51茶馆

December 22, 2020

My favourite detective: Jessica Jones, a super-detective for the Marvel generation

Writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and screen

When slunk onto screens in 2015, it was only fitting for the series in which she featured to begin in the shadows of Hell鈥檚 Kitchen. As the first superpowered female lead in the (albeit, on Netflix rather than in movie theatres), Jones existed on the margins.

, I had been waiting for a female-led Marvel film while becoming disenfranchised by its offerings. By the time Jessica Jones came around, I was completely ambivalent and somewhat despondent. It was a welcome surprise that (played by ) was different 鈥� and not just because she was a woman.

Part superhero, but mainly hardboiled private eye, Jones was a departure from the superhero we had gotten used to, and .

Adapted from Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos鈥檚 series, Jessica Jones merges the superhero and crime drama genres to ask provocative questions about power, justice and authority.

Jessica who?

Jones is by questions of what justice means and what it means to be a hero.

She has no time for martial arts or neat explanations. She is reluctant to take on the identity of a crime-fighting hero at all because she鈥檚 extremely sceptical that there is such a thing.

Whenever the word 鈥渉ero鈥� leaves her mouth, it鈥檚 with a degree of distaste. Her detachment is refreshing after no less than three films and countless heroic crime drama series. By the time we meet Jones, as critic puts it:

"the detective has become her own breed of superhero 鈥� a figure who restores the status quo [鈥�] She brings order out of chaos. She finds answers. She is superhuman.鈥�

On the surface, Jones might seem a reluctant female hero, like Buffy in the early seasons of (1997-2003). But sitting alongside the wider Marvel universe, though Jones helps others between paying clients, her scepticism makes things complicated.

Ambivalent origins

Far from making her invincible to external threats, Jones鈥� superpowers leave her vulnerable to fetishisation and gender-based violence at the hands of series villain . Played by David Tennant, Kilgrave has been interpreted as a for white, and .

In contrast to other superheroes, Jones鈥� traumas lead her not to reassert herself as a crime-fighting hero but to reassess the validity of the whole hero narrative. She trades the promise of a costume (which she in the television series) for a camera, and becomes a morally ambivalent private investigator.

Law and order

At the intersection of superhero and crime drama, Jessica Jones raises important questions about the law and social justice.

Superhero and are generally conservative in terms of tone, politics and gender roles. While there are , their premises often rely on a sequence: the establishment of status quo, it鈥檚 disruption by crime and villainy, and the triumphant reestablishment at the hands of a superhero or crime-fighting detective.

In the face of violence and injustice, the solution is often meted out by a kind of who, hero or antihero, becomes synonymous with the law.

As a jaded super-detective, Jones questions not only the status quo but the notion of the vigilante hero and their perceived synonym with social justice. She never gives up a chance to call out others鈥� "heroism鈥� for hubris or self-indulgence.

, Jones eschews the black and white to reside in the greys, purples and in-betweens. She鈥檚 unconvinced as to whether anyone can or should have the moral authority to decide what is right or wrong.

This detachment rarely wavers. Over the course of three seasons and a team-up in (2017), Jones鈥� dry scepticism is hilariously charged at everyone including herself and her Netflix Marvel counterparts.

Critics haven鈥檛 always been sure how to respond. Jones鈥� ambiguity as female antihero resulted in the character and series being simultaneously praised and denounced. Critic celebrated it as 鈥渟low unravelling of a familiar genre鈥�, while argued Jones had no place in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Indeed, through her wry characterisation as jaded super-detective, Jones provides irreverent commentary on the masculine grandiosity and oft-undisputed entitlement of the superhero, and its pervasion into neighbouring genres. If internet sleuths read this disparity as a clue to Jessica Jones鈥檚 not-belonging, they might have just solved the case.

, PhD Candidate, 51茶馆

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. 

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the 51茶馆.