Marvel Database
Marvel Database
Advertisement
Marvel Database

Quote1 I'm Layla Miller. I know stuff. Quote2
Layla Miller[src]

History

Origin[]

Layla was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen with her two loving parents, Mrs. and Mr. Miller. When the Millers died in a tragic automobile accident, Layla was placed in the Saint Joan's Orphanage in the Bowery of New York City. Soon after relocating to the orphanage, Layla's mutant power manifested and she grew horns and discovered she could breathe fire, frightening the human orphans and causing them to reject her.[3]

House of M[]

When the Scarlet Witch used her powers to remake reality into a world in which mutants were the dominant species, everything changed for Layla. Her parents were alive and in health, and she lived with them and attended Brooklyn's PS 45. Additionally, a new set of mutant powers manifested and enabled her to perceive divergent realities, allowing her to remember the world as it had been before the Scarlet Witch warped reality. Seeking the help of Daredevil, Layla instead found Luke Cage, Hell's Kitchen's most powerful crime lord and leader of a human resistance movement. Layla was able to restore Luke's true memories, and after rescuing Wolverine, Cage's group set out to use Layla's powers to unlock the unconscious memories of other heroes. Under the guidance of Emma Frost, Layla restored the memories of many of Earth's heroes, who then led an assault on the Scarlet Witch in Genosha. The attack on Genosha prompted the Scarlet Witch to restore reality, only with a significantly reduced mutant population, an event later called M-Day.[17]

X-Factor Investigations[]

With reality restored, Layla woke up and found herself back in the orphanage she hated - only without her former mutant powers.[1][18] Instead, Layla would find that she possessed a new power; the ability to resurrect the dead, though without their souls.[19] Shortly thereafter, an adult Layla returned from the future and came to the orphanage to speak with her younger self and upload all the knowledge about her lifetime and information on the next 80 years into the mind of her younger self.[4] Armed with this pseudo-precognitive knowledge, Layla ran away from the orphanage and showed up at the office of X-Factor Investigations in Mutant Town offering help and claiming she "knows stuff".[16] Without an invitation or permission, Layla began working as a file clerk and using her knack for predicting the future to give X-Factor advice and steer them in certain directions.[20]

Layla Miller (Earth-616) from X-Factor Vol 3 12 001

Layla working as a file clerk for X-Factor Investigations

Layla directed Siryn onto the Santiago case, saving her life,[20] and later saved Rictor from a Singularity Investigations assassin.[21] But when Theresa was severely beaten by Tryp Junior, Layla was blamed for not warning X-Factor and voluntarily returned to the orphanage. Layla was beaten and ridiculed at the orphanage, and Madrox and Wolfsbane brought her back to X-Factor.[3]

When Quicksilver arrived at X-Factor's office with information about the true cause of M-Day, Layla declared herself Quicksilver's nemesis.[22] Later, with the Inhumans looking for Quicksilver, Layla advised him that Black Bolt wasn't going to kill him during the confrontation and that he should take a small trip to the future to see the outcome of what happened to them. She and Jamie went to the meeting where she revealed to Jamie that she tried to kill Pietro but couldn't because he escaped and that his actions were meant to happen.[23]

Not long after, a group made up of ex-mutants, calling themselves X-Cell, who believed the government had depowered mutants, began operating in Mutant Town. Around this same time, Theresa and Monet returned from their brief trip to France, with an ex-mutant named Nicole, which shocked Layla because she had no knowledge of her arrival. After Quicksilver had restored most of X-Cell's mutant powers using his Terrigen Crystals, Layla paid him a visit. She revealed to Callisto and Marrow that it was he and Wanda Maximoff who caused M-Day, and that Pietro had lied. She helped them and X-Factor foil Pietro's schemes.[24]

Layla Miller (Earth-616) and Nicole (Android) (Earth-616) from X-Factor Vol 3 22 001

Nicole attacks Layla in Central Park

In Central Park, Layla was ambushed by Nicole only to be saved by a crazed Quicksilver, who believed that he needed to kill her. After escaping Quicksilver, and having him arrested, Layla was tracked down again by Nicole. Layla tricked Nicole into falling in front of a train, which destroyed her, revealing she was actually an android.[25][26]

Around this time she was also offered a place among Nick Fury's Secret Warriors by Daisy Johnson but declined, claiming that with her they would fail, and that the mutants would need her more.[27]

Messiah Complex[]

After the birth of the first mutant since M-Day, Cyclops contacted X-Factor to request some favors.[28] Though uninvited, Layla accompanied Madrox, who was sent to Eagle Plaza in Dallas to meet with Forge to investigate new mutant populated possible