Persuasion

Real Name: Kara Killgrave

Powers: Kara Killgrave inherited her superhuman power from her father, the Purple Man, who was mutated through exposure to certain chemicals. Persuasion possesses the superhuman power to sap people's wills, making her able to command people by simple verbal suggestion. The sites of production of pheromones and other secretions in her skin produce numerous psychoactive chemicals which can then be inhaled by another person in her vicinity or absorbed from the air through that person's skin. The chemicals thereupon induce in that individual an overwhelming monomania that deprives him or her of any will of his or her own. Apparently, Persuasion has psionic powers that are focused by the psychoactive chemicals she secretes and that enable her to compel those people affected by the chemicals to do her bidding.

Killgrave can simultaneously subjugate as many people as are present within atmospheric control. Her father, the Purple Man, has been known to enthrall crowds of several hundred people. The effects only last as long as Persuasion, physically present. When she departs, the amount of chemicals are reduced within her victims at various rates (dependent upon their individual metabolisms) and, thus, they regain their full will power. Any means of shielding one of Persuasions subjects from her psychoactive chemicals will release him or her from Persuasion's control. Hence, a simple immersion in water will wash the chemicals from a subject's body and restore the subject's free will.

Apparently, Persuasion is a mutant whose powers vary from her father's in a significant way. When she focuses her psionic powers on a subject who has been exposed to her psychoactive chemicals to force the subject to do her bidding, that subject's skin will turn purple. When she releases the subject from her control, the subject's skin reverts to its normal color.

History: Roughly fourteen years-ago, .a young woman named Melanie encountered Zebediah Killgrave, the criminal known as the Purple Man, in a bar in Buffalo, New York. Killgrave had the superhuman power to compel other people to obey his wilt. Apparently, contrary to previous accounts, Killgrave gained this power many years before his first encounter with his nemesis, the costumed crime-fighter, Daredevil. Struck by her beauty and acting on a whim, Killgrave used his superhuman power to induce Melanie to agree to marry him.

As time passed, Killgrave fell in love with Melanie and released her from his control in the hope that she truly loved him as well. Instead, she was horrified by what he had done to her, and fled to Toronto, Canada. She was already pregnant with their, daughter; Kara, who was born with normal Caucasian coloring. However. one day, when Kara was thirteen, her body turned purple just like her father's. Simultaneously, she developed her father's ability to control minds. Melanie then told her at last her father was the Purple Man, but Kara regarded herself as a freak.

Soon afterward, Kara encountered Northstar, a member of the Canadian team of superhuman adventurers known as Alpha. Flight. Kara used her power to put Northstar under her control and had him bring her to meet the other members of Alpha Flight. But fearing that Alpha Flight might kill her, she fled, forcing one of their members, Madison Jeffries, to fly her to Toronto. There, she and Jeffries .were captured by a man known as the Auctioneer, who used drugs to control Kara, who was already controlling Jeffries.

The Auctioneer held an auction at which he attempted to sell the services of Kara and Jeffries to the highest bidder. Kara overcame the effects the drugs and defied the Auctioneer who retaliated by sealing her in a synthetic material. But, as a result, Jeffries was freed from Kara's control and-he used his powers over metal to battle the Auctioneer and his cohorts. The rest of Alpha Flight then came to the rescue.

Alpha Flight decided to make Kara one of their trainees; hence, she became a member of the training team, Beta Flight. Kara had many adventures with Alpha Flight and was known as the Purple Girl. During this time, Kara developed a romantic relationship with fellow Beta member Manikin.

Eventually, however Kara tired of this active life and went home to her mother, taking her friends, Laura Dean and Goblyn, with her. More recently, though, Kara returned to activity as a member of Alpha Flight's back-up team Gamma Flight. She had also taken the new name of Persuasion. In this capacity, she served alongside Alpha Flight on occaisonal adventures, such as the time she joined Aurora, Laura Dean, and Goblyn to rescue Northstar from the extradimensional Asgard.