Appears On: Jessica Jones Whereas Charlie Cox was shouldered with opening the door to the Netflix corner of the MCU, Krysten Ritter then had an even bigger job ahead of her in making Jessica live up to her popular predecessor, as well as proving that Daredevil's success wasn't just a fluke. Fortunately, she knocked it right out of the park, with the sarcastic, distant, complicated Jessica coming into her own as more than just another MCU hero whose fists solve all her problems for her. The debate will undoubtedly continue to go on about whether or not Matt or Jessica is "better" than the other, and both sides have their merits even if both characters are strong and fascinating in their own rights, but where Jessica edges out Matt is her complexity. Whereas Matt fights for justice, Jessica has a lot more to cope with, not just in terms of whether or not she even wants to be a hero, but as a survivor of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, all of which gives her even more layers as a character that make her easier to sympathize with than our favorite blind vigilante, with her conflict with Kilgrave far more personal than the one between Matt and Fisk. The series dealt with subject matter we wouldn't ever see in, say, an Avengers movie, and it deserves to be commended for it, especially Ritter's portrayal of Jessica as more than just "a victim." She's scared, haunted, and traumatized, but not beyond healing or even redemption for the things Kilgrave forced her to do, and her final showdown with the Purple Man paid off her season-long journey in crawling out from under his shadow. Regardless of whether one prefers Matt or Jessica over the other, they're both great characters, and the idea of seeing these two excellent character portrayals together at last down the line is worth being excited for.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
