Why isn't my JComponent showing up on top of my background, a JLabel, both inside a JFrame?

Question

I'm trying to have a movable Mario sprite on a level, and I have I know the keyListener is working, bc I have debug output in the console, but only the LevelComponent() appears:

public class MarioLevel extends JFrame {

  MarioComponent mc = new MarioComponent();
  JLabel background;

  public MarioLevel(){
    background = new LevelComponent();
    background.setLayout(null);
    this.add(background,BorderLayout.CENTER);
    this.setSize(868,915);
    this.setFocusable(true);
    this.setVisible(true);
    KeyListener kl = new MoveListener();
    this.addKeyListener(kl);

    background.add(mc);
    mc.setBounds(mc.marioSprite.x, mc.marioSprite.y, mc.marioSprite.sprite.getWidth(), mc.marioSprite.sprite.getHeight());

    this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

  }

  class MoveListener implements KeyListener{
    public void keyPressed(KeyEvent k){

      if((k.getKeyCode() == 39)){
        mc.moveMario();
        System.out.println(mc.marioSprite.getCoordinates());
      }
      if(k.getKeyCode() == 83){
        mc.jumpMario();
        System.out.println(mc.marioSprite.getCoordinates());
      }
    }
    public void keyReleased(KeyEvent k){
//      if(k.getKeyCode = 83){
//        mc.Mario
//      }
    }
    public void keyTyped(KeyEvent k){}    
  }



  public static void main(String[] args){
   MarioLevel m = new MarioLevel();
  }


}

my MarioComponent:

public class MarioComponent extends JComponent{

  protected Mario marioSprite;


  public MarioComponent(){
    marioSprite = new Mario();
  }

  public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
    //super.paintComponent(g);
    marioSprite.draw(g);
  }

    public void moveMario(){
    marioSprite.move();
    repaint();
  }

   public void jumpMario(){
    marioSprite.jump();
    repaint();

  }

   public void getCoordinates(){
     System.out.println(marioSprite.getCoordinates());
   }

  @Override
  public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
    return new Dimension(marioSprite.sprite.getWidth(), marioSprite.sprite.getHeight());
  }

}

my Mario class:

public class Mario{
//all numbers multiplied by 2 from OG game
  protected MarioState state;
  protected int x, y;
  protected BufferedImage sprite;


  public Mario(){
    this.state = MarioState.SMALL;
    this.x = 54;
    this.y = 806;
    URL spriteAtLoc = getClass().getResource("sprites/Mario/SmallStandFaceRight.bmp");

    try{
      sprite = ImageIO.read(spriteAtLoc);

    } catch(IOException e){
      System.out.println("sprite not found");
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

  public Mario(MarioState s, int x, int y){
    this.state = s;
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }

  public void move(){
    this.x+=2;

  }

  public void move(char c, int px){
    if(c =='x'){
      this.x += px;
    }
    if(c == 'y'){
      this.y += px;
    }
  }

  public void jump(){
this.y -= 46;
  }


  public String getCoordinates(){
return "Mario coords: " + this.x + ", " + this.y + ".";
  }

  public void draw(Graphics g){

    g.drawImage(sprite, this.x, this.y, null);
  }




}

my LevelMap class:

public class LevelMap{

  BufferedImage bg;

  public LevelMap(){
    URL bgAtLoc = getClass().getResource("sprites/Mario/level.bmp");
    try{
      bg = ImageIO.read(bgAtLoc);
    }
    catch(IOException e){
      System.out.println("invalid level!");
    }

  }

    public void draw(Graphics g){
    g.drawImage(bg, 0, 0, null);
  }



  public static void main(String[] args){}

}    

my LevelComponent class:

public class LevelComponent extends JLabel{
  protected LevelMap levelSprite;

  public LevelComponent(){
    levelSprite = new LevelMap();
  }

  public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
    levelSprite.draw(g);
  }
  @Override
  public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
    return new Dimension(levelSprite.bg.getWidth(), levelSprite.bg.getHeight());
  }



}

Both MarioComponent and LevelComponent show up in their own JFrames. My format of adding a JLabel and then adding components worked in a previous project I did, but is not working here. What could this be?