Despite her brief career as a super hero, Jessica Jones made a few lifetime friends in the field, perhaps most notably Carol Danvers.  In addition to them both being super heroes, they both hung up their super identities– Jessica quit being Jewel after being mentally enslaved and violated by Kilgrave and Carol gave up her Ms. Marvel identity after losing her powers and memories to Rogue, who at the time was a villain.  The pair were reunited when Jessica’s boyfriend Luke Cage joined the Avengers alongside Carol who had regained her powers and assumed the new code name Captain Marvel.

Back in 2010, Melissa Rosenberg began developing a TV series based on Jessica’s comic book ‘Alias’ but since that title had already been used as a TV series (Joss Whedon’s short-lived spy thriller), the working title became ‘A.K.A. Jessica Jones’.  During this process, Rosenberg planned to use both Carol Danvers and Luke Cage on the show as Marvel didn’t have any additional plans for them.  But of course, the ABC series never came to fruition, but with Rosenberg still attached, the concept was repurposed as the Netflix series, now simply known as ‘Jessica Jones’.  In the interim, it was determined that ‘Luke Cage’ would become a separate show– however Mike Colter will still appear on ‘Jessica Jones’ a the super strong hero before spinning off into his own show.  In addition, Marvel Studios chose ‘Captain Marvel’ to be their first female movie headliner. Rosenberg spoke about how the cinematic universe differs from the comics, necessitating certain changes on the show… including the removal of Carol Danvers from ‘Jessica Jones’:

“Back when it was at ABC Network, I did use Carol Danvers.  But between then and when it ended up on Netflix, you know, the MCU shifted, and it also shifted away from the universe in the [comic] book. So in the book, the powers are very out in the open and the themes of that are about ‘the other,’ and in the cinematic universe that’s not the mythology. So there was a lot that I had to move away from, just in terms of sheer plot, and Carol Danvers got her own movie.”

But Jessica on the show needed someone to replace Carol to serve as a sounding board.  That led Rosenberg to recruit another figure from Marvel’s vault:

“But as it turned out, Patsy Walker ended up being an incredibly—a much more appropriate fit with Jessica.  It was better that her best friend was not someone with powers. It actually ends up being a really great mirror for her.”

Rachael Taylor plays Patricia “Trish” Walker, a former child star who now works as a talk radio host.

In the comics, Patsy Walker was the star of several Archie-esque teen comedy comics published by Marvel in the 50s and 60s who was revived as part of their proper super hero universe in the Bronze Age when she adopted the guise of Hellcat.  She served with the Avengers and Defenders for many years but is currently fairly inactive as a hero.

So far there has been no mention of Trish Walker sharing her inspiration’s heroic past and with her screaming yellow costume, she may not exactly make a good match for Hell’s Kitchen which is as seedy as Avengers Tower is gleaming and bright.

Would you have liked seeing Carol Danvers on ‘Jessica Jones’?  Or would you rather Marvel hold off until she makes her debut on the big screen?  What do you think of Hellcat replacing her?

‘Jessica Jones’ is available now to watch in its entirety on Netflix.

Source: IGN