Perhaps owing to the roots of the Silver Age in the tradition of science-fiction, there is a tendency to rank and categorise superheroes according to their abilities. ![]() In AKA It’s Called Whiskey, Luke Cage measures his unbreakability “on a scale of ‘I don’t know’ to ‘I don’t want to find out’.” AKA I’ve Got the Blues suggests that Jessica gained her mysterious powers in the accident that killed her parents, but doesn’t seem too concerned about the particulars. It is strongly suggested that neither Luke Cage nor Jessica Jones are able to rhyme off their basic superhero stats. ![]() Jessica Jones wastes relatively little time outlining the mechanics of its central characters’ abilities. More than that, even AKA The Sandwich Saved Me declined to reduce the title character to a traumatising series of cause and effect as a painted something like an origin story. After all, even the basic structure of Jessica Jones rejects the basic superhero “origin story” template, essentially positioning itself as a superhero “retirement” story of sorts. One of the more refreshing aspects of Jessica Jones is a tendency to play with and subvert some of the expectations engendered by more than a decade of exposure to superhero storytelling conventions. One of the joys of Jessica Jones is that the revelation that Kilgrave is unquestioning evil does not in any way make him a less complicated or compelling character. Kilgrave is an unrepentant self-serving sociopath. He is not the version of Wilson Fisk presented in Shadows in the Glass, a man who might have been a hero under other circumstances. He is not the archetypal sympathetic bad guy whose actions can be explained away as the result of the horrible things that happened to him when he was a child. He also lies to the audience about his character, as AKA Sin Bin reveals Kilgrave is not a tragic and sympathetic antagonist with an explanatory childhood trauma after all. He lies to himself about his motivations, genuinely believing he is a victim in all of this. He lies to everyone about his past, painting his concerned parents as cliché monsters. ![]() He lied to Jessica about the effectiveness of his powers, revealing that his decision not to control Jessica against her will wasn’t really a decision. Kilgrave is a character whose power hinges upon his ability to manipulate people using words.
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