The following contains major spoilers for Variants #2, available now from Marvel.
Jessica Jones has never had an easy or simple life, but the past few months have seen things get out of hand in whole new ways. Not only has her past come back to haunt her, but she has also come face-to-face with unexpected variants of herself. Thankfully, these visions of herself from other worlds aren’t just figments of her imagination or another part of the Purple Man’s undying plot, though that doesn’t mean they’re entirely unrelated. Especially now that Jessica’s tragic first attempt at being a superhero has walked back into her life, she might not have any choice but to finally come to terms with her time as Jewel.
Variants #2 (by Gail Simone, Phil Noto, and VC’s Cory Petit) finds Jessica and Luke Cage embroiled in a battle with doppelgangers of Jessica, including one bearing the mantle of Captain America. As frightening as the situation might be, the two are more than enough to deal with her variants. But neither of them can do anything about the threat lurking within. Apart from the emergence of her other selves testing her grasp on reality, the apparent resurgence of the Purple Man’s influence threatens to push her over the edge. Even worse, these two seemingly unrelated events have just collided in the most uncomfortable way possible. Specifically, in the form of Jessica’s former wide-eyed and brightly colored alter-ego.
Before Jessica Jones was the hardened private investigator fans have come to know, she was a budding young superhero with dreams of becoming a bastion of truth and justice. As seen in the pages of 2003’s Alias #25 (by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, and Mark Bagley), her career as the costumed crusader known as Jewel was cut short by her introduction to Zebediah Killgrave, aka the Purple Man. Killgrave’s fascination with Jessica almost immediately became a grotesque obsession, which in turn gave way to something far worse.
With Jessica under his control, Killgrave carried out horrendous acts, torturing the young hero in the process. Even though Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were eventually able to save her and defeat Killgrave, the damage he had already done would change the course of both her career and her life completely. Despite having escaped his shadow on multiple occasions, the specter of the Purple Man always seems to find new ways to return and loom over her. His voice whispering in the back of her mind once again is bad enough, but seeing herself as she was before he sent her spiraling could very well be more than she can handle.
Confronting a relative copycat, even a star-spangled one, is nothing that Jessica can’t deal with, but staring at her earliest, most hopeful self is unlike anything else. Beyond a heartbreaking era in her life, Jewel represents all the pieces of herself and aspirations that were taken from her by an enemy she never asked to make.
Assuming that this version of Jewel hasn’t met Purple Man if she comes into contact with him, things could get very badly for everyone involved. Jessica has already seen how deadly and out of control Killgrave’s influence can be. He can turn anyone into their own worst enemy. If history repeats itself, not only would Jewel suffer, but Jessica will also be forced to witness the worst thing that has ever happened to her all over again.