The Woman Who Just Wouldn't Quit Part 2

The Pulse 1-14 (2004-2006)
Marvel Comics
Brian Michael Bendis, writer
Mark Bagley, Scott Hanna, Brent Anderson, Michael Lark and Michael Gaydos, artists

Last time, we talked about Jessica Jones and her book Alias, which ran its course and was ended by its creators on a high note because they felt like they'd done with the character what they had set out to do. Except, as writer Brian Michael Bendis himself explains on the last page of Alias' final issue, that wasn't really the end of Jessica's story.

Jessica was actually a pretty popular character in the Marvel Universe at the time of Alias' cancellation. And Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada had another book in mind that he thought might be a good fit for Bendis and Jessica Jones, this time told squarely in the Marvel Universe, not the Marvel Max periphery.

The idea was for an investigative procedural-style comic that could go anywhere story would take it in the Marvel Universe, and Jessica Jones seemed very nicely suited to such a venture. After the personal changes the character underwent at the conclusion of Alias, there was also a natural personal path for her to undertake. So The Pulse debuted a few months after the last issue of Alias was released. In story, "Daily Bugle" publisher J. Jonah Jameson is not fond of costumed vigilantes, but he has to concede that tales of their exploits sell newspapers. So he decides to create a weekly sister publication to the "Bugle" that will play up the doings of the super-powered denizens of New York City. Jessica agrees to take a job consulting and investigating for the new publication, to be named "The Pulse." And "Bugle" staffers Ben Urich and Kat Farrell will write much of the copy. The upside of the steady gig for Jessica is health-insurance now that she is pregnant and in a steady relationship with the baby's father, Luke Cage.

The Pulse was an interesting title, although it had a much different feel than Alias had. And the art on the initial arcs was quite a bit different from Gaydos' painted work on Jessica's initial adventures. But the stories put Jessica and the other "Bugle" staffers next to heroes like Spider-Man, the Avengers and Nick Fury while pitting them against the likes of the Green Goblin, Hydra and childbirth. Brent Anderson and Michael Lark took over the art chores for the second story arc and the book took on a darker feel, more like Alias, as it dealt with the aftermath from the Bendis-penned Secret War. And finally, Gaydos returned to deliver the art for The Pulse's final story arc, the birth of Luke and Jessica's baby, and the final missing pieces of Jessica's untold past in costume.

Bendis again penned a text page in the final issue of The Pulse explaining that he'd finished what he'd wanted to do with Jessica's character and was moving on. The plan had been, Bendis explained, for the title to continue on without him. That wasn't to be the case either, however, as the announced new writer for The Pulse, Paul Jenkins, would instead write the Front Line companion book to Civil War. Plans change.

And so, Bendis would continue to write Jessica's adventures, albeit in a third book. Jessica's boyfriend, soon-to-be-husband, was the leader of the New Avengers, the group that went underground and refused to register with the government during the events of Civil War. Jessica and the baby continued to be an important part of Luke Cage's life, and thus, popular back-up characters in the pages of New Avengers.