This article contains SPOILERS for The Variants #3
In the Marvel Universe, Jessica Jones is known for having a fairly rough life in the past, but as she meets her variants from across the multiverse, she learns that she could have had things much worse.
Years ago, Jessica Jones was under the Purple Man's mind control and essentially became his slave. She eventually broke free from his control, but ten years later, she's afraid he could have placed a time lapsed set of triggers in her mind that could cause her to harm her family. The Purple Man did this exact same thing to another woman before Jessica. So Jessica is right to be fearful because the trauma the Purple Man caused her is constantly hanging over her head like a dark cloud.
In The Variants #3 by Gail Simone and Phil Noto, Jessica has met several versions of herself from across the multiverse. It hasn't been explained how these different versions have arrived in Jessica's universe, but the four of them sit down and grab coffee. While talking to them, Jessica realizes that although they all have had trauma in their lives, Earth-616's Jessica has been able to find love and have a child with her husband, Luke Cage. The other versions of Jessica haven't been so lucky as their loves have all been killed. So it turns out that although Jessica's life hasn't been easy, it could have been much worse if she also lost those she loves.
This is the interesting thing about having stories featuring the multiverse and different variants of a character. Their lives are so different from one another that it's a way to put certain things in perspective. Jessica has a right to be fearful about what the Purple Man did to her in the past and what he could potentially do to her in the future. But the reason she is so fearful is that she actually has something to lose as opposed to her variants, who have already lost more than she has.
Then again, since the multiverse is so vast, it's possible that meeting a hero's variants could have the opposite effect. There could be versions of Jessica across the multiverse who are much better off than her. In that case she could see that she is in fact the darkest version of herself, having fallen prey to the Purple Man and his torment. It just goes to show that both suffering and love is all relative and based on perspective. Since the origin of where these variants came from has not been revealed yet it is certainly possible that somebody chose these specific versions to come to Jessica's universe to teach her a lesson. Fans of the series will just have to wait for its conclusion to find out if the lessons Jessica Jones has learned from these specific variants were on purpose or merely coincidental.
The Variants #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.
