Biography

Biography

The Super Villain Zebediah Killgrave is a unique evil. Able to manipulate, brainwash, and control his targets from afar, the villain weaponizes his victims against themselves.

Also known as the Purple Man, Killgrave harnesses trauma, doubt, and fear among his foes as a means to his malicious ends.

Cradle to Killgrave

Born in Yugoslavia, Zebediah Killgrave began as a spy working for the Communist government. On a mission to steal an experimental nerve gas developed by the U.S. Army, he dodged a bullet from a guard. Most unfortunately, the bullet pierced a canister of nerve gas, which doused Killgrave, turning his skin purple. He was captured, but released almost at once when the solider detaining him believed his flimsy excuse for being on the base.

After realizing that he could manipulate people just by speaking to them, Killgrave used his victims to fulfill his desires. In one instance, he convinced a woman named Melanie to marry him. But, after he actually developed feelings for her, he removed his influence from her to see if she felt the same way. She did not and left him forever, eventually giving birth to a daughter she chose to keep secret, Kara. Kara was born with powers similar to her father?s and became the hero known as Persuasion.

Power of the Mind

Killgrave?s greatest power is his ability to sap people of their wills by uttering a mere verbal suggestion. His power originates in his skin cells, which have been altered at the genetic level, leaving him to appear purple-colored from head to toe. His natural pheromone production has been enhanced, creating a psychoactive effect which causes his victims to completely submit to his will.

Purple Man tricking bankroller with his mind control powers

He is able control crowds of up to one hundred people at once, but the effect of his own brand of persuasion wears off once he leaves the immediate vicinity. When he is not within range, his pheromonic power subsides, allowing his victims to slowly recover consciousness.

Killgrave?s super human abilities are his weapon, but what allows him to wield that weapon is his charisma and charm. He speaks in a unique manner that has the potential to both disarm and semi-hypnotize his victims. Some are are impervious to Killgrave?s ?charms,? like inorganic beings, those with superior wills or altered metabolism, like Doctor Doom and Wonder Man.

Killgrave also possesses the super human ability to resist injury and to quickly recover from any harm he encounters. He has even demonstrated that he can recover from near-death circumstances.

Hostile Parties

The Purple Man is repeatedly defeated by Daredevil?one of the few people able to resist his power. They first meet when Killgrave robs a bank in New York and Matt Murdock is set to be his lawyer. Being the Purple Man, however, Zebediah simply asks the prison guard to let him go. He then finds himself smitten by the secretary of Nelson & Murdock, Karen Page. Taking her, he incurs the wrath of Daredevil.

Daredevil pushing Purple Man

Though he has tortured and haunted many, Killgrave?s closest enemy, and most frequent victim, is Jessica Jones. Having first encountered her when she was using the Super Hero codename Jewel, the Purple Man supplants Jessica?s mind with his own thoughts, and forces her into captivity and servitude for a period of months. Since this traumatic first encounter, Killgrave ghosts in and out of Jones? life, forever a persistent force of evil.

Co-conspirators

Killgrave once joins the Hood?s crime syndicate and runs a Las Vegas casino. He later sets up his own organization known as Villains for Hire. As part of the Hood?s group, the Purple Man participates in an all-out attack on Doctor Strange?s Sanctum Sanctorum, then the headquarters of the outlaw Avengers. Despite defeat, the Purple Man remains at large with the Hood and his associates.

The Purple Man often prefers to work alone, as his powers make it that he does not require the use of henchmen or fellow villains. Able to bend anyone to his well, Killgrave forces his victims to be his pawns and collaborators. That being said, his enviable abilities make him the target of Super Villains like Kingpin and Doctor Doom, who are able to defy his control and use him for their own ends.

height

5'11"

weight

165 lbs.

gender

Male

eyes

Purple

hair

Purple

Universe, Other Aliases, Place of Origin, Identity, Known Relatives, Powers
  • Universe

  • Other Aliases

  • Place of Origin

  • Identity

  • Known Relatives

  • Powers

Shades of Purple

After moving to San Francisco to build his criminal empire, the Purple Man again crossed paths with Daredevil, who had recently moved there as well. Killgrave sent his men to rob the Williams Building, intending to use the Purple Man?s nerve gas when Daredevil arrived to stop them. However, the hero proved to be resistant to the gas just as he was to Killgrave?s own powers. Frustrated, Killgrave hired Electro to help, but was defeated by Daredevil, who had received his own assistance from Black Widow. Using his powers to escape the police, Killgrave established a subterranean stronghold in the American Midwest, from which he plotted the death of Daredevil. His operations, however, were accidentally discovered by Clint Barton and the time-displaced 19th century hero the Two-Gun Kid. Hawkeye managed to disrupt Killgrave?s concentration with a hypersonic arrow, and the pair destroyed his base before escaping.

