| Damian Kilgrave (Earth-616) | |
| Basic Information | |
| Species: |
Human Mutant |
| Parents: |
Unknown |
| Birth Date: |
Unknown |
| Height: |
6.2ft |
| Weight: |
Unspecified |
| Eyes: |
Golden |
| Hair: |
Black |
| Powers/Abilities: |
|
| Aliases: |
Spectre |
| Additional Data | |
| Universe: |
Earth-616 |
| Mentor(s): |
Charles Xavier |
| Affiliation: |
Independent |
| Rejected Affiliation: |
|
| Citizenship: |
American |
| Language Spoken: |
|
(To avoid confusion, this character is not in any way related to Kilgrave, or Purple Man, from Jessica Jones)
Damian Kilgrave is a mutant with the ability to absorb kinetic energy and use it to influence his own physical and mental potential.
Biography[]
Damian Kilgrave was born to an unnamed family in Westchester, New York. As a young man, he displayed early signs of genius, with amazing scores at school. He was also a physically perfect human being, and excelled at most sports. However, he discovered that he was a mutant at the age of twelve, when a fellow classmate accidentally set the school's laboratory on fire, and Kilgrave entered the building, absorbed the fire at its source and emerged, completely unscathed. Later, when a classmate and his gang cornered him in an alley and violently ordered him to tell them how he survived, he struck the boy so hard in the face that he propelled him several meters through the air and into a pond, where he nearly drowned.
Kilgrave was later approached by a young Charles Xavier, who explained to him that he was a mutant with the ability to absorb and expel kinetic energy into his body and mind, making him superhumanly strong, among other things. After having learned of his mutation, Kilgrave dedicated his life to developing his powers but not using them to hurt people if he could avoid it. Because of this policy, he became a firm friend of Charles Xavier and even joined him on his adventures as a young man. However, Kilgrave and Charles soon encountered a mutant named Meteor, who possessed superhuman strength and the ability to defy gravity because of his strength. The mutant was about to destroy a human's animal-experimentation lab. Meteor attacked the two when they tried to stop him, and after a lengthy fight, Kilgrave accidentally killed him.
Kilgrave decided, after his battle with Meteor, that he could not risk making such a mistake again as killing an opponent in combat - he saw it as the worst category of murder. He parted ways with Charles, but they still remained very good friends. He set up a hotel in New York which he called the Kilgrave Sanctuary, which was intended for mutants in particular, especially those who needed a place to stay so that they would feel safe, or else those who had graduated from Charles' Xavier's school but still didn't have a place of their own or a situation of their own. The rule of the hotel, which he set up as manager and owner, was that there would be no violence between or against guests. If there was a fight, then Kilgrave would fight on who appeared to be the innocent party - and nobody wanted to go against Kilgrave.
Twenty years after setting up the hotel, Kilgrave was approached by Charles Xavier, Storm, Cyclops and Wolverine, after one of his guests was suspected of sabotaging a summit between the American and Russian ambassadors. Kilgrave, upon learning this, deduced immediately that the mutant was a powerful mystiokinetic mutant called Morgana, who had left the hotel only the last year. At the same time, Magneto approached Kilgrave, along with Mystique, Juggernaut and Riptide. This started an argument between the Brotherhood and the X-Men, and when Kilgrave subtly manipulated Magneto into revealing that he wanted to use Kilgrave to find Morgana and use her to target the President, the argument became a fight.
A battle started between the two, which broke out into the streets. Magneto ordered Juggernaut to kill Kilgrave for refusing them. Juggernaut tried to charge Kilgrave, but Kilgrave overpowered him with only one arm, redirecting his own momentum against him. Juggernaut tried to attack repeatedly, but Kilgrave calmly fought him off, trying firmly not to resort to the fullest of his strength. The fight progressed for a few minutes, when the police arrived and Juggernaut and Riptide attacked them. Silently furious, Kilgrave used his strength to pummel Juggernaut into unconsciousness and then absorbed Riptide's whirlwinds into his own body. Magneto called them back, and the police fired on Kilgrave, but Kilgrave survived the onslaught of gunfire. The Brotherhood retreated and Kilgrave negotiated the police into not pressing charges against them for the damage done during the skirmish.
Charles tried to recruit Kilgrave, and Kilgrave applied after entering his memory palace and deducing that it was the wisest option open to him. The group tracked Morgana down to Grand Central Station, but by that time Magneto had already arrived and was trying to persuade Morgana into joining him. Kilgrave interrupted the argument by placing his hands on the floor and vibrating his energy into his palms, causing tremors that separated Magneto from Morgana. In a panic, Morgana used her mystiokinetic powers to blast Magneto away. When Mystique tried to attack her, Wolverine stopped her and the two brawled. Whilst the X-Men and the Brotherhood battled again, Kilgrave reached out to Morgana and tried to get her to safety. The local police stopped them, and Morgana tried to kill them, but Kilgrave stopped her and the two escaped into hiding.
