‘Jessica Jones’ villains: Should Nuke really be season 2 threat?

At the moment, it feels certainly clear to us that “Jessica Jones” is in a rather-tricky place when it comes to crafting the right villains for the future. For one, it’s not entirely clear if there will be a season 2 before or after “The Defenders.” Also, Kilgrave is her primary villain for most of her run as a solo character. There are other opponents that she encounters, but many of them are tied as much to some other characters in the Marvel universe as they are to her.

In creating this edition of our Villains series, we thought about whether or not the Netflix series should make Mister Fear or Typhoid Mary the season 2 Big Bad. However, at the same time these are primarily Daredevil villains, and in giving her one, you are taking one away from Matt Murdock. It’s a complicated game of politics here.

Luckily, it feels like the show itself did a good enough job setting up a season 2 villain in the form of Officer Will Simpson, as the end of the season suggested that he could easily go on to become the villain Nuke, someone very dangerous and someone with a history of battling many Marvel characters. He doesn’t really have that many ties to Jessica, but we can see the show bringing him in for many reasons.

What he brings to the table – First and foremost, power. This is a character (known as Frank Simpson in the comics) who could almost be described as “Captain America gone horribly wrong,” and he possesses super-strength and is extremely impenetrable as a result of many of the experiments that are done to him. Depending on where the show advances the character, they could also have him equipped with some extremely dangerous weaponry. He wouldn’t be the psychological villain that Kilgrave was, but there are many other ways that he could test Jessica and those surrounding her.

Also in this internet age of outrage, it’d be interesting to see how some people learn out of context about his America flag face tattoo and decide to make think-pieces all about it.

How to use him – Given the emphasis on Jessica’s powers in season 1, she’d likely try to find a different way to defeat him. It could be a team effort for her, and intellectual debate to determine his weaknesses, or a reason even to call in the Defenders. It’s hard to say for sure why he was introduced in the way in which he was.

Likelihood of appearance – Very high. The question here is when and where more so than if he’ll be used. We already know a modified version of the character!