Marvel’s Newest Thunderbolt is the Daughter of a Despicable MCU Villain

An upcoming relaunch of the Thunderbolts team, featuring a crew of good guys led by Hawkeye, will include Kara Killgrave among its roster, the daughter of long-time Marvel Comics villain the Purple Man, and nemesis of Jessica Jones in the MCU series of the same name. Kara, first called Purple Girl, then Persuasion, then Purple Woman, and now back to Persuasion, has a complicated history with her deranged father to say the least, and seems like the perfect addition to Jim Zub’s new Thunderbolts team.

The Thunderbolts moniker has been used many times throughout Marvel Comics history. It’s typically applied to teams of “reformed” supervillains operating as anti-heroes, usually under the direction of a government agency. The newest iteration of the Thunderbolts spins out of the recent events in Devil’s Reign, a comics crossover that has seen Mayor Wilson Fisk finally enacting his plan to destroy the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (and the Met Gala), partially with the forced help of the Purple Man and his “Purple Children.” Kara Killgrave, first introduced in 1986’s Alpha Flight #41 as a 13-year-old who had just discovered her powers and the nature of her true father, has mainly been a hero but has had to content with her darker side throughout her publication history. Having Persuasion join the Thunderbolts appears to be an ideal choice, seeing as her character is intrinsically associated with her evil father due to their shared purple skin and innately manipulative powers.

After her introduction in the ’80s Kara became an integral part of Beta Flight, and eventually Alpha Flight, and while her father Zebediah Killgrave was apparently killed by Captain Marvel after being thrown into the sun, his legacy still haunts her to this day. The new Thunderbolts series is written and developed by Jim Zub—who previously wrote the Winter Soldier-led 2016 iteration of Thunderbolts—and illustrated by the immensely talented Sean Isaakse (Champions, Fantastic Four). The book will be “full of heart and interpersonal struggle” according to Zub, who compared the new iteration to “Ted Lasso by way of the Avengers.” Persuasion, along with Hawkeye, Spectrum, Power Man, America Chavez, and new character Gutsen Glory, will battle monsters, villains, and their reputation throughout NYC, while dealing with the intense drama and power struggles that come with operating in a newly formed team.

As her name suggests, Persuasion has similar powers to the Purple Man, possessing the ability to control almost anybody using her natural pheromones. She has shown in previous stories that she can mind-control all of Alpha Flight at once, and also influence someone miles away, although her powers cause her victims to turn temporarily purple. After learning of her parentage from her mother Melanie, Kara eventually decided to use her powers for good, engaging in the biggest act of rebellion against her father that she could think of. The last time Kara was seen was in 2019s Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter, when Jessica Jones, whose MCU counterpart battled the Purple Man throughout Season 1, discovered her young daughter was purple and brutally attacked Kara, thinking she had caused it.

Zebediah Killgrave played a major role in Devil’s Reign, continuing to prove he is literally the world’s worst father, as evidenced by his “Purple Children” still wanting to kill him after years of emotional and mental manipulation from the Purple Man. Since Thunderbolts will be spinning directly our of Devil’s Reign, and a lot of the mayhem caused by Fisk has happened because of Killgrave and his “Purple Children,” it makes perfect sense that Persuasion wants to join the reformed team to redeem herself in the eyes of the public, and continue being the hero she wants to be. Make sure to check out Kara Killgrave, daughter of the Purple Man, when she joins Jim Zub and Sean Isaakse’s Thunderbolts #1 debuting in May 2022.

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