Who is Killgrave, The Purple Man?

Netflix premiered the new Marvel TV series Jessica Jones on Friday, so for those of you gearing up for your binge watching, we thought we’d let you know exactly who it was you were about to get to know. For details on just what the original comic series Alias was all about check out our INTRODUCTION TO JESSICA JONES. This entry will give you more insight into Killgrave, The Purple Man, and click here to get some insight into the character of Jessica Jones!

Warning! Potential/Likely Spoilers Ahead!

Who is Killgrave, The Purple Man?

In the Purple Man’s first appearance, in Daredevil #4, he waltzes into a bank and tells the clerk to give him a large amount of money from the bank’s vaults. The man, puzzled, does as the mysterious purple stranger says. Only after he’s left with the money does the clerk realize that he’s been robbed. The Purple Man pulls a similar stunt to get out of his conviction. Blind lawyer Matt Murdock is there to ‘witness’ the scene, and sets out to stop the strangely-colored thief, only this time as *fanfare* Daredevil! The Man without Fear!  Hijinks ensue and Daredevil not only saves the stunning Karen Page, but the day as well.

Killgrave, the Purple Man, was a soviet spy sent to an American chemical plant. If you know anything about how Stan Lee gives people their powers, you’ll know it went horribly wrong and Killgrave was doused in liberal amounts of a strange chemical. In the original comics the strange purple pigment in his skin is what gives him the power to control people’s minds. This made Daredevil the perfect hero to fight him. Since Matt Murdock was blind, he was immune to Killgrave’s mind control and so The Purple Man was forced to use innocent bystanders as his weapons. Oh, and in a later issue, Killgrave’s master plan is to get himself on international television so he can command everyone to obey him. I was sure, given the way that Daredevil was perfectly equipped to defeat the Purple Man, that he was a two-bit villain who had been lost to the history of one of Marvel’s oldest heroes.

Killgrave was resurrected in the early 2000s, with a slightly altered power but the same goofy coloring and origin story. Now, instead of controlling people with his strange pigment, his powers stem from strange pheromones he is able to emit as a result of the chemical bath he took in the 60s. The Purple Man’s motivations and methods are greedy at best, childish at worst. He seems envious and petty towards the heroes that put him away and continue to operate. In one of his most famous appearances, in the miniseries Alias that introduced Jessica Jones, he tortures Jessica because of her affiliation with Daredevil and the Avengers. His psychological manipulations are horrible, to be sure, but his monologuing sounds more like a child having a tantrum than a super villain mastermind.

Having someone mess about in your head must be traumatic, and it seems Killgrave gives no thought at all to the consequences of his manipulations. This is evil, and perhaps the only true subtlety he has as a character. The new Netflix series suggests that this will be the focus of the relationship between him and Jessica Jones. Hopefully we get that as he heads to the small screen. With the brilliant David Tennant playing him, perhaps the MCU can bring some gravitas to a villain who has often seemed comical, even for the comics.