After they had escaped the battle, Morgana suddenly changed her shape and revealed herself to actually be Meteor, who had somehow survived the fight with Kilgrave all those years ago - Morgana had been a mutant in the area local to where the fight had happened, and when Kilgrave destroyed Meteor's body he had transferred his consciousness into her body and impersonated her under Kilgrave's protection. Meteor now planned to destroy everyone in New York that Kilgrave loved, and then eventually kill him. Kilgrave tried to reason with him, but he would not be swayed. The two exploded into a vicious battle that ripped through New York, where each other's strength matched completely and they were unable to gain the upper hand. Kilgrave quickly learned that Meteor had become significantly more powerful than when they last met - the irony was that it was Charles who trained him to harness his power, and Kilgrave who had furthered the process. He dedicated his entire strength and mental extremes to combat the mutant, but still couldn't defeat him.
The X-Men joined the battle, simultaneously battling the Brotherhood of Mutants. Storm appeared to attack Kilgrave by launching a lightning bolt from the sky and knocking him to the ground, and Cyclops by firing his optic blasts at him. However, it was all a ploy so Kilgrave could become more powerful and, when Meteor attacked Charles Xavier in revenge for stopping him all those years ago, Kilgrave returned to the fight and destroyed Meteor by launching a blast of kinetic energy in a concentrated stream, striking him in the chest and exploding him from the inside. Before Meteor could transfer his consciousness a second time, Kilgrave absorbed him as pure energy into his body, permanently ending his life.
After the damage done during the fight is repaired, Charles learns that Kilgrave has closed down the hotel, knowing that, with mutant acceptance, there was no true need of it any more. However, Kilgrave surprised him by revealing that the hotel would be torn down and be made an extension of Xavier's school, and Kilgrave himself would be a teacher and permanent resident there. Kilgrave and the X-Men have been fierce allies ever since.
Powers and abilities[]
Kilgrave is an extremely powerful mutant with the ability to absorb energy - mostly kinetic energy - and storing it inside his body, but with the ability of expelling it or wielding it physically and mentally to augment his own capabilities. For example, he can absorb energy to augment his speed, strength, stamina and durability to beyond superhuman levels. This means that, though he doesn't look superhumanly strong in comparison to the likes of Colossus, he possesses incredible physical capabilities. His speed enables him to run at nearly one hundred and ten miles per hour, and gives him reflexes enough to catch a projectile blade in mid-flight. His physical strength means that he can punch massive holes in walls, break bones and even combat the strength of the Juggernaut. He can also release kinetic energy in destructive waves, streams or blasts from his hands and feet.
His durability such that he can endure being struck by, including not only direct physical blows, but also the impact of bullets and throwing weapons, and less successfully, concussive energy beams; notably Cyclops' optic blasts. By absorbing successive blows from an opponent, Kilgrave can surpass the physical abilities of said opponent and then overpower them. He is sometimes shown to be capable of absorbing the cutting, piercing and thrusting energy from a blade. His powers can enable his body to withstand cutting from adamantium, but only for a short time.
Kilgrave's energy absorption also drastically enhances his mental capabilities. This means that his nervous system and capacity for reaction are extraordinarily enhanced. It stupendously increases his speed of thought and the amounts of information that his brain can contain at a time. Kilgrave also, as a result, possesses superhuman senses of smell, hearing and sight. His olfactory system is ridiculously precise, enabling him to smell certain scents at long distances and able to differentiate one from another easily. He is also able to process information about his environment in a matter of seconds, even when falling from a great height. This means that he can solve virtually any logical problem that he is confronted with simply through observation.
As a result of his powers, he possesses a variety of skills and talents. He is a genius and a polymath: he is extremely intelligent, an expert in psychology, business, law, politics, biology, physics, mathematics and mechanics. Charles Xavier remembers him as a brilliant student of his by many accounts. He is fluent in Spanish, French, Latin and Japanese, and has multiple doctorates which he acquired throughout his life. He is also a natural strategist, with an affinity for cunning and creating elaborate traps for his opponents. Interestingly, if, for any reason, he is stripped of his powers, he is still a physically strong and athletic man in the peak of human condition, as he regularly does physical exercise to prepare for such an eventuality.
Kilgrave is an expert martial artist, having studied, mastered and perfected Kung Fu, Jujitsu and Taekwondo. In a fight, he will either utilize his pure strength and power, or he will subtly target pressure points in his opponent's body and also use their strength and momentum against them. He also practices multiple meditation techniques to remain in a certain state of mind. His combat skills are the reason that very few people who know him are brave enough to defy him.
Kilgrave's most advantageous talent as a result of his powers is his incredible brainpower. The fact that his thoughts process so quickly means that he has an extremely eidetic memory, and never forgets anything at all. He is capable of creating a 'memory palace' where he stores all information that he comes across, which is why he does not forget anything. Kilgrave's memory palace is extremely precisely detailed and elaborately designed, and the location it is based on is the Pentagon itself.