He resurfaced in New York City, coercing Maxwell Glenn, a local businessman, into committing numerous crimes. Once again, Daredevil got wind of the Purple Man?s treachery, but Glenn committed suicide and Killgrave learned of Daredevil?s secret identity. With the aid of Klaus Voorhees, AKA King Cobra, and Mr. Hyde, he kidnapped the hero and brought him to Ryker?s Island prison. There, they were joined by Melvin Potter, AKA Gladiator, and the Jester in an attack. But Daredevil defeated this motley crew of Super Villains with the help of the mercenary known as Paladin. Attempting to tackle Daredevil himself, Killgrave fell into the sea and seemingly drowned.

Surviving the watery grave, Killgrave encountered Jessica Jones (operating as Jewel at the time) and made her his slave. Later, he sent her off in a fit of rage, causing her to get into a fight with the Avengers. Jessica was so traumatized by the experience that she gave up being a Super Hero afterwards.

He attacked her again years later when Jessica was a self-employed private investigator, hired by a group of people seeking closure after Killgrave killed their family members. She went to visit him in prison at the Raft and he mocked her before breaking out and confronting her in her own home. But what he didn?t know was that Jean Grey taught Jessica how to activate a psychic defense trigger, so that Jones would never have to be Killgrave?s prisoner again. Jones then beat Killgrave unconscious, and he was returned to prison. Even after that, he returned years later still to terrorize her after she?d given birth to her and Luke Cage?s daughter, Danielle.

Purple Man (Zebediah Killgrave)

Killgrave later tried to retire from crime, but the Kingpin and Doctor Doom still exploited him; since he could be so often defeated, the Purple Man often became the unwitting pawn of smarter, stronger villains. Fisk was able to resist his power and instructed him to kill Daredevil. Most unfortunately for the Purple Man, Daredevil teamed up with Moon Knight, Spider-Man, Power Man, and Iron Fist in response. Using a pair of ear plugs, Moon Knight was able to ignore Killgrave?s commands, and punched him out. Killgrave was again sent to prison.

Killgrave came into the reluctant employ of Victor von Doom after moving to French Polynesia, looking for a quiet life of luxury. Doctor Doom captured him and used Killgrave?s power to force the entire world to obey him via his power-enhancing Pyscho-Prism. Although Doom realized that he preferred the conquest for power more than power itself, he deed was done and the world was under his control. However, the Avenger called Wonder Man used his ionic energy-powered body to resist Killgrave and led the enslaved Super Heroes to revolt. Namor the Sub-Mariner then shattered the Psycho-Prism, apparently killing the Purple Man and ending the reign of the all-powerful Emperor Doom.

Though Killgrave was buried, he actually survived in a death-like state while his body healed its own injuries. The demon known as the Dreamqueen then pushed Killgrave into a delusional state where he believed himself to be a living corpse. Under the Dreamqueen?s subtle influence, Killgrave assaulted the home of his ex-wife Melanie and his daughter Kara?who was known as Purple Girl (later Persuasion) at that point in time. The Dreamqueen similarly manipulated the perceptions of Kara and Melanie during these events, and it appeared that the Purple Man was consumed in a fiery explosion.

He attempted to compel the mutant Nate Grey, AKA X-Man, to help him conquer the world, but Grey defeated him by conjuring a telekinetic force field to filter out the Purple Man?s pheromones. He later controlled all of New York at the behest of Baron Zemo, but the Thunderbolts put a stop to that. He soon sought to escape the government?s Superhuman Registration Act during the first Civil War by stealing a S.H.I.E.L.D. craft, downing it near Niagara Falls and escaping into Canada after a victorious battle against the hero U.S. Agent. Unfortunately for Killgrave, U.S. Agent soon caught up with him and returned him to justice.

Purple Man using mind control on Captain America

Kara, it would be revealed, was not Killgrave?s only child. Zebediah fathered several kids, but abandoned them before they were ever born. Keeping tabs on them, he one day hoped to bring them together and rule the world by using their combined powers of persuasion. These kids were known as the Purple Children, whose resentment Killgrave highly underestimated. Together, they convinced the Purple Man to commit suicide by placing himself in the way of an oncoming train. With that taken care of, the Purple Children embarked on a crime spree in San Francisco, which drew the attention of Daredevil. When his secret identity became compromised, Matt was able to use them to convince the world that Matt Murdock and Daredevil were two separate people.

2
durability
3
energy
1
fighting skills
2
intelligence
2
speed
2
strength