There are a number of characters in the Marvel Universe who can achieve mind control, though perhaps the most sinister one of the bunch is The Purple Man–but while he is undeniably terrifying, he does have an incredibly silly weakness, one that was exposed during his very first fight with Daredevil.

Zebediah Killgrave aka The Purple Man is a villain who wields the power to make people do anything he tells them with a mere suggestion. While Killgrave’s powers work on almost everyone he uses them on, there are a select few who are or have become immune to them, including Daredevil and Jessica Jones, because their will power outmatches his persuasion. This is incredibly significant because it sets the standard for what it takes to defeat the seemingly unstoppable Killgrave–though there is one other way that was revealed following The Purple Man’s debut.

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In Daredevil #4 by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando, Daredevil first encounters Killgrave after taking him on as a client, which is something he regrets almost immediately. Following a bank robbery–which was more of Killgrave walking into a bank, asking for money, and then walking out–The Purple Man found himself in prison, which is where his attorney, Matt Murdock, met him for the first time. However, Matt didn’t come alone as he brought Karen Page along to observe the case. Upon seeing Karen, Killgrave fell head-over-heels and decided he wanted to make her his, whether she agreed or not. With a simple order to the guard, Killgrave is released from prison and his first act as a free man is to abduct Karen and leave without anyone following them. Little did The Purple Man know, however, that Matt Murdock was immune to his power, so once he changed into his Daredevil suit, Murdock quickly followed Killgrave’s trail. While running from Daredevil, Killgrave came across a room filled with strongmen and ordered them to protect him. While every one of them complied, there was one who resisted Killgrave’s power and even got angry at the notion of someone trying to tell him what to do.

The reason this one person was able to fight off Killgrave’s mind control is because of their apparent lack of intelligence. As described in the comic, this body builder wasn’t the brightest of the bunch and his mind was slow to process Killgrave’s orders, so those orders just didn’t get through to him at all. While this is one of the first instances of someone refusing to follow Killgrave’s direct order, it is still quite a shock especially when reading this comic with the knowledge of Killgrave’s later, and much more atrocious crimes. Killgrave is such an immense threat that he nearly destroyed Jessica Jones’ life in the comic series Alias, and his presence is so ominously ever present that he even transcended the realm of the comic book medium and became one of, if not the most terrifying MCU villains of the modern age. But, apparently, if someone just doesn’t understand what he’s ordering them to do, or isn’t capable of understanding him, then his powers simply don’t work.

Unfortunately, while being unable to comprehend Killgrave’s orders seems like a simple enough solution to defeating him, that workaround is a double-edged sword. If someone isn’t intelligent enough to process a command, then it’s likely that they can’t come up with a way to stop a villain like Killgrave either, making this particular solution almost not worth it. However, regardless of whether this weakness is the most effective or not is irrelevant, because the fact remains that this is by far the most unexpected way to resist mind control in Marvel lore–and Daredevil proves it.