From Cassius Comics

#19

(April 2003)
"The Underneath" pt. 3
Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Michael Gaydos (pencils). Cover by David Mack.

Featured Characters- Jessica Jones, Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin), Ben Urich, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) (cameo).

Summary- Jessica Jones locates the missing Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin) in the back of a trendy nightclub. It soon becomes clear that Franklin is being kept strung out on narcotics by her drug dealer boyfriend, who has been using scrapings of her DNA to create Mutant Growth Hormone, a new designer drug that provides both a high and temporary superpowers. Jones' attempt to rescue Franklin quickly goes all to hell, as the MGH addicts beat Jones unconscious and dump her in an alley. She's found by reporter Ben Urich, and after a trip to the emergency room, Jones limps back to her apartment to regroup...only to be attacked in her own home by the original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.

Comments- The opening scene with the MGH dealers harvesting Franklin's flesh is more than a little disturbing- certainly nothing that could have been shown outside of the MAX imprint. The use of Jessica Drew is interesting, since Bendis originally wanted her to be the star of Alias- he created Jessica Jones when Marvel editorial said that Drew was off limits. This is a decent issue for the most part, but the editing is abnormally poor- numerous minor typos distract from the story.

The Bigger Picture- Franklin would be rescued by Jones and Drew, recover, and work towards breaking up the MGH drug trade, eventually forming a team with Darkhawk and Ricochet. Drew would reclaim the Spider-Woman name and help form the New Avengers, along with Jones’ then-boyfriend Luke Cage.

Final Rating- 6/10

#27

(December 2003)
"Purple" pt. 4
Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Michael Gaydos (pencils). Cover by David Mack.

Featured Characters- Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Jessica Jones, The Purple Man, Clay Quartermain.

Summary- At The Raft, Jessica confronts her nemesis The Purple Man (Zebediah Killgrave), having been hired by the families of several of his suspected victims. Killgrave doesn’t play along- in his madness, Killgrave has somehow become aware that he exists solely as a comic book character. He taunts Jessica, ominously warning her, “I wouldn’t flip to the back of the book”- good advice, as it turns out.

Shortly after leaving The Raft, Jessica is shocked to find out that Killgrave has escaped. Afraid to return home, she spends the night with her boyfriend Scott Lang (Ant-Man); in the morning, she rolls over in bed to find his ashen corpse lying next to her, dead from a slit throat and covered with millions of crawling ants.

Comments- Very creepy last page- even with the overt foreshadowing, it still comes as a shock. How much must Bendis have hated Scott Lang to kill him two separate times within a few months?

While Killgrave’s awareness of the fourth wall is an interesting idea, it kind of undercuts Jessica Jones as the protagonist- since she’s sticking to the script, as it were, Jessica ends up looking like a dupe by comparison. Besides, Grant Morrison already told the definitive fourth-wall shattering story in Animal Man, and John Byrne ran the plot-device into the ground in Sensational She-Hulk, both of which were written over a decade earlier. Bendis achieves the near impossible in making the Purple Man seem like a genuinely terrifying character, but his omniscience regarding comic book continuity falls somewhat flat. Still, this issue must have been somewhat cathartic for Bendis to write; the line "Don’t contradict the continuity...they’ll eat you alive!" no doubt comes from bitter personal experience.

The Bigger Picture- Scott Lang’s apparent “death” is explained in the next issue, though he would die once and for all soon after in “Avengers Disassembled”, which Bendis also wrote.

Final Rating- 7/10