Jessica Jones’ Role in Marvel’s Devil’s Reign, Explained

Krysten Ritter, AKA Jessica Jones, is back in business. Marvel Studios announced today that the Jessica Jones and The Defenders star is reprising her role as the super-powered private investigator of Alias Investigations in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, marking her return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time since 2017. Jessica Jones will presumably join the army that Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil, is forming to take back New York City from Vincent D’onofrio’s Mayor Wilson Fisk and his Anti-Vigilante Task Force gunning for the city’s officially-outlawed vigilantes.

After the first season of Born Again adapted portions of the six-part “Mayor Fisk” storyline that culminated in 2018’s Daredevil #600 by Charles Soule and Ron Garney, the upcoming second season is positioned to pull from Devil’s Reign. Spinning out of the pages of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s Daredevil run, the 2022 event began with Fisk outlawing vigilantism and deputizing villains for hire to enforce his superhero crackdown: Fisk’s new team of Thunderbolts.

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The power-mad Mayor Fisk’s reign of terror began when he discovered that he no longer remembered Daredevil’s once-outed secret identity. The children of Zebediah Killgrave — the mind-controlling supervillain the Purple Man, an enemy of Daredevil’s who victimized Jessica Jones for eight months when she was the superhero Jewel — used their father’s device, the Psycho-Prism, to amplify their powers, effectively brainwashing the world into forgetting that Matt Murdock is Daredevil.

After Mayor Fisk enacted a superhero ban with the Powers Act, and Fisk’s Thunderbolts arrested heroes like Spider-Man, Moon Knight, and the Fantastic Four’s Sue and Reed Richards, Daredevil and a small band of rebels went underground. Meanwhile, when the Shocker and Fisk’s Thunderbolts Units attempted to arrest Jessica and her husband Luke Cage, the former Hero-for-Hire publicly defied Fisk’s law as a Hero for the People.

Bankrolled by Una and Quinn Stromwyn, the power broker siblings who had him installed as mayor, Fisk’s endgame envisioned a presidential run. With Purple Man imprisoned in the Psycho-Prism, Mayor Fisk used his powers of persuasion to influence the election — but the machine could only coerce people in New York, not entirely control them.

As Daredevil’s group of underground Avengers planned to run Luke as their own mayoral candidate, Fisk sought out the Purple Children to amplify the power of the Psycho-Prism. It was Jessica who recognized Killgrave’s familiar influence over their minds, although she didn’t know how Fisk was using the psychoactive chemicals secreted by Killgrave’s skin.

With Fisk holed up at City Hall, the Avengers — including Daredevil, She-Hulk and Steve Rogers’ Captain America — attempted to bring down Fisk for violating the entire city. The heroes failed, and Fisk declared martial law with a fleet of anti-crime drones that enforced his zero tolerance policies.

Fisk then dispatched the Thunderbolts — U.S. Agent, Taskmaster, Whiplash, Electro, the Rhino, and the symbiote Agony — to track down the Purple Children. The Rhino defected and informed the Avengers about Fisk’s plot to kidnap Killgrave’s kids, which would give the mayor power over millions of minds. “We’re going to find those kids,” Jessica told the small assembly of heroes, warning: “If anyone gets in my way, I’m going to end them.”

When Fisk used the Purple Man’s powers to remember Matt Murdock’s alter-ego and sent the Thunderbolts after the Purple Children, Jessica joined the Champions — a teen team that included Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel, and Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart — to try and save the children from the likes of U.S. Agent and the Abomination.

But by the time Fisk had the Purple Children captured and drained of their powers, he had lost interest in reelection. Instead, Fisk freed Killgrave and had him use his super-charged purple powers to turn the city’s population into a mind-controlled army to kill the heroes, who had developed neural disruptors to block the brainwashing.

Believing him to be Matt, Fisk killed Matt’s twin brother, Mike Murdock, with his bare hands, and planned to flee the country with his wife, Typhoid Mary. But the Fisks were apprehended by Elektra and Daredevil, who brutally beat Mayor Fisk and arrested him. Once the Avengers defeated the Purple Man’s army, and Jessica reunited the Purple siblings, she told Luke: “Looks like you’re running unopposed, Mr. Mayor.”

Daredevil: Born Again season 2 premieres March 2026 on Disney+.