A Few Notes on Kilgrave (Jessica Jones)

The MCU’s history with villains has been pretty mixed.  Now, I think Loki is a bang-up character, although I’ve yet to see anything that uses him as well as the original Thor, and I adore the Winter Soldier, though his story is obviously changing, and even at his most dangerous, he’s more of a weapon than a villain.  Other movie villains, however, range from middling (Red Skull) to poorly used (Malekith) to over-the-top (Ronan.)  That said, Marvel’s TV outfits have had better luck in that department – I loved the main baddie on Agent Carter last year, and the new one is just as neat in an entirely different way – and in Kilgrave, Jessica Jones has a hugely intriguing, massively creepy foe.

First things first:  Kilgrave’s powers make my skin crawl.  The idea that he can compel anyone to do anything, be it making him their house guest, becoming his “willing” sex slave, or killing on his behalf, is so incredibly freaky!  Other than rendering him unconscious or ensuring that you can’t hear his voice, if you’re in the same room as him, there’s no real defense against it.  He can literally take someone’s power away with a single word.

What I love most about Kilgrave is that he’s nota super villain.  He doesn’t have an evil plan, he’s not after world domination, and his abilities effortlessly give him so much power that he doesn’t have much interest in acquiring more.  He’s just a stunningly-horrific example of what a completely unscrupulous person can do with his powers.  Rather than being specifically out to cause mayhem and destruction, mayhem and destruction are mere side effects of himgetting what he wants.  Because that’s about Kilgrave is about – satisfying his every desire.

He wants what he wants, and anyone who gets in the way is background noise.  Other people can be an afterthought, collateral damage, his playthings, or his means of venting his intense frustrations, depending on his whim.  He’s like a walking id that, until Jessica escaped from him in the events prior to the pilot, has never had something not go his way.

Don’t get me wrong.  Some of his desires are shockingly sick.  The dude is seriously twisted, and after all, we do meet him as Jessica’s superpowered stalker.  (Seriously, how gross is that?  Stalkers are such real-world monsters anyway, and then when you throw in unstoppable powers of persuasion?  Shudder.)  When he’s in a vicious mood, he doesn’t think twice about making someone kill themselves in a truly horrifying way, and I’m pretty sure he actually means it when he says he doesn’t consider himself to have raped Jessica, physically, mentally, or otherwise.  So, while he’s not a plotting super villain, he’s also, at minimum, awfully far down the road to Psychopathville.  I should hope his depraved acts aren’t an accurate representation of what an ordinary person would do with his powers.

At the same time, there’s a question of how much his powers shaped who he’s become, particularly since they manifested at a fairly young age.  While it in no way comes close to excusing any of the horrible things he does, it’s worth wondering what happens to a person’s psyche when everything they want is at their fingertips.  When no one can say no to them.  When they never have to work for anything.  When they can indulge their every caprice, no matter how dark.  With all that at Kilgrave’s disposal, did he have much – or any – chance of turning out “normal?”  (I repeat:  he’s still completely, manifestly awful.  No doubt about it.  Oh my gosh.)