Persuasion (comics)
The Purple Woman (Kara Killgrave, formerly known as Persuasion and the Purple Girl) is a fictional character, a mutant superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
| Purple Woman | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Alpha Flight #41 [Vol.1] (Dec 1986) |
| Created by | Bill Mantlo and David Ross |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Kara Killgrave |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Notable aliases | Purple Girl Persuasion |
| Abilities | Mind control via pheromone manipulation Ability to merge her mind with others |
Fictional character biography
Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, used his powers on a woman named Melanie to force her to marry him. Eventually, Killgrave realized that he actually was in love with Melanie and released her from his control. Becoming aware of what he had done, Melanie rejected Killgrave and he left. Soon after, Melanie returned to Toronto, but learned she was pregnant. She successfully gave birth to a daughter, Kara.
At the onset of puberty, Kara's whole body turned purple. When she revealed her plight to her mother, Melanie Killgrave, her mother revealed to Kara the identity of her father. Unable to cope with her change in appearance and the circumstances of her conception, Kara ran off.
She made her way to a skiing exhibition, where her sporting hero Jean-Paul Beaubier was scheduled to make an appearance. While in a washroom, preparing to meet him, a young woman repeatedly banged on the cubicle door. In anger, she told the woman to, "go jump off a cliff." The woman, unable to control herself, did exactly that and had to be saved by Beaubier. In doing so, he had no choice but to reveal his secret identity as Northstar to everyone in the vicinity. When Beaubier realised that Kara was responsible for the woman's actions, he berated her, but she took control of him and commanded him to take her to a desert island. While swimming on the island, Northstar had to rescue Kara from a crocodile. In the process, Kara lost her control over him when he went underwater.[1] Northstar took her to Tamarind Island, the headquarters of Alpha Flight. Believing that Alpha Flight intended to harm her, she took control of the whole team and escaped, taking Madison Jeffries with her. While on the run, they were captured by the Auctioneer. Alpha Flight rescued them, and Heather Hudson decided to recruit Kara as the first member of a new Beta Flight.[2] Kara started a brief romance with the second member to be recruited, Manikin.
Beta Flight
Kara became a valued member of Beta and Alpha Flights and fought alongside them in battle against such foes as the Dreamqueen, the Great Beasts, the Derangers, Scramble, China Force and what she believed to be her own father's reanimated corpse. After being injured in battle with China Force and being left behind by Alpha Flight, who had gone to confront the Dreamqueen, she decided to quit the team, believing she had been abandoned.
When she decided to return to the group, she was contacted by Talisman, who was recruiting a team to rescue Northstar from Asgard. After the completion of this mission, she became a member of Beta Flight again under a re-structured Department H. She struck a close friendship with most members, especially Goblyn, Pathway and Witchfire. In a supposed training team, she found herself in battle on a number of occasions. During this time, she fought against villains such as Firebug, the Jackal, Omega Flight, the Master and the Hardliners.
Following the Joshua Lord incident and the disbanding of Department H, she was imprisoned in Neverland, the mutant concentration camp created by Weapon X. She was one of the exceptions after House of M who retained her powers.
While still in training, Box (Madison Jeffries) had her assist him against the composite being known as Omega. Kara was able to compel it to separate back into Box (Roger Bochs) and Scramble, but Scramble then lobotomized Bochs and reformed Omega. Madison was then forced to kill Omega.
Kara returned home with her friends Goblyn and Laura Dean. Much later, Persuasion was one of the mutants who had retained their mutant abilities after M-Day. Kara was seen celebrating the holidays in San Francisco with the X-Men and other mutants still remaining after M-Day.[3]
During the Fear Itself storyline, Kara was among the Alpha Flight villains gathered by Vindicator and Department H to spread the Master of the World's "Unity" program and to take down Alpha Flight.[4]
Jessica Jones The Purple Daughter
Kara resurfaced later in New York City. She was briefly attacked by Jessica Jones who believed Kara had something to do with her daughter Danielle skin being turned purple. After the brief skirmish between the two, she reconciled with Jones and gave some word of advice about her daughter. Unbeknownst to Jones and Her, the Purple Children where watching them from a distance and reported their findings to an unknown assailant.
Later on when Jessica was supposed to meet with Kara, Jessica finds herself being attacked by Kara who is (ironically) being mind-controlled herself and Jessica has no choice but to knock Kara out. (breaking Kara arm in the process) After the serum used to controlled Kara wore off (and getting an arm sling) she later joins her siblings The Purple Children in keeping their father The Purple Man unconscious so he would not escape, Jessica later thanks them all for helping her.
Powers and abilities
Persuasion can control a person through the use of pheromones, reducing them to a near-mindless state, extremely receptive to suggestion. A side effect of her power is that the people she controls turn purple temporarily. Upon recovery from Kara's power, her victims usually have a splitting headache. Persuasion's powers apparently cannot affect the body's involuntary systems. An order to "drop dead" would only result in the loss of consciousness. She can steal control of people from other mind controllers such as Mesmero. Her power can be nullified by encasing Kara in plastic or other forms of airtight imprisonment (thus preventing her pheromones from affecting others), as does submerging the affected person.
Over time, her powers grew to the extent that she could control people without saying a word. She also extended her range of control for several miles. At one point, Kara controlled all of Alpha Flight. Kara can create a mindlink with people, making their minds one. This was never fully explained, but it was stated that she could merge her mind with whomever she wanted. She once merged her mind with a living planet, but it was too much for her and couldn't keep the connection for long.
Other versions
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, Persuasion joined with a group of low level telepaths to create a kind of "psychic pyramid scheme" known as the Overmind which Quentin Quire, the mastermind behind the Overmind, uses to increase his own limited skills.[5] Persuasion along with the telepaths that compose the Overmind are later confronted and killed by the Shadow King.[6]
References
- Alpha Flight vol. 1 #41
- "Alpha Flight" Vol. 1 #48 (July 1987)
- Marvel Digital Holiday Special 01(2008)
- Alpha Flight Vol. 4 #4
- Age of Apocalypse #5 (September 2012)
- Age of Apocalypse #11 (March 2013)