Okay I think enough time has went by for enough people to at least get through the first few episode of Jessica Jones so I've decided to pit them against some enhanced humans and see how they fair.
Round 1: 2 Mirakuru soldiers
Round 2: they're up against 5 mirakuru soldiers
Round 3: vs Deathstroke(hand to hand)
Round 4: Deathstroke & Ravager(hand to hand)
Round 5: Ravager & 3 mirakuru soldiers(standard equipment)
Fight takes place at the center of the Chitauri invasion in New York City.
Jessica/Luke recover health after each round.
So how would the duo perform? Would they clear or fall after a certain point.
The problem with Jessica Jones is although she's stronger (I think) than Luke Cage and the Mirakuru soldiers, her durability is crap and both her and Luke's fighting ability is even crappier. So that said:
1. Jessica dies but hurts the Mirakuru soldiers enough for Luke to finish them off.
2. They both die
3. Jessica dies again. Deathstroke will have a hard time knocking Luke Cage out but I just don't see Cage keeping up with Deathstroke's skill. Cage gets knocked out eventually.
4. They die
5. They die
I figured that Jessica's strength and 'bionic man" jumping would give her an edge in Rounds 1&2. Also Slade, despite his superior skill, might still have trouble with Luke and the possible strength edge that Jessica brings.
Oh and I forgot to mention it but Round 2 was also supposed to be hand to hand.
Slade and his Mirakuru boys had some decent strength feats as well, including pushing around cargo crates like nothing. To be honest, they should all be within the same strength range. The only reason I'm putting Jessica one step ahead is because she was strong enough to stop a car dead in it's tracks.
And while Luke's skin is impenetrable and is definitely more durable than Slade's skin, I'm led to believe that Slade and his men have a more durable physique overall. Slade did survive an exploding ship and his men can tank multiple gun shots at point blank range.
Cage is stronger than Jones. He says so, she says so, and he proves it several times. Also he mentioned when he got his powers he went around the junkyard lifting cars to see how strong he was.
Cage is clearly bulletproof, and probably would take gunshots as easily as the soldiers. His problem was the shotgun went off against his chin and rattled his skull in his brain. As his insides originally were not as durable as the rest of him. Night Nurse even had to drain fluid from him to keep the swelling from getting worse.
I don't remember Cage stating that he lifted a car at any point. Though he was physically dominant in his fight with Jessica and has better durability overall.
In order to address Cage's bulletproof skin I made all but Round 1&5 hand to hand fights.
When he's explaining about his powers. He said when he first got them, he went to the junkyard and started lifting stuff, slabs of metal, old cars, etc... To see what his limits were.
Even if he didn't though, both he and Jessica acknowledge he's a fair degree stronger than her. And I'm still not certain h2h will take him down. Unless we say Slade's fist is as powerful or more powerful than a 12 gauge trying to blow your chin off.
Where did they say that Cage was stronger than Jessica? I just finished watching the entire series, I don't recall any discussion like that.
That said, Cage is clearly susceptible to blunt trauma, as the shotgun demonstrated. He does get hurt by Jessica Jones dropping a closet at him.
Deathstroke may not break his skin but he has a good chance to knock him out. A better chance anyway than Cage knocking out Slade. After all, when was the last time you saw a mirakuru soldier get knocked out by blunt trauma?
That was through skill. She was dodging and weaving all his hits until she put him through a wall and hightailed it out of there. Cage had the upper hand the majority of the fight. If she hadn't found the shotgun, it was pretty clear at that point who would have won the encounter.
And I do remember it being stated that Cage was stronger by Jessica. i don't remember Cage saying so though. My impression was that Cage was the stronger and more durable of the two, whereas Jessica was quicker, more agile, and can (maybe) fly.
They can probably eek out a win in round one, but that's as far as I see them getting with any real success.
Yet when he wanted to go after that bus driver he thought killed his wife and she tried to stop him, it was like she was hardly even there. The two seemed to be very close in strength to me, but I actually felt like Luke could have had the edge, but generally seemed to restrain himself more.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Actually I feel the exact opposite. I think Jessica is stronger but she's generally more restrained. Everytime they had to match strengths Cage was either pissed off or mind controlled, whereas Jessica was just trying to stop Cage.
Of course, it helps that Cage is a lot more durable than Jessica.
In the end, they're both very close in the strength department and the mirakuru soldiers shouldn't be that far off either.
Well, that is the thing. She was basically fighting for her life there, because Luke was out to kill her, and she still seemed on the back foot for large parts of that fight, at least when it came to matching strength. And then, as mentioned, she was seemingly trying her hardest to stop Cage from going after that innocent guy but he just kept walking forward. Neither were fighting each other so it was a pure contest of strength. She definitely displayed better speed and agility than him though.
Jessica is also somewhat of a hothead sometimes, where as Luke generally seems to stay calm more often and keeps a lower profile, which is why we don't see him go as crazy outside of those moments where he is either mind controlled or super angry.
But I think their difference in strength is fairly minimal, to the point where one being more pissed off than the other could tip the balance.
She was trying to stop him from killing an innocent person, for an action she committed, so safe bet she was trying hard.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. But based on her character in the show, I don't think she would risk half-arsing it when an innocent person's life is at stake, especially because of something she did. Luke just came across as slightly stronger to me, and Jessica faster and more agile, based on what I saw in the show. If you feel differently you are obviously free to, but I already saw everything, so nothing you say is going to make me change my mind, just like I doubt I am going to alter your stance on the matter. And it is somewhat of a pointless tangent in anyways, considering they are both on the same side here. And I think they are outmatched in every round except round 1.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Trying to think of comparable strength feats for the Mirakuru guys and Luke/Jessica. IIRC, some of Slade's soldiers were pushing cars and things around to create road blocks, when they were attacking the city. So they all seem to be in the same ballpark.
Just want to raise one thing about the Luke/Jessica strength thing. Thinking about it, while I still personally feel Luke might be a bit stronger, I can see why opinions might differ. They are portrayed as being very close throughout. On top of that, both their strength levels seem to fluctuate a bit, especially when plot demands it (it is one of the only really big problems I had with the show). An example is the one fight where Killgrave escapes and sends all those guys with stun batons to fight Jessica and the others. Normally she easily oneshots regular people, but she was hitting these guys over and over and they kept getting back up, just long enough for Killgrave to make a run for it. So there is enough inconsistency there that opinions could go either way.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.