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It’s beginning to look a lot like the early 2000s over at Marvel Comics — not only is the publisher preparing an Avengers storyline intended to shake up the franchise to a degree not seen since 2004’s 'Avengers Disassembled,' but it’s also going to bring that era’s mainstays Jessica Jones and Luke Cage back in the spotlight in a way they’ve not enjoyed in over a decade, starting with an all-new Jessica Jones adults-only comic launching in March.

Alias: Red Band — launching March 2026 — resurrects the series that debuted Jessica Jones back in 2001, with creators Sam Humphries and Geraldo Borges also putting Jones back into adults-only comic book territory for the first time since the original Alias series’ conclusion in 2004. (The 2001-2004 run of Alias was published under Marvel’s MAX imprint, intended for mature readers; Red Band is the current incarnation of the same adults-only comic concept at the publisher.) The new five-issue series will feature covers from David Mack, who provided covers for the first Alias series.

Marvel’s description of the series runs, “A series of grisly murders in Hell’s Kitchen pulls Jessica Jones into a mystery more sinister than she could’ve ever imagined. As the wife of Mayor Luke Cage, she’ll have to tread carefully as she forms a dangerous alliance with Typhoid Mary to track down the killer. But as she delves deeper into Hell’s Kitchen’s dark underbelly, the evidence she finds presents more questions than answers…”

As that synopsis suggests, Jessica and husband Luke have had an unexpected trajectory since the end of their tenure with the Avengers in 2015 — both have somewhat faded into the background of the Marvel Universe with short-lived series like 2017’s The Defenders, or guest appearances in other characters’ stories. Most recently, Luke Cage has been a supporting character in Al Ewing’s Venom series, and was briefly a suspect for the symbiote’s new host. (He wasn’t.)

Their stay in the background looks set to end next very soon, however; in the official PR for Alias: Red Band, Marvel Comics noted that “the series sets the stage for both Luke and Jessica to take a pivotal role at the center of the Marvel Universe later in 2026.” Could this have something to do with the upcoming Armageddon storyline promised for summer 2026? Potentially — in which case there’s the possibility that the characters could once again become central to the Avengers, as that team gets remade once again. If that’s the case, it really is the early 2000s all over again, after all…!

Alias: Red Band launches March 11, 2026... just in time for the launch of the second season of Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again, which brings the on-screen version of Jessica Jones back into the MCU. 

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.