‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’: Every Easter Egg and Marvel Reference in Season 2

One of the biggest Easter eggs in the entire season comes right at the top of Season 2: the Whizzer (Jay Klaitz). Jessica initially thinks this nerdy mongoose-owner is lying when he claims that IGH (the same shady operation that gave her powers) gave him super speed. He ends up being right–and he ends up getting killed. The Whizzer is actually a character from the comics–one of the very first superheroes ever introduced in the Marvel U, to be exact. Although in the comics, the Whizzer’s alias was Robert Frank, not Robert Coleman as he’s named in Jones. The Whizzer debuted in 1941’s U.S.A. Comics #1 and was one of Marvel’s most prominent heroes during World War II. He fell out of use in the ’50s and in the ’60s, the modern Marvel Universe (the one with the Avengers and Spider-Man and, decades later, Jessica Jones) we know today was born. The Whizzer has popped up every now and then over the past 50 years, but he’s never been as prominent as he was in the ’40s.

The Whizzer also has a pet mongoose, which is a shout-out to the straight-up peculiar way the superhero got his powers in the comics. Originally, the Whizzer’s super speed was the result of his father injecting him with mongoose blood. Gross, and also a mongoose can only run 20 MPH. Not that super!

We’re also reintroduced to Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) in a super humiliating scene where she performs at a kid’s birthday party under her old teen idol persona, Patsy. As in Season 1, this dual identity is a nod to the comics where Patsy Walker was originally published as the lead of a teen romance comic from the ’40s to the ’60s. She was folded into the Marvel Comics superhero universe in the mid-’70s when she took on the name Hellcat and became an Avenger.

We learn more about our poor dead buddy the Whizzer in this episode, specifically the name of his pet mongoose. His name? Emil, which is actually the name of the Whizzer’s dad in the comics! Emil Frank appeared in only one comic, The Whizzer’s debut issue, and then disappeared. But his legacy lives on in the form of a feisty mongoose!

We get a direct shout-out to Spider-Man in this episode via the Whizzer’s vlog. He says “with great power comes great mental illness,” which is a variation on Spidey’s mantra “with great power must also come great responsibility.”

Later in the episode, Trish’s boyfriend Griffin Sinclair (Hal Ozsan) says that his, ugh, “scrotey sense” is tingling, referring to how he can feel it in his balls when Trish is in trouble. Cool cool cool “superpower,” there. That is, of course, a riff on Spider-Man’s Spidey sense, which allows him to detect when he is in immediate danger.

Both of these references are kind of a big deal considering that when Jessica Jones Season 1 dropped in November 2015, Spider-Man (as played by Tom Holland) had not yet debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet; that happened the following May in Captain America: Civil War. But now in Season 2 of Jessica Jones, we get nods to a newly acquired corner of Marvel canon.

Hooray, our first inter-series character appearance this season! Daredevil’s sidekick (and Matt Murdock’s former legal partner) Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) appears to offer support to Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) after he finds out that she’s being forced out of her law firm, Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz. We saw that Foggy had started working for the powerful firm in the first episode of The Defenders when he took on Luke Cage’s case.

When Jessica Jones busts into her super’s apartment, she runs into his kid. Jess’ super-powered reputation follows her, and the kid immediately asks if she knows Captain America. He then shows her his Cap action figure, which is an action figure for the even more star-spangled comic book version of the character. Of course Cap wore that costume in during his USO tour in Captain America: The First Avenger, so maybe that’s what the kid’s action figure is modeled after. It’s vintage! This entire scene just reminds us that yes, this gritty Netflix show takes place in the same universe as all the movies.

This is where I wanna point out that the show is doing a lot to round out Jessica’s origin story that the comics never really have. For one thing, IGH is a totally new concept created for the show, and the same goes for pretty much every character associated with them. IGH personnel like Dr. Leslie Hansen and Inez Green are not from the comics, while IGH subjects like Jones, the Whizzer, and Will Simpson (you know, Trish’s rage-filled ex played by Will Traval? Him!) are actually from the comics.

Speaking of Simpson, this episode features Trish taking a drag off of his special inhaler in order to supercharger herself for what she thinks is gonna be a big battle. While this isn’t what happens to Trish in the comics, per se, this inhaler potentially allows Trish to get the power-up she needs to become the superhero we know she is in the comics (Hellcat). In the comics, Hellcat’s natural athleticism and tenacity is enhanced by expert training and a super suit.

This isn’t a Marvel Easter egg, but if you’re curious, the song that Janet McTeer’s still-unidentified character is playing is the 1921 foxtrot “Ain’t We Got Fun.” The song was such a part of the Roaring Twenties that it was mentioned in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s era-defining The Great Gatsby. Here’s a version of the song performed by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney in 1960:

When Jessica gets released from custody, Detective Costa (John Ventimiglia) reveals that he was present during Kilgrave’s (David Tennant) takeover of the police precinct back in Season 1. He says that he and the other cops are on Jessica’s side, because they witnessed her save their lives and also felt all of Kilgrave’s lingering mental suggestions disappear the instant Jess snapped his neck in the Season 1 finale.

