Binge-watching 'Jessica Jones'? Here's your primer on the ex-superhero

You open up the Netflix homepage, and there's an ad for the newest Marvel/Netflix show, Jessica Jones. "That's a weird name," you think. "Does she not have a superhero alias?"

You've never heard of Jessica Jones (though to be fair, you probably hadn't heard about Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr. stepped into his titanium alloy boots). But Krysten Ritter is in the show, and you liked her in Veronica MarsBreaking Bad, and you had intended on tuning into Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 before it got abruptly canceled. And Jessica Jones has something to do with Daredevil, right?

Well, look no further, because your guide to Jessica Jones is here.

Who even is Jessica Jones?

Jessica Jones is a former superhero-turned-private-eye who is the owner and sole employee of Alias Investigations in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. After a short-lived stint as the costumed superhero Jewel, Jessica suffers a traumatic event that causes her to hang up the cape and tights, and renounce the superhero life. But -- as they say in every noir movie that influences Jessica's story -- she inevitably gets pulled back into that life, working cases that have a preternatural bent (and often using her super strength and agility to close cases more easily).

Then-Jessica Campbell got her powers of super strength, super healing and occasional flight after her family's car crashed into a truck filled with toxic chemicals. The only survivor of the crash, Jessica gets inspired to become a superhero after seeing Spider-Man in action, and takes on the identity of Jewel. Shortly after her superhero career begins though, she gets kidnapped by a villain for months -- only to escape and find out that no one realized she was gone.

Why have I never heard of her before?

Jessica Jones actually did not exist before she debuted as the main character in Brian Michael Bendis' Alias comics in 2001.

With Alias, which was the first comic series to be published under Marvel's R-rated MAX comic imprint, Bendis wanted to tell the story of one of the many forgotten B-level superheroes in Marvel's history, and comment on the genre's constant rewriting of its own continuity. Jessica herself goes through several superhero names -- Jewel, Knightress, Power Woman -- before just forgoing the whole secret identity altogether.

Even as a private detective, her interactions with the household name superheroes like Spider-Man or Captain America tend to be on the fringes of their stories or forgotten by the heroes altogether, in a piece of meta-commentary on the overstuffed state of the Marvel universe(s).

Why does that Luke guy keep popping up?

Luke Cage is the owner of the bar that Jessica frequents (because as a noir hero, she is expected to drink copiously), and a pretty powerful guy himself. In the comics, he's a friend of Jessica's from her superhero career, and occasional romantic interest.

Without going too far into spoiler territory, he's headlining his own Netflix series, Luke Cage, and will appear in the miniseries team-up The Defenders alongside Jessica and Daredevil.

Oh yeah, Daredevil. How is Jessica connected to Daredevil?

Well, other than living in the same neighborhood, Matt Murdock has bailed Jessica out of a few of her legal entanglements, and she's even acted as his bodyguard on several occasions (it's a long story). Like anyone else, Jessica crushes on Matt for a little bit, but they're both so wrapped up in their own issues that it doesn't amount to anything. The one thing they do share is several of Daredevil's villains -- the Purple Man (known as Kilgrave in the show) being one of them.

Jessica and Daredevil have rarely teamed up in a superhero capacity before, but that's probably going to change soon with the upcoming Defenders. And fingers crossed for a Matt Murdock cameo in Jessica Jones!

What comics can I read about her?

The majority of Jessica's story as we'll know her in the show is told in Alias (2001-2004), which ran for 28 issues. It details her journey as a private detective, her origin story and the reason she quit the superhero life, in a moody and raw series illustrated by Michael Gaydos.

Those 28 issues are honestly all you need to get the gist of the Jessica Jones show, but here are some more series that you can find Jessica in:

• The Pulse  (2004-2006): Jessica Jones the Daily Bugle (yes, that Daily Bugle) as a special consultant on superheroes.
• Young Avengers Vol. 1  (2005-2006): Jessica is a background character still working at the Daily Bugle who is tasked with finding out about the new young heroes.
• Mighty Avengers  (2013-present): Again taking a supporting role as Luke takes center stage with this new Avengers team.

Jessica Jones is available on Netflix streaming.