Lyja
Lyja is a female comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Lyja was a female Skrull who became part of the military in the empire. At some point, she came to be involved in a relationship with Paibok though this ended badly between them. She came to be a simple liaison officer but had no combat experience. Sometime afterwards, General Kalamari suggested a new plan against the Earth which was to send a spy to infiltrate the Fantastic Four. The Skrull Emperor noted that such a plan was not possible as their kind could not copy abilities. This led to Paibok suggesting that they not replace one of the Fantastic Four themselves but rather one of their allies namely Alicia Masters. Paibok chose his old lover Lyja for the task where she went through months of training including the addition of special contact lenses so that she could replicate the targets blindness. Her mission continued even on-board a stealth cruiser that secretly orbited Earth’s Moon where they awaited the moment to replace the target with Lyja. The opportunity presented itself when the Beyonder abducted the world’s heroes as part of the Secret Wars. The Skrulls then moved in to abduct Alicia Masters with Lyja taking her place. (Fantastic Four v1 #358)
As their headquarters was exploding, Paibok came for inexplicit reasons decided to save Lyja and spared her from death. She became part of a ploy of a further scheme against the Fantastic Four. (Fantastic Four v1 #390)
Afterwards, she remained in New York City where she continued to pose as a single human girl and read a lot with her trying to become more human in the hope of finding love again. During this time, Skrull agents on behalf of Veranke approached her and attempted to recruit her to their cause. She agreed reluctantly and Queen Veranke assigned the task of destroying the Fantastic Four to Lyja. At first, they wanted her to plant an S-Bomb in the Baxter Building to eliminate everyone in the headquarters. However, Lyja came to convince them to simply send everyone inside the structure into the Negative Zone with her secretly doing this to save the Fantastic Four from destruction. The Skrulls then restored her powers and her ministerial position whereupon she went on her assignment. (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four v1 #3) She then took the identity of Susan Richards where she entered the Baxter Building and activated the Negative Zone portal thus shunting the entire building into that dimension. Eventually, Johnny Storm came to realise that it was someone masquerading as his sister and was surprised to see Lyja with the two battling. This was until a police cruiser nearly collided with Lyja and Johnny saved her thus rekindling the feelings they had for one another. Lyja then proceeded to help the Fantastic Four in finding a way back to Earth. (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four v1 #2) Lyja explained the circumstances that led to her attacking the Fantastic Four with this angering Johnny Storm who was angry at the deceptions she had made against him over the years. Ultimately, they travelled to Prison 42 to use it to return to Earth but Lyja decided to remain in the Negative Zone as she decided it was time to do some soul-searching on what she wanted in life. (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four v1 #3)
She remained within the Negative Zone to be a hero during the time of the cataclysm where she fought for the good few things that remained there. Once the crisis was over, she returned to Earth and went to seek out her friends in the Fantastic Four but they were missing. Thus, she went out in search for them but in a galaxy that distrusted Skrulls she decided to assume the form of a space pirate. (Future Foundation v1 #5) She then sought to hunt down the Zn'rx criminal Kl'rath due to him murdering Skrull refugees. To achieve that end, Lyja took on the identity of the mercenary Yondu and served as the guide to the Future Foundation as they went to the L'ar Gath Five prison colony. The young heroes were looking to recover the scattered fragments of the Molecule Man and believed shards of him were present there. During this time, the heroes encountered the Maker who they mistakenly believed to had been their Reed Richards. Thus, Alex Power accidently freed the supervillain and his criminal cohorts where they attempted to take over the ship. Whilst at the cockpit, Lyja then killed Kl'rath for his crimes and assumed his identity where she tried to protect the Future Foundation from the Maker. (Future Foundation v1 #4) Afterwards, she joined the Future Foundation when Alex Power offered a place amongst them. (Future Foundation v1 #5) The Foundation later came to return to their Earth through the Forever Gate that had been developed by Valeria Richards that allowed access to all realities in the Multiverse. Upon arriving, Lyja was surprised to see the Skrull Requiem and Kree Chronicle in the care of Ben Grimm. This led to the children being scared at Lyja's presence where Ben and Alicia had them taken inside. The Thing then revealed to Lyja that the Kree/Skrull War was over after the two races were united into the Alliance. Such a development shocked her and she decided to remain with the Fantastic Four until she learnt more about what happened since she was away with the Future Foundation. Her arrival led to tensions between Johnny Storm and the Spyrian Sky who believed she was the Human Torch's soul mate due to the soulbound that appeared between them. (Fantastic Four v6 #26)
At the time, a wave of refugees were arriving on Earth-616 through the Forever Gate where they were fleeing their destroyed realities which were obliterated by an abstract being called the Griever. Lyja came to shapeshift into an alien in the crowd and disappeared among them where the Fantastic Four were seemingly unable to find her. However, she still remained an ally to them and spied on one of the refugees being an agent for the Griever where he agreed to reveal information to the Griever in exchange for being spared. The alien reported that Franklin Richards had lost his great cosmic abilities allowing for the Griever to attack where she intended to kill everyone as this was her purpose. However, this all turned out to be a trick as after her spy reported this information he came to be captured by Lyja with this being a lure to draw her into the abandoned Fantastic Four headquarters on Yancy Street. Once tricked inside, Reed Richards deleted the added pocket dimensions inside in an effort to contain the Griever within thus seemingly defeating her. (Fantastic Four v6 #27) However, she managed to break free and prepared to destroy the world until Franklin Richards threatened to use the Ultimate Nullifier on her. Reed Richards then decided to use the Forever Gate to send the Griever to the end of time where her purpose in bringing about the end of all things would be fulfilled thus ending the crisis. Lyja joined the celebrations at the threat being averted but was warned by Ben Grimm from interfering in his family as his adoptive Skrull daughter N'Kalla was afraid of her. (Fantastic Four v6 #28) Afterwards, Lyja used her powers to masquerade as Sky when the Fantastic Four attended the Latverian exhibit at the museum after being invited to the event. Her deception was uncovered when the real Sky arrived on the scene leading to Johnny Storm being torn between his ex-wife and his current love interest. It was then that the museum was attacked by ULTIMATUM where in the midst of the fighting Lyja was hurt with Johnny helping her. After the fight, this caused an argument with Sky who left the scene to be alone whilst Lyja came to seemingly regret her actions and also departed rather than cause further tensions. (Fantastic Four v6 #32)
Overview
Personality and attributes
One identity she had created whilst operating on Earth was as a human called Laura Green. (Fantastic Four v1 #414)
Lyja came to believe that every living creature no matter how strange simply required love and compassion. (Fantastic Four v1 #388)
She had Paibok had been betrothed on Throneworld though their romance came to sour. (Fantastic Four v1 #390)
Powers and abilities
It was shown that she went through intense study of every detail and nuance of her target that she intended to replace. This involved months of training with her having to learn everything about her target world. (Fantastic Four v1 #390)
The form of the Beir-Beast was noted for being near indestructible. (Fantastic Four v1 #390) Another form she could take was that of the one-eyed multi-tentacled Sha'Barri that was noted for being a savage creature. (Fantastic Four v1 #391)
Lyja was later forced to take part in a painful process of genetic re-manipulation with this being a torturous metamorphosis. This saw an organic power receiver being implanted in her body that was the epitome of Skrull micro-technology. The tiny globe interfaced with her altered cellular structure that resulted in high-intensity laser powers. (Fantastic Four v1 #390) The power implant could be removed and impart laser abilities to another person who successfully activated it. (Fantastic Four v1 #389)
She was later evolved allowing her to withstand the Human Torch's flames without any injury to her body. (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four v1 #2)
At one point, she had an artificial implant given to her that took the form of an egg that was seemingly her offspring. (Fantastic Four v1 #390) In reality, her Skrull superiors had placed powerful multi-tentacled Sha'Barri within the egg that was designed to hatch and destroy anyone around it. (Fantastic Four v1 #391)
Notes
- Lyja was created by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan where she made her first actual appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #357 (October, 1991).
- Initially, the character appeared as Alicia Masters where she debuted earlier in Fantastic Four v1 #265 (April, 1984).
- The idea of Alicia Masters being a Skrull imposter was said as a joke by Ralph Macchio as several Marvel editors that included Mark Gruenwald were unhappy at the idea of her marrying Johnny Storm. When writer Tom DeFalco began writing Fantastic Four, he decided to use the joke as an in-universe story plot thus leading to the creation of Lyja.
Alternate Versions
- In What If? v2 #105 (1998), an alternate version of Lyja appeared in the MC2 universe that was designated as Earth-982. She came to marry Johnny Storm where she served in the Fantastic Four and went by the name of Ms. Fantastic. The couple later came to have a son who they named Torus Storm.
In other media
Television
Appearances
- Fantastic Four v1: (1991)
- Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four v1:
- Future Foundation v1: (2019)
- Fantastic Four v6:
External Links
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