And if you were wondering if IGH employees Luanne McClure or David Kawecki have comic book counterparts, they do not!

Since this is the episode wherein Trish finally slaps her epic pain of a mother, let’s talk about Dorothy Walker. In Jessica Jones, Dorothy is a selfish, fame-seeking manipulator that wants total control over her daughter’s life. That’s actually not a far cry from the Dorothy Walker of the comics. In the Marvel Comics universe, Dorothy was a writer that turned her daughter’s entire life into fodder for a super popular romance comic series against Patsy’s wishes. And comic-book-Dorothy’s manipulation didn’t stop when she died, either. While in the afterlife, Dorothy tried and failed to sell her own daughter’s soul to a demon in exchange for being reborn! Geez, mom, back off!

Things get pret-tay Easter eggy in this episode, so get ready!

First, Jess and her super/fling Oscar (J.R. Ramirez) get busy in his apartment, and being the artist he is, he splashes some purple paint on the ground to make their coupling more colorful. Purple is a running theme of the show (it’s production codename is Violet, after all) because Jess’ archenemy is Kilgrave, the Purple Man.

Oscar then turns that canvas into a work of art, presenting Jessica with a portrait he painted of her sleeping. That art was really done by David Mack, the illustrator that provided all of the moody and abstract cover art for the original Jessica Jones comic book Alias.

We get to see more of Trish being a super-powered vigilante, as she literally kicks a groper off of a city bus. Hellcat in the making, albeit a Hellcat that’s hyped-up on a dangerously addictive stimulant.

We get Dr. Karl’s full name in this episode: Karl Malus! This is a super deep cut reference to the Marvel mad scientist Karl Malus, who debuted in the late ’70s as a foil for Spider-Woman. Just like in the show, the comic book version of Doctor Malus was equally fascinated by superhuman abilities and conducted diabolical experiments in order to graft them onto individuals.

The episode ends with a pretty major reveal, one that I’ll obviously unpack in the next segment.

Here it is, the big episode with the big reveal: Janet McTeer is playing Alisa Jones, Jessica’s thought-dead mother. This episode dives into Alisa’s backstory, revealing how she survived the car crash that killed Jessica’s father and younger brother and how Dr. Malus used wildly illegal and extreme DNA reconfiguring to heal her over the course of a five-year coma. The flashback episode also features a number of glimpses into Jessica Jones’ post-crash, pre-private-eye history. Let’s break it all down!

First, this episode establishes that Jessica Jones’ middle name is Campbell–and things get a bit confusing from there. In the comics, Jessica’s birth-name is Jessica Campbell. Her family, the Campbells, is killed in a car accident and Jess is adopted by the Joneses. So in the comics, Jessica Jones is not the her birth-name but her adoptive name. Her adoptive mother in the comics is Alisa Jones, and she is very much alive and not crazy or super-powered.

On the show, however, Jessica’s last name from birth is Jones, and its the Jones family that is involved in the car accident. In the show, Jess is then adopted by Dorothy Walker, and Jess does not take her last name. Alisa Jones is the name of Jess’ birth mother, not her adoptive mother like in the comics. That’s a lot to keep straight!

This episode also reveals that two parts of Jessica’s life come from the bartender boyfriend Sterling she had back in college. She first tries on her now iconic leather jacket while at their apartment, and the nightclub that Sterling wanted to start was going to be called Alias. Jess obviously took to the leather jacket following Sterling’s murder, and used the “Alias” moniker for her private eye endeavor.

This one’s a bit light on references, but that’s fine considering just how many were hidden in the previous episode. This chapter introduces another one of IGH’s super-powered experiments, a healer named Shane Ryback that was an associate of Inez. I know what you’re thinking: a guy with healing powers? He has to be from the comics! And yeah, there are more than a few healers in Marvel Comics. There’s the Morlock Healer, Elixir, Archangel’s blood (although that mutation has thankfully been forgotten). So who is Shane Rybach in the comics? He’s… no one! He’s an original character! See what I mean by lack of Easter eggs?

I will point out that this episode saw Trish go on an other vigilante adventure when she saved Malcolm from a bunch of bigoted tough guys. She even clawed a guy’s face, which is a total Hellcat move if ever I’ve seen one.

You can’t have a Marvel project without the prerequisite cameo from Marvel icon extraordinaire Stan Lee. That goes for all the Netflix/Marvel series, too, although Jessica Jones Season 2 takes the Stan Lee cameo in a slightly different direction!

In every other Netflix series, Stan has popped up by way of a photograph of a police captain named Irving Forbush. That name belongs to a really deep-cut comics character, Forbush Man, the mascot for Marvel’s infrequently published parody series Not Brand Echh.

This time around, though, Stan Lee appears not as Captain Irving Forbush, but instead as a client on a bus poster advertising an attorney named Forbush.

The moment comes at around 33:22 into the episode, and lingers on the shot for a hot sec. So it looks like Captain Forbush is now lending his likeness to a family member’s law firm. How nice!

Y’know, since I haven’t really talked about superintendent Oscar yet, let’s clear up the question Easter egg hunters probably have about him: is Oscar in the comics? The answer: no, Oscar is not in the comics. He’s another original character. In the comics, Jessica Jones has pretty much been with one guy and one guy only: Luke Cage. They’ve even been married in the comics since 2006!

And while we’re at it, let’s address prison guard Dale Holiday (Brian Hutchison) who appears in this episode as Alisa Jones’ tormentor. He certainly seems evil enough to be a comic book villain. The guy’s responsible for a ton of inmate suicides, and he even keeps scraps of his victims’ clothing as souvenirs! He’s super twisted, yes, but he’s also not from the comics.

Here it is, the episode that brings David Tennant’s menacing manipulator Kilgrave back from the dead–except not really. After months of speculation about how Jess’ Season 1 tormentor could come back from the dead, we now know that he’s on the show as a figment of Jones’ PTSD, triggered when she kills a prison guard in self defense. So Kilgrave is still dead, and he’s one of the three lives Jessica has taken that is referred to in the title.

The other lives? We learned in Season 1 that Jessica killed Reva Connors, Luke Cage’s wife, while under the influence of Kilgrave. Then, of course, she killed Kilgrave in the Season 1 finale. And now Jess has killed Dale Holiday, bringing her personal body count up to three.

Trish’s journey towards becoming the Hellcat of the comics continues in this episode when she kidnaps Dr. Malus, goes to a veterinarian, and takes a bunch of FVRCP (feline distemper vaccine) and an anesthetic called telazol. Did you catch that? Feline distemper vaccine? Hellcat? CONNECTION!

And then Trish undergoes a super sketchy procedure to get super powers. Not exactly the safest way to get powers!

This episode features another MCU regular, the usually bumbling career criminal Turk Barrett (Rob Morgan). Hogarth makes a deal with Turk, and he delivers a gun to her inside of a Harlem Shake fast food bag. He’s popped up in every Netflix/Marvel series to date save Iron Fist, so an appearance from him is not a surprise but still welcome.

We also get a history-making appearance from actress Shakina Nayfack, who plays the pawn shop worker Frankie. This guest spot makes her the first trans actor and character to appear in the MCU–a fact she excitedly pointed out on Twitter.

If you haven’t seen Nayfack’s work on the Hulu original series Difficult People, make sure to queue that up once you finish your Jones binge.

UPDATE (3/9/18, 8:53 AM ET): Nayfack reached out to me on Twitter to point out that she’s actually the second trans actress to appear in the MCU. The first? MJ Rodriguez who appeared in Season 1 of Marvel’s Luke Cage!

I also realized that while most of the other supporting characters in JJ Season 2 don’t even share a name with a Marvel character, there is a very prominent Frankie in the Marvel U–Frankie Raye, the cosmically-powered firestarter and sometime herald of Galactus Nova! Both characters go by “Frances” and “Frankie” (Nayfack’s character is called “Frances” on the MCU wiki, and Frankie Raye has used the alias Frances Hyatt before).Come on, Nayfack getting literally fired up and becoming a superhero alongside the rest of the Defenders? That’s something we all need to see happen!

The season ends with a few more recurring Easter eggs, referenced once more for old time’s sake. Trish’s transformation into cat-themed superhero is nearly complete, with a nurse telling her that she’s “used up two of [her] nine lives” and Ms. Walker displaying some truly catlike reflexes by catching her dropped phone with her foot. What a wild ride Trish has been on, and now the Marvel Cinematic Universe is poised for it’s very first feline superhero.

Jess also brings it all back to a popular saying, one that the Whizzer paraphrased earlier in the season. Jones quotes Spider-Man directly, saying “With great power comes great responsibility.” Welcome to the MCU, Spidey! You brought all your catch phrases with you!

Also the final showdown takes place in Westchester, which is where the X-Men live in the comics. That’s not the case here, as the X-Men are not part of the MCU due to their movie rights being owned by Fox. But you know, I can’t hear Westchester without thinking about the X-Men, so here we are. I can’t help myself!

And that’s it, those are all the Easter eggs and Marvel references in Season 2 of Jessica Jones. We got a lot more Spider-Man talk this time around, surprisingly. With all the rumblings about Disney buying Fox and potentially getting the rights to the X-Men, maybe the eventual Jessica Jones Season 3… will bring in some mutant action? It’s a long shot, but stranger things have definitely happened!

Where to stream Marvel's Jessica Jones