This article contains nothing but Jessica Jones Season 2 spoilers.
At this point, do I even need to explain these articles anymore? I do? OK, fine. I love superhero comics, perhaps a little too much, as you can probably tell based on what I do for a living. As a result, it’s not enough for me to just watch and enjoy a Marvel Netflix show like Jessica Jones Season 2. Nooooo…I must study every frame in the hopes of unlocking some piece of Marvel wisdom that would otherwise be lost to the ages or some such nonsense.
So here’s how this works. I am trying to catch all the Marvel references on Jessica Jones Season 2. I probably am going to miss a bunch of them. I need your help. I hate asking for help, but we’re all friends here, so it’s cool, right? If you spot a cool Marvel Easter Egg or something important that I missed, you can drop it in the comments (beware of spoilers, comments-readers!) or you can just holler at me on Twitter. If it checks out, I’ll update this guide, and we can all make this far better than it would have been if it was just me doing it.
Oh, and here’s a cool tip…if the title is in blue, that means there’s a full review waiting for you there if you click it!
Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 1: AKA Start at the Beginning
“While Jessica deals with a rival PI and a would-be client, Trish digs up a medical file that could unlock the mystery of Jessica’s powers.”
This isn’t an easter egg, but wow, Jessica almost seems like she has her shit together at the start of this, doesn’t she? Anyway…Pryce Cheng isn’t a character from the comics, unless that’s an alias (obligatory reminder that Alias was the name of Jessica’s first comic book), but really, I don’t think it is. Jessica’s cute new neighbor downstairs doesn’t appear to be from the comics, either. Jessica Jones has always worked best kind of one step removed from the rest of the Marvel Universe, and it looks like this season continues that trend.
– You know who absolutely IS from the pages of Marvel Comics, though? The (ahem) Whizzer, who no joke has been around almost as long as Captain America, first appearing in USA Comics #1 in 1941.
Of course, the Whizzer of the comics isn’t the poor schmuck we see here, but he was definitely a speedster, and he did indeed have a fondness for yellow and blue, just like our fella here. I know you don’t believe that I’m not making this up, so here’s a pic…
In the comics, his name is “Robert Frank” whereas here it seems to be Robert Coleman. His fondness for a pet mongoose is a nod to the comic character’s origin story, which involved a transfusion of mongoose blood to save him from the poisonous bite of a cobra. The doctor who gave him the blood transfusion was named Emil. TV’s Whizzer has a pet mongoose named Emil. Stop looking at me that way, I didn’t write the story, I’m just here to report it to you.
– Trish Walker dressed up in her old costume and singing the “It’s Patsy” theme song is:
a) hilarious
b) a subtle homage to an early scene in Ghostbusters II
c) all of the above.
There are no wrong answers but there is only one truly correct one.
– Jeri Hogarth is back! And her firm’s connection to Rand Industries here is a nod to the fact that the comic book Jeri got his (yes, his) start in Iron Fist comics. I know, it’s only the first episode and I’ve said those two words that no Marvel Netflix fan wants to hear, but you want this to be complete, right? Of course you do. Don’t judge me.
– Can anyone tell me what the movie is that Jessica and Trish are watching on the roof? I bet Den of Geek‘s movies editor David Crow knows, but I am too proud to ask him, and he doesn’t read my stuff anyway.
– They totally drop a Maynard Tiboldt reference, and he’s the Ringmaster from the Circus of Crime. But we DID get a Ringmaster in (sigh, I know) Iron Fist, as the snazzily dressed referee in the (cool) scenes where Colleen Wing is doing her whole illegal fight club thing. Anyway, that is NOT this guy, because this one is a doctor. I’m trying to figure out how the whole Ringmaster/Circus of Crime angle is going to fit here…if at all.
– Jessica has a tradition of throwing people through glass doors in the first episode of a new season, it seems.
– This season appears to be tweaking Jessica’s comics origin, which is totally fine. In the comics, it was implied that whatever truck that was involved in her car accident was carrying chemicals that granted her abilities. Here, it would seem that it was whatever happened to her after the fact in the hospital that did it.
Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 2: AKA Freak Accident
“Jessica sets out to find Dr. Kozlov and makes a startling discovery. Trish recruits Malcolm for backup as she visits a figure from her past.”
– We visit Josie’s early on this season, and I am completely on board with this just becoming Jessica’s official watering hole. Josie’s started life as pretty much a Daredevil-comics-only bar, but I like that it’s becoming more all purpose for these shows. It’s nice that it has a Game of Thrones pinball machine, too. On the other hand, the “are you drinking to remember or forget” line is some hack-ass dialogue, and this show can and should do better.
– There’s a Patsy Walker poster visible at one point, and the Patsy logo is 100% the logo from the old Patsy Walker comics, back from when she was an Archie-style teen/romance/humor comic.
– Jessica’s “mother goddamn shit” exclamation is just…so perfect. It’s so perfectly in tune with how in the comics Jessica routinely decides that ordinary profanity isn’t enough, so she just invents new ways to express her frustration.
It’s like how Charlie Brown says “auuugh” but far less family-friendly.
– The whole “my balls are tingling” and Jessica’s crack about his “scrotey sense” is:
a) hilarious
b) the closest we’re probably ever going to get to having Spider-Man formally acknowledged on these shows, no matter what the movies are doing
c) all of the above.
Choose wisely.
– Poor Will Simpson is back with his Nuke inhaler! Well, it beats having him popping pills, I guess.
Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 3: AKA Soul Survivor
“As her visions intensify, Jessica visits an abandoned clinic, where she stumbles on a new lead. Jeri faces an ultimatum after her secret gets out.”
– Rudy’s on 9th and 45th is 100% a real Hell’s Kitchen dive bar (one of the last ones in the rich people playground that neighborhood has become). Josie’s, however, is not (but if you want to visit the bar that “plays” Josie’s on TV, you wanna hit The Turkey’s Nest, but that’s in Williamsburg, not Hell’s Kitchen).
– Jessica sure doesn’t have a great track record with shrinks, does she?
– Foggy is back! I’m all about Foggy getting talked down to by Jessica more often.
– OK, so this is a stretch, but stick with me. The kid downstairs is all excited because he fashioned a new shield for his Captain America action figure, which kinda foreshadows what’s up in Avengers: Infinity War. But more importantly, he uses a magnet to do it. This may or may not be intentional, but in the 1960s, Cap used a magnet device on his glove to help control his shield.
– None of the names mentioned in this episode, inlcluding Dr. Leslie Hansen, seem to line up with anyone in Marvel Comics. Help me out if I’m wrong, please!
Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 4: AKA God Help the Hobo
“Between anger management classes and tabloid scandals, Jessica and Trish track down a third patient linked to IGH. Oscar extends an olive branch.”
– I’m drawing blanks on both Kelly Scott and Inez Greene (although I have my suspicions about Inez…I am saving them for later). Help me out in the comments or on Twitter if I’m wrong!
– Like the first season, this one keeps coming back to lines like “we prefer gifted” and drawing a kind of parallel between how powered folks in the MCU are perceived with some suspicion at street level. While it makes a certain amount of sense, I feel like they’re leaning into this a little too hard, because, well, that’s the X-Men’s territory, and that whole discrimination metaphor just plays better over there.
I promise, this isn’t me being a whiny Marvel purist, honest.
Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 5: AKA The Octopus
“Backed into a corner, Jessica’s forced to share her intel on the killer. A groggy Trish tries to pull herself together before an important meeting.”
– I am pretty sure that’s a David Mack painting in the apartment there.
– Again, the names in this episode aren’t turning up anything in my Marvel brain, so…what to do?
– Do we see the first twinge of maternal instincts in Jessica in this episode? She settles into parenting nicely in the comics, without losing her edge. Could she reconnect with Luke on TV?
– This isn’t specific to this episode, but it took me until this episode to notice it…why does John Byrne get a “special thanks” in the credits? As far as I can tell, Byrne never had anything to do with any of these character…unless someone we’ve been introduced to already isn’t what they seem.
I’ll keep updating this as I get through more episodes! Hit me up on Twitter if you have any suggestions!
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