Rather than having him simply state that he is bad, we actually get to see it in awful action again and again. And this also gives him an unmatched presence in Jessica Jones, even in the first half of the series, where Kilgrave’s appearances are limited to glances and brief scenes. It matches Jessica’s own feelings as he enters her world again—he’s always there in the background, watching and waiting, and slowly infecting the world around her. This makes for a ceaseless, almost exhausting experience to watch unfold over the course of Jessica Jones’ 13 episodes—Jessica and Kilgrave drive each others motivations in such a symbiotic way, because of their past relationship that gives their whole conflict so much more weight than the average tussle between hero and villain in a Marvel property (arguably, only Ward has come close, thanks to his extensive build up in Agents of SHIELD so far).

But aside from his startlingly personal motivation, what makes Kilgrave feel like such a standout character in Marvel’s villainous roster is how much a product of our current climate he feels like. For all intents and purposes, Kilgrave is an abusive-ex-turned-serial harasser. In an age where the vile harassment of women online and offline is becoming a steadfast part of the news cycle, Kilgrave is essentially a superpowered man reacting like an emotionally-stunted child for being spurned by a woman he idolizes.

Everything he does is motivated by his own view of Jessica as his true love—as his property, essentially, someone that he can control and own—and when she fights back, he rages in entitled fits, and lashes out at Jessica and her friends. Kilgrave might as well be the superpowered equivalent of an anonymous Twitter troll, in the flesh. You don’t often get to hear in real life about maddened despots who literally want to enslave the Earth or blow the whole planet apart like Ronan or Thanos, but you hear about people like Kilgrave (sans the superpowers, of course) in the news, day in and day out.

What makes Kilgrave especially terrifying is that, once you strip away the comic book side of him, he’s one of the most shockingly life-like monsters Marvel have ever had. We see his menace so clearly throughout Jessica Jones not just because of the purity of the story the series tells, but because Kilgrave is a lot more uncomfortably close to real life cases of harassment than we’d like to admit.