Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, is a pretty obscure Marvel villain who’s only recently
received mainstream notoriety because geek heartthrob David Tennant plays him in Jessica
Jones on Netflix. Besides sharing a name with the bad guy from Five Night’s at Freddy’s
though, I’m sure many people are asking… “Who hell is this guy?”
Killgrave was a Soviet spy who tried to steal an experimental nerve gas from the Americans.
He was discovered and shot at, causing a gas canister to leak all over him, dying Killgrave’s
skin purple. Once Killgrave realized that this granted him the ability to make people
do what he says and a healing factor, he took up the name Purple Man and began a life of
crime.
We actually know quite a bit regarding how Killgrave’s powers work. His skin produces
a specialized pheromone that when inhaled or absorbed makes the victim do whatever Purple
Man commands them to do, even STOP BREATHING. The commands Killgrave gives his victims are
indistinguishable from their actual thoughts making them WANT to carry out his will. However,
as the subject moves away from Purple Man, they regain their free will as the pheromone
is metabolised.
The length of time that Killgrave can have someone enthralled is indefinite as long as
they’re in range of his pheromones. For example, he once used his powers to seduce
a beautiful woman for YEARS, but he decided to free her from his control to see if she
would love him for him and not you know, the mind control. Mortified, she ran away to Canada
and gave birth to their daughter, Kara Killgrave, who would go on to become the hero Purple
Woman.
Killgrave is a frequent adversary of Daredevil. In fact, his first appearance was in Daredevil
#4 all the way back in 1964, but it was retold in Daredevil: Yellow which is what I’ll
be referencing. Matt Murdock (who is secretly Daredevil) is assigned to be Purple Man’s
lawyer after he was arrested for robbing a bank.
When Matt meets with Killgrave in a holding cell, Purple Man insists that he doesn’t
need a lawyer and that he won’t even go to trial. In fact, Killgrave tells the guard
to unlock the cell and just he walks on out, taking Karen Page, Murdock’s assistant/kind
of girlfriend, along with him.
See, because of Daredevil’s heightened senses, he’s unaffected by Purple Man’s pheromones.
This usually means that once Daredevil gets through Killgrave’s henchmen, he takes his
purple ass down rather quickly. However in their first encounter, Daredevil
is too wrapped up in dealing with mind controlled police officers that Purple Man was able to
escape with Karen to a hotel room. Daredevil was able to get there before Killgrave could
rape Karen, but Purple Man told her to jump off the building so he could get away. Thankfully,
Daredevil was able to both save the girl AND put Killgrave behind bars!
Another example of just how powerful his pheromones are is that he basically made Jessica Jones
his slave for eight months. This whole time, Purple Man’s life was just partying in a
hotel room that he never paid for, eating expensive food, watching TV, mind controlling
college girls to sex with him, aaaaaaaaand emotionally tormenting Jessica, making her
bathe him, forcing her to watch him rape those aforementioned college girls, and he even
sends her to go kill Daredevil.
Despite being able to do all this to a FREAKING SUPERHERO, Purple Man is still a street level
villain and most of his crimes really aren’t that significant or special.
Killgrave was last seen about a year ago when he gathered up all his illegitimate children
(except for Purple Woman) with the goal of finally receiving real unconditional love
from them. Yet, the Purple Children together were strong enough to overpower their father
and had him walk in front of a moving train. But hey, healing factor! Killgrave survives
and decides to exact revenge on his children by taking them down one by one, Assassin’s
Creed style, until Daredevil saves the day of course.
I feel that Purple Man’s powers are really freaking cool and that he could become a REALLY
prominent villain with more great storylines, but outside of ruining Jessica Jones’ life,
the only thing Killgrave has done of real significance was get kidnapped by Dr. Doom
who amplified and exploited Purple Man’s powers to temporarily become emperor of the
world… In a graphic novel that may or may not be canon.
If you want to read about Killgrave for yourself, I’d recommend checking out Daredevil: Yellow,
Alias, and the Purple Children storyline from the 2014 Daredevil run. That’s issues eight
through ten.
But hey, what other Daredevil villain do you want me to talk about in the future? The Owl
or The Kingpin? Click or comment to cast your vote! If you want to learn more about Jessica
Jones, Purple Man’s super powered victim, then click on this video right here!