Marvel Really Couldn’t Wait to Mess With Daredevil’s Returning Hero’s Powers

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, episode 6. As was spoiled well ahead of the new episode’s release, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 just saw Jessica Jones return to the MCU. Krysten Ritter’s sarcastic private detective returned in episode 6, “Requiem”, as Wilson Fisk’s AVTF escalated anti-vigilante activities after the death of Fisk’s beloved Vanessa. In what can only be described as a mistake, the AVTF attacked Jessica Jones’ home – where her daughter (fathered by a missing Luke Cage) was. And you know what they say about risking the ire of a protective mother. Especially one with superpowers. But Jones’ reappearance also came with a strange side-note.

Despite clearly being considered a formidable enough threat for Fisk and the AVTF to stupidly target her for neutralization, Jessica reveals to Matt Murdock that her powers have been affected since the birth of her daughter Danielle. It’s a passing line, which doesn’t entirely fit with how easily she dispenses with the AVTF in two major set-pieces, but it’s still an important note. It feels like another case of a super-soldier-level hero being downgraded as a sort of loophole to preserve tension. We’ve seen that sort of “nerfing” happen a lot in the MCU, after all. And there’s also the possibility that it’s setting something up in the future that fans won’t necessarily like.

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Why Jessica Jones is Losing Her Powers (& The Accidental Problem it Causes)

Let’s get one thing immediately straight: even with apparently faltering powers, Jessica Jones is still a formidable superhero. Her announcement scene in episode 6 actually plays like a clever inversion of Daredevil’s trademark corridor scenes, with all of the actual violence off-screen and artfully concealed. This – in something of a logical contradiction – actually makes Jones seem more powerful, and quickly plays into her mythology. Of course she’d make light work of the agents: she’s Jessica f-ing Jones. And the scene allows the audience some of her attackers’ perspective as they take on not only her power but also her aura.

But Jessica Jones has always had power inconsistencies since she was introduced to Netflix’s Marvel universe: some of it was down to uneven writing, but her PTSD from the Purple Man’s abuse and her traumatic childhood also played into it. Jessica was always at least partly at war with herself, and emotions could derail her power potential. Born Again seems to be continuing those fluctuations, albeit for a very different reason: but motherhood – and Luke Cage’s newly-revealed absence on a secret mission overseas – logically could impact her. And it’s not like it’s unprecedented: Spider-Man has now been impacted by his mental state in a similar way in two different franchises, if the Brand New Day trailer is anything to go by, at least.

Jessica’s obvious power when the AVTF attack her home perhaps hints that her power limits are psychological: after all, she mentions to Matt being “pissed” that they came after her. Jessica was revealed to be helping Murdock and Karen from behind the frontlines with intel on Fisk’s criminal organization, which is clearly a (logical) response to having a child. And in that vulnerability, Jessica still finds her strength: we only really get a hint that her powers are faltering because she says so.

Then again, if something else is at play and Jessica’s powers have been somehow biologically impacted, there’s not really a precedent in her Comics backstory. And Marvel may be risking drawing criticism for once again demonizing womanhood after Black Widow’s regrettable “monster” line in Avengers: Age of Ultron when she revealed to Bruce Banner she was infertile thanks to the Red Room. It’s a different part of the spectrum of that same issue, but suggesting that a woman would lose something of herself simply by becoming a mother isn’t the best read. Still, perhaps Jessica Jones’ MCU future can explore precisely why her powers are in flux after giving birth to future superhero Danielle Cage. Hopefully, it doesn’t mean we’re going to see her lose, though. The loophole being placed to seed something like that would be disappointing.

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