Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter No. 3 review: Jessica breaks free

Jessica Jones has succumbed to the influence of Killgrave’s son in an attempt to help her daughter and who knows what Benjamin has in store for her and for Luke. Spoilers for Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter no. 3 follow.

Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter has been arguably one of the best Jessica Jones stories to have ever been made, at least at this point in time. It was just now up to the landing to stick to see if that would continue to ring true. Unsurprisingly, it completely does with this finale being some of the most intense and emotional stories and moments for the character and recent comics in general. This is a fantastic finale to a fantastic arc and is easily going to be remembered as a seminal Jessica Jones story.

Kelly Thompson does an absolutely amazing job with the script of the issue, bringing to a head everything that had been building up the entire arc. More importantly than the plot though is her actual treatment of Jessica. Despite all of her anger, fear, and hate, Jessica still refuses to become things that she isn’t and is willing to die in order to not become those things.

Thompson paints a pure portrait of Jessica in this issue which will break your heart, but also make smile with joy when she comes out on the other side, not unscathed, but alive. Thompson does an amazing job presenting Jessica with a survivor mindset that so many people simply can’t imagine, and regardless, you completely understand Jessica and her worldview and her pain by the end of this issue. It’s a weird mix of being angry, sad, and happy that is extremely hard to describe, which is what most writers strive yet never accomplish. Thompson does so here.

Image by Marvel Comics/Art by Mattia De Iluis

The only real problem here is the character of Benjamin Killgrave. He doesn’t feel as built up as he could be. However, since this is Jessica’s story about her struggles and her pain, it makes sense as to why. So, really this is a minor nitpick.

A lot of the emotional impact though stems from the art here. Two artists take the reins here with Filipe Andrade taking up much of “Chapter 5” and then regular series artist Mattia De Iluis taking for the end of it and the entirety of “Chapter 6.” Sometimes, having different artists work on the same is for purely business decisions, but here, it’s purely artistic.

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Andrade’s work is to present this fantasy that Benjamin is forcing Jessica and Luke to be involved in and as such, Andrade nails it. The style very much feels like a child’s storybook, a very unsettling one at that, which is perfect because of who Benjamin Killgrave is. He’s a child looking for parents, which is why he presents himself as Jessica and Luke’s son in the fantasy. Andrade’s art mixes that storybook storytelling style along with the darker undertones of the story well and it makes for an intriguing chapter.

The most hard-hitting art in these chapters though easily come from De Iluis. His more realistic style brings a brutality an emotion to every single panel that is drawn here and it often feels like you’re looking at photographs that have simply been traced over. The little facial and body movements that he does are incredible and such minute attentions to detail that some won’t even notice, but those that do will appreciate the art even more.

9.8/10 

Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter is easily one of the best stories Marvel has released over the past couple of years and this is a near perfect ending to it.