PurpleMan

Real Name: Zebediah Killgrave

Powers: Zebediah Killgrave's body had been altered to produce chemical pheromones which, when breathed by others, allowed Killgrave to control their actions by verbal suggestions. Killgrave could influence hundreds of people at one time, and his victims could be controlled to perform actions they may not necessarily do.

History: According to Zebediah Killgrave's own account, he was a spy working for the Soviet bloc who was assigned to invade n American army ordnance depot and steal a sample of an experimental nerve gas. A military guard came upon Killgrave and fired a shot at him, which accidentally hit a canister of the nerve gas. The contents of the canister poured out, thoroughly drenching Killgrave, impregnating his skin and indelibly dying him purple. Caught outright and questioned, Killgrave offered a weak, inadequate alibi to his captors. Much to his surprise, he was believed and released. Several more incidents of this nature demonstrated that the nerve gas had given Killgrave the superhuman ability to command the wills of other people. Calling himself the Purple Man, Killgrave embarked on a criminal career.

Although Killgrave has never confirmed the story, a woman named Melanie met Killgrave in a bar in Buffalo, New York. Taken with Melanie's beauty, on a whim Killgrave used his superhuman power to induce her to marry him. Eventually, Killgrave truly fell in love with Melanie and decided to free her from his mental control in the hope that she would genuinely love him as well. Instead, horrified at what he had done to her, she fled to Toronto, Canada. Killgrave never went after her, and months after leaving him, Melanie gave birth to his daughter Kara, who, years later, would become the Purple Girl (now, Persuasion) and become associated with Alpha Flight, the Canadian team of superhuman adventurers.

Having come to New York City, the Purple Man used his superhuman ability to force people to do whatever he wished, and even robbed a bank by this means. The Purple Man now intended to use his power to become master of the world. However, he was instead defeated by the crimefighter Daredevil, whose will power was strong enough to enable him to resist Killgrave's power. Killgrave was sent to prison, but he finally escaped and made San Francisco, California, his base of operations. There he built himself a criminal empire, but he was again opposed and defeated by Daredevil. This time, though, Killgrave was not sent to prison. His criminal empire in San Francisco apparently collapsed, and Killgrave turned up in New York City once more. There he used his power to coerce Maxwell Glenn, head of Glenn Industries, into committing various crimes on his behalf, as the first major step in the Purple Man's plan to create a financial empire for himself. Put on trial for these crimes, Glenn committed suicide. Daredevil had learned that Killgrave had forced Glenn to become a criminal, and the crimefighter had a confrontation with the Purple Man at Ryker's Island Prison. Killgrave realized that Daredevil was blind and correctly guessed that he was Matt Murdock. Their confrontation ended when Killgrave plunged into the sea and seemingly drowned.

Killgrave survived, but the experience of this latest defeat radically altered his outlook on life. He realized that there was no need for him to engage in criminal conspiracies and battles with costumed crimefighters since he could get anything he wanted by using his power. Therefore, Killgrave retired from crime and became a gentleman of leisure.

One day a car being used by two underlings of the Kingpin of Crime to make a major delivery of illegal narcotics accidentally collided with Killgrave's purple Rolls Royce on a New York City street. Angered, Killgrave used his power to compel the two criminals to fight each other; the police arrived and confiscated the heroin. The Kingpin had Killgrave brought to him, and the Kingpin too proved to have the strength of will necessary to resist the Purple Man's power. The Kingpin forced the Purple Man to aid him in setting a death trap for various New York-based costumed crimefighters. Due to the increase in the Purple Man's power over time, plus the use of a sound system that amplified his voice, not even Daredevil could resist any longer. However, wearing ear plugs so he could not hear the Purple Man's voice, the hero Moon Knight knocked the Purple Man unconscious. He was taken into police custody.

But Killgrave somehow regained his freedom. Later, while relaxing on an island in Polynesia, he was captured by the world-conquering Doctor Doom, who imprisoned Killgrave within a gigantic "psycho-prism" he had constructed on Doom Island. Doom magnified the Purple Man's will-sapping power and manipulated it to make himself the master of Earth. Virtually everyone on Earth was compelled by the Purple Man's power to obey Doom, and he succeeded in capturing a number of crime-fighting superheroes. Due to his unusual physiology, the hero Wonder Man was unaffected, however, and was able to free teammate Captain America from Doom's mental control. Together they freed the other captured superheroes. Infuriated at having been enslaved by Doom, the Sub-Mariner smashed the psycho-prism, thereby both killing Killgrave and freeing the world from Doom's control.