their (increasingly) tenuous connection to the MCU. In fact, when Jessica's friend Trish Walker suggests she should put on a costume and go by the name of Jewel, Jessica laughs it off, calling Jewel a 'stripper name.'
7 Accurate: Tough Enough
While both the comics and screen versions of Jessica Jones feature her superhuman strength, the toughest thing about both is her own personal will. Jessica has a grit and determination that rubs some people the wrong way but keeps her going through circumstances that would crush anyone else.
Jessica gets stuck in a coma for months after the terrible car accident that grants her powers. She retreats into self-loathing after her ordeal with the Purple Man. She never quite gets the guy. But she always gets back up, and always gets back in the fight.
6 Inaccurate: No Spidey
In the comics, Jessica goes to Midtown High School with Peter Parker. In a sly bit of retconning, she's there when he gets bitten by a spider (hey, not everybody had a nametag on in Amazing Fantasy #15). She also a bit of a crush on him. All of that great connective tissue to Spidey is crushed in the series, though. Thanks to the (at the time) partition in the film rights to Spider-Man and the confusing relationship between the MCU and its small screen outliers, the Wall-Crawler was never a possibility. Also, it would have been hard, since Peter is a teenager in the MCU and Jessica is... not.
5 Accurate: Luke Cage
While the exact details are a little different, one major holdover from the comics is the relationship between Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. In the original comic book series Alias, the two are already involved in a pretty loose, causal relationship. On the show, they're meeting for the first time. Both versions of the romance are feisty and turbulent, but the comics one is much more serious. Jessica is pregnant with their child at the end of Alias (the Marvel Max label it was part of was um, progressive), and the two of them are happily married, a rarity in comic books to be sure.
4 Inaccurate: Toned Down
The idea behind Marvel Max was to present stories and characters outside of the longstanding restrictions of the Comics Code Authority. DC Comics had long been pioneers in this arena with their late, lamented Vertigo imprint, and in 2001, Marvel took their shot with Max. Alias was particularly provocative in its subject matter, dealing with abuse, substance abuse, and decidedly adult sexual situations. You'd think with a streaming series, where the boundaries are very different, a lot of this would carry over. Surprisingly, Jessica Jones toned many elements of the comic down.
3 Accurate: Without Fear
Though it takes a long time, Jessica Jones and Matt Murdoch eventually cross paths in the Marvel Netflix universe, echoing one of the strongest connections to the comics. From the jump, Daredevil is a major factor in Jessica's life. He's her lawyer, which she needs because she's always getting in trouble. Also, the Purple Man sent her to kill him. Introductions are tough.
Initially, on the series, Jessica's legal needs are seen to by Jerri Hogarth, but eventually, Netflix pulls off its mini-Avengers Assemble with Defenders, and Matt and Jessica finally meet up to mete out justice.
2 Inaccurate: Captain Marvel
In the comics, Jessica Jones' friend - maybe her best friend - is Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel. She rescues Jessica from her misguided purple haze induced mission to kill Daredevil and is there to support her through thick and thin. The two have a lot in common; unfortunately, Carol was a victim of a completely horrific mind invasion, of which the less said, the better. For probably the same reasons we don't see Spidey, Carol is nowhere to be seen, though there is a pretty cool (and hard to spot) easter egg in season three of the show that suggests what might have been.
1 Accurate: Purple Man
While he doesn't go by his made up name in the show, Kilgrave is the principal villain of Jessica Jones season one, as he is in the comics. Along with Jessica and pretty much everyone else, there's no costume, but he's always wearing purple. His sick mind games and controlling personality are well in place, and so is his disastrous first encounter with Jessica. In both Alias and the show, he returns, forcing her not just to confront him, but the fear and trauma her experience with him inflicted on her.