While superhero comics tend to shift between genres, there's usually a healthy dose of soap opera at play in any ongoing series. Romance flares, friends become enemies, and mysterious secret identities are revealed. Of course, when your comics universe has existed for more than eighty years, there's plenty of time for some pretty unusual match-ups to take place. In that context, it's reasonable to ask whether Jessica Jones, the foul-mouthed private investigator, and Captain America, the WWII-era boy scout, were ever a couple in Marvel Comics.
Fans of Jones will know that she married longtime love interest Luke Cage, aka Power Man, in 2006's The New Avengers Annual #1, in a star-studded ceremony officiated by Stan Lee. Though the two have had their differences since, with Jones even fabricating a break-up while hunting down a spy ring, they've remained one of Marvel's most committed couples, taking huge pride in raising daughter Danielle (named for Marvel's Iron Fist, Danny Rand, and in some timelines the future Captain America.) But Jessica existed well before her commitment to Luke Cage, and he wasn't the first Avenger to take her to dinner.
Jessica Jones' comic love interests
Published under Marvel's MAX imprint, Alias was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, following the adventures of ex-superhero Jessica Jones who - after suffering through an unknown tragedy - hung up her cape and became a private investigator specializing in superhuman mysteries. Despite no longer being a hero herself, Jones still had ties with Marvel mainstays, first meeting Luke Cage in her "Jewel" persona and later being introduced to Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, by Carol Danvers, who was then going by Miss Marvel.
Jones dated both Cage and Lang, ultimately cutting things off with the latter when she discovered she was pregnant with Cage's baby. It was also suggested in Alias and Daredevil (both written by Bendis) that Jones was in love with Matt Murdock for a time, and New Avengers revealed that while she had no existing feelings for Spider-Man, she'd had a crush on his alter-ego Peter Parker when the two were at school together. Despite these big-name hero connections, you'll notice that Captain America isn't coming up either before or after Jones' commitment to Cage, and that's because no - they didn't date. But they did get married.
The marriage of Jessica Jones and Captain America
In 2005's What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? Marvel tells one of its classic never-happened stories. Here, a speaker who looks an awful lot like Bendis - Jessica's creator - opines on what might have happened if, after being forced to attack the Avengers by mind-controlling villain the Purple Man, Jessica had been offered a place in their ranks. Feeling unworthy - and still traumatized by her abuse at the hands of the Purple Man - Jones declines, but Steve Rogers convinces her to stay on as the team's SHIELD liaison, describing the purpose the group gave him after his years frozen in ice.
Jones takes Captain America up on his offer, but still possessing super-powers, she can't help but jump in whenever the team is at risk, becoming a de facto Avenger thanks to her natural heroism. At the same time, her relationship with Steve Rogers blossoms, and the two are eventually married in a union that Bendis suggests as a happy ending for both characters - or as close as you can get in superhero comics that aren't really intended to ever "end" in a meaningful way.
While fans of the MCU may find this pairing unlikely for the versions of Jones and Rogers played by Krysten Ritter and Chris Evans, it's worth noting that their bond makes sense. Captain America's dating history is replete with tough-as-nails women like Agent 13 and Diamondback - women who blur the line between heroism and villainy more than Jessica Jones ever has - and Jones is, for all her cynicism, an idealist who wants to believe in the direct, no-compromises heroism that both Steve Rogers and her actual husband Luke Cage embody (and which she often embodies herself, even if she's the last to see it.)
Missed connections
While Jessica Jones' marriage to Captain America didn't happen in any confirmed comics reality - even in the What If? story it's framed as a theoretical tale told by someone who isn't directly acknowledged as her writer - it's strange for fans to know that the two might have found true happiness under the right circumstances. Of course, with a beautiful daughter and one of the most heroic men in comics for a partner, Jones probably isn't ruing the day she missed out on Steve Rogers, but the same may not be true for Cap.
What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? suggests that in joining the Avengers, Jessica Jones would have spotted the mental deterioration of the Scarlet Witch and gotten her help before her breakdown. In doing so, it's likely that Jones would have prevented the Avengers from disbanding; saved the lives of Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and the Vision; and even avoided the cultural genocide of the mutant race - not to mention leaving the Marvel Universe in a much stronger position to deal with the Skrull's Secret Invasion and the Dark Reign of the villainous Norman Osborn which followed. Jessica Jones and Steve Rogers are far from the first superheroes to have a missed connection, but it turns out that their non-relationship may have been the most consequential in Marvel canon, completely changing the trajectory of Marvel's biggest hero team, not to mention two of its most popular heroes.
Ultimately, fans shouldn't mourn the fact that Jessica Jones and Steve Rogers never actually got together. Steve has enjoyed many happy years with Sharon Carter, and Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have one of the most enjoyable couple dynamics in comics. What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? offers a happy ending to Jessica's story - one where marrying Captain America is just one of many symbols of the legitimacy she's so often felt she doesn't deserve - but happy endings don't last for long in superhero comics, and Jones and Cage have been far more able to fight, love, and grow in a way which has mostly staved off their writers' instincts to blow the relationship up for cheap drama. So, did Captain America and Jessica Jones date in the comics? Well, no, but fans did get to see exactly what would have happened if they had, and it all worked out surprisingly well.