Origin
In New York, a young woman by the name of Melanie had fallen under the influence of Zebediah Killgrave, also known as the Purple Man. Using his mutant ability to control the minds of others he forced Melanie into a marriage with him in hopes to start a family. Killgrave eventually realized that he truly had fallen in love with Melanie and released her from his thrall. However, now aware of what he had done Melanie left Killgrave in a state of high emotion. Shortly thereafter Melanie returned home to Toronto. To her dismay, she soon discovered she was pregnant and worried about how her baby would turn out due to her fathers lineage. Melanie had been greatly relieved to see that the baby looked “normal” , and had taken naturally to motherhood, keeping the secret of Kara’s conception to herself.
Kara Killgrave’s childhood was without incident. She grew up in a normal suburban setting with her mother. However when Kara turned thirteen, at the onset of puberty, her body completely turned into a shade of purple. In a panic she attempted to scrub the colour from her in hot bath of water–but it would not be removed. Her mother Melanie than comes home to find Kara in the bathroom in complete disbelief still sitting in the bathtub. On seeing this Melanie begins to reveal to Kara the identity of her father, and the circumstances of her birth. The shock of her changing appearance and her mother’s startling revelations were too much for Kara to cope with and she fled.
Later, at a skiing exhibition where sporting hero Jean-Paul Beaubier was to appear, she was antagonized in a toilet cubicle by a young woman. Kara told the girl to “go jump off a cliff”; when the girl did just that, Beaubier was only able to save her at the cost of revealing his secret identity as Northstar to the crowds. Northstar realised Kara had been responsible for the almost fatal incident and berated her, but she turned her new power on him, commanding him to transport her to a deserted island. Swimming on the island, Kara had to be rescued by Northstar from a crocodile; at this, Kara’s spell over the hero was broken when he dived underwater.
Creation
Persuasion was created by Bill Mantlo and Dave Ross in 1986 and first appeared as Purple Girl in Alpha Flight# 41.
Character Evolution
Raised by a single mom on the outskirts of Toronto, Kara was leading a normal life of a teenager when her mutation manifested. Devastated after learning about her father being the Purple Man, she tried to adapt by covering herself as much as possible. Deeply infatuated with Jean-Paul Beaubier, the Olympic Gold winning skier, she attended an exhibition and accidentally almost caused the death of a girl who had offended her while in the washroom. Realizing her power, she impulsively kidnapped Northstar and made him take her to a deserted island where she intended for them to remain. Fortunately he managed to regain his mental control and delivered her to Alpha Flight’s headquarters where she promptly escaped by using one of their members. Considering her age and her previous care-free life, Kara had a hard-time adjusting to her mutation as it was physically visible. She was also over-confident, putting herself and other team-mates in danger but in time, she grew into a responsible, caring young woman – and became a valued member of Alpha Flight. Despite suffering through a mutant killing concentration camp and being on of the very few to retain her powers after M-Day, she remained strong and determined to protect mutantkind.
Major Story Arcs
Alpha Flight
Afterward he took her to the Tamarind Island HQ of Alpha Flight. Fearing the team intended to harm her, she used her powers again, this time on the whole group. She escaped, taking Madison Jeffries with her. On the run, they fell for a time into the clutches of the Auctioneer. When rescued by Alpha Flight, Heather Hudson recruited Kara as the first member of the newly created Beta Flight.
Kara pursued a short romance Whitman Knapp, their second member. Kara found a place as a valued member of both Beta and Alpha Flight. She fought at their side against such adversaries as the Dreamqueen, the Great Beasts, the Derangers, Scramble, and China Force; even what appeared to be her late father zombified. Injured in battle with China Force and left behind by Alpha Flight (who had gone to confront the Dreamqueen), she decided to leave the team, feeling they had abandoned her. Some time later she was contacted by Talisman, and recruited into a team formed to recover Northstar from Asgard. After this mission she rejoined Beta Flight, under the reorganized Department H. She became good friends with most of her team mates, notably Goblyn, Pathway and Witchfire. Though the team was supposedly in training, she encountered a number of foes; Firebug, the Jackal, Omega Flight, the Master and the Hardliners.
Department H was dissolved following the Joshua Lord incident. Persuasion had decided that she had spent much of her adolescence as a superhuman hero, lacking the possibilities of a normal young adult’s life. She than returned home with her friends and former Beta Flight team mates, Goblyn and Laura Dean.
Neverland Concentration Camp
Persuasion was next seen imprisoned in Neverland, the mutant concentration camp created by Weapon X and after House of M she was one of the few that retained their abilities. She joined a group called the Citadel and attempted to stop Canada’s federal elections by exposing the truth about the Unity Party’s true intentions. Snowbird, on behalf of the new reformed Alpha Flight prevented her and the Master of the World‘s Unity Party won by a landslide.
Alpha Strike
Mind controlled, Persuasion has since reemerged as a member of the mysterious new government-sponsored team, Alpha Strike, part of the Unity Party’s plan to defeat Alpha Flight.
Purple Daughter
When Dani Cage turned purple causing Jessica Jones to question who her father is, she tracked down Kara hoping she was using her powers to cause the illusion, since Jess believe Purple Man to be dead. They briefly fought but eventually commiserated in their shared hatred for Kara’s father.
Later, she was approached by The Purple Children, the bastard children of Purple Man. They revealed to Kara that Purple Man was still alive, and his death was simply an illusion. They were working with the half-brother, Ben, than none of them knew about to render Purple Man powerless. Instead, Ben created a serum that would allow him to tap into the power. He had captured Jess and Luke Cage to force them to be his idyllic parents, and the Purple Children needed Kara’s help freeing them.
Thunderbolts
When Luke Cage defeated Wilson Fisk in the mayoral race for New York City, Cage was unable to undo his very popular Thunderbolts Program. Masked superheroics were outlawed in favor of the civic-sanctioned Thunderbolts. She was placed on the team by a marketing algorithm for her psychic abilities and approved by Luke after proving herself trustworthy when she rescued him and his wife from her half-brother, The Purple Son.
Unfortunately, the team is not the biggest success. Despite the budget they were spending, there was not a significant drop in crime. This is mostly thanks to Nightmare secretly targeting the team with psychic attacks, especially Ms. America, who he has been following since her time as a West Coast Avenger. Luckily, The Thunderbolts were able to focus as a team and hit him with everything they got. Afterward, Kara used her abilities to put him to sleep so America could drop him into another dimension.
Despite the team’s failure in the public eye, Luke Cage kept them around probationally.
Powers and Abilities
Persuasion is a mutant that controls minds through pheromones, rendering her subjects in a state of near-mindlessness–and highly susceptible to suggestion. A side effect is that her victims too become temporarily purple; and after recovering their faculties they usually have a splitting headache. She seems unable to affect involuntary functions of the bodys; an order to “drop dead” only results in the loss of consciousness. She can wrest control of a thrall from other mind controllers, such as Mesmero. Submerging the victim in water, and encasing Persuasion in plastic, have resulted in her losing control of affected minds.
To prevent being controlled by her, a person must either create or utilize a physical barrier between her and themselves (including distance), or continuously rinse the pheromones off their skin before they can take effect.
In time her power increased in potency, to the point where she could control people without speaking aloud. The range of her influence also grew by several miles. She can create a link between her mind and Goblyn’s; this has never been fully explained, but it has been said that she can meld her mind with whomever she wants…once she established this link with a living planet, but it was too great a strain on her, and the connection did not last long.
Kara has demonstrated limited telepathy; able to sense those she had under control from a great distance.
Characteristics
- Citizenship: Canadian
- Marital Status: Single
- Occupation: Government Agent
- Education: High School
- Gender: Female
- Height: 5’7″
- Weight: 111 lbs (50 kg)
- Eyes: Purple
- Hair: Black