On the grand hierarchy of tragic superhero backstories, Jessica Jones ranks somewhere near the top. Spider-Man’s uncle died? Well, her whole family died, and when the boy she liked tried to sympathize with her, she misinterpreted it as bullying — and that boy turned out to be Spider-Man! (Fun fact: Jessica Jones was retconned into being a background nerd who appeared in an old Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man comic from the ‘60s. Marvel’s New York is nothing if not very, very small.)

And that’s without even mentioning the whole Purple Man thing, which is told in flashbacks throughout the Alias series (and happens a lot like it does on the Netflix show): The accident that killed Jessica’s family also gave her superpowers for whatever reason, and when she tried to go out and become a superhero, she caught the eye of mind-controlling supervillain Zebediah Killgrave (a.k.a. The Purple Man). He kidnapped her and forced her to be his puppet for an extended period of time, and she only managed to escape his control because he threw a fit after getting beaten up in a superhero battle and tried to force her to go kill Daredevil — but he didn’t know where to find Daredevil, so he just sent her to Avengers Mansion (that’s where the Avengers used to live before they got a skyscraper).

Jessica punched the Scarlet Witch, because she wears red like Daredevil, and then The Vision almost killed her. Luckily, the Avengers figured out she was being mind-controlled and then Jean Grey (of X-Men fame!) helped her develop mental defenses to prevent being mind-controlled in the future. Deeply traumatized, she rejected an offer to join the superhero community and become an Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D., choosing instead to become a bitter, hard-drinking private investigator.

That, more or less, brings us to the present day, as seen in Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’ Alias series. It’s a great book, and there’s not much else like it in either of the Big Two superhero universes. [It is also, of course, tangentially related to Daredevil, which is always a plus for me.] Though probably not the definitive, iconic Alias book*, issue 10 is a fun standalone story that gets at the core of who Jessica Jones is and how she relates to the wacky comic book world she lives in.

And who better to represent that wider world than J. Jonah Jameson, owner of The Daily Bugle? This story takes place alongside Bend’s Daredevil story where his identity gets revealed by a different tabloid, and a furious/jealous Jameson vows to do the same to New York’s greatest menace: Spider-Man. He’s heard of Jessica’s ruthless P.I. skills, plus her connection to the superhero community, and so he decides to try and hire her for this collaborative project to unmask ol’ Web-Head.

Of course, JJJ is gonna JJJ, so he can’t help but make this proposal while repeatedly insulting her, her profession, and New York’s superheroes (some of whom are her close friends). Still, Jessica accepts on the condition that Jameson pay for any expenses she accrues during her investigation, which doesn’t seem suspicious at all. Blinded by his desire to publicly shame the Wall-Crawler, Jameson agrees.

The gimmick of the issue is that it’s told from JJJ’s point of view and presented as text and art (rather than speech bubbles and whatnot), with ace reporter Ben Urich following Jessica around, writing about her process, and then going back to Jameson. And, at first glance, Jessica seems to be taking the assignment seriously. She hears rumors about places that Spider-Man hangs out, and then goes to investigate. And, as we all know, Spider-Man hangs out at food banks, AIDS charities, and other places that take donations to help the unfortunate. Weirdly, though, despite throwing money (Jameson’s money) at these places to try and get someone to talk about Spidey’s real name, Jessica keeps hitting dead ends!

Jameson eventually catches on to her scam, but it takes Urich to highlight the full scope of it: Jameson can rant and scream all he wants, but he can’t retaliate without exposing that he’s mad about his money going to charity. Jessica barely physically appears in the issue, but this is the key to why she’s such a fun character: She has suffered various horrible, unfair tragedies, and it has made her understandably bitter, cynical, and distrustful, but she still has an unshakeable desire to do the right thing and to help people. In this issue, she has a chance to do a good thing and screw over a jackass in the process, and it makes perfect sense that she would jump at it.

It’s a rare Alias issue that is just fun, and it captures who all of these characters are and why they’re compelling incredibly well.

I’m trying to break out of doing first issues, because the idea is that I’m doing a random comic, so here’s issue 4 of the great Nice House On The Lake. Teaser: This is the issue that convinced me that James Tynion IV has the juice and I’ll follow him anywhere now!