Epistrophe

October 15, 2024

Breaking the Dark: Jessica Jones in England

     Marvel Comics has always recognized the prose novel as an alternative medium for its characters, so the launch of a new crime novel series with a Jessica Jones thriller doesn’t come as a surprise. And the choice of a veteran bestselling writer of thrillers who understands the comic book protagonist and her context is an indication that Marvel and publisher Hyperion are serious about their intentions.

     The company’s initial entry into licensing novels featuring its superheroes began in June 1967 with The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker followed by Captain America and the Great Gold Steal in the late spring of 1968. Marvel launched its own series with eleven releases published by Pocket Books in 1978 and 1979 featuring ten novels starring Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four with one short story collection of tales about Daredevil, the X-Men, the Avengers and the Hulk. The series was authored by Marvel writers as well as established novelists.

     In 1994, Berkeley Boulevard published Venom Factor, an original Spider-Man prose novel, followed by two additional Spidey books. The Web-Slinger and X-Men dominated Marvel novels into the early 2000s, towering over smaller doses of Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Daredevil and Fantastic Four. The trend of novelizing now continues with the new series. 

     This year’s release of the first Marvel Crime Novel, Lisa Jewell’s Breaking the Dark, features Jessica Jones on an unusual case that borders on the macabre and lures the reader into a plot that unravels in both the past and present. For fans of the comics and the Netflix series, it’s a satisfying read, with the author inserting a few interesting detours along the way.  

     In this work, Jones is not the hard-drinking detective we’re used to seeing. Believing she is pregnant, the character refrains, however challenging it may be, from imbibing. She’s still haunted by her experience with the mind-controlling Kilgrave, but the case with which she’s tasked and her concern about motherhood seem to be welcomed distractions. 

     When she is approached by divorcee Amber Randall about looking into why her teenage twins are displaying aberrant behavior after spending a summer in England with their father, Jones and her newly hired adolescent assistant, Malcolm, plunge into a journey that begins in NYC, sidetracks to Great Britain and concludes back in the Big Apple. Simultaneously, the reader is slowly provided, through flashbacks, the British pieces of the puzzle that Jones is attempting to solve. But the past is just as shrouded in mystery as the Randall twins. 

     The theme of mothers and children are woven through the 368 pages of the book, from a 15th century tragedy involving a British town’s youth to Amber Randall and her children, Malcolm and his mom, and Jessica’s own possible pregnancy. And when a mother is not present, there is a surrogate to protect and defend the young from any peril that might arise.

     Jewell adorns the book with all the tropes of a crime novel – missing persons, disguises, altered identities, infiltration, the tailing of suspects and the rescuing of those in need. It’s all there but modernized with the latest technology. Social media, in particular, is well-positioned in the narrative as a criminal accomplice, its vampiric characteristics rendering both influencer and follower victims. It is wielded as the magic and alchemy of today, as a 21st-century creature akin to those of age-old horror stories, and it lurks as a culprit on the trail of Jones’s investigation.

      Breaking the Dark mixes a bit of horror and supernatural with the steadfast inquiry that defines the gumshoe genre. It’s not out of place for a comic book superhero nor does it detract from the read. In fact, it elevates the plot and complicates the perpetrators and their vices, however selfish or superficial they might be. And while there’s enough blame for these individuals to share, it’s not as simple to evenly parcel out as it might be in a 1940s detective novel.

     In the course of the book, several other Marvel characters manage to put in appearances. Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist, meets with Jones as does Madame Web. Daredevil is name-checked while Luke Cage briefly assists with the book’s investigation. These latter two characters will have their own crime novels in 2025. If Breaking the Dark sets the standard for the series, the next two should be highly anticipated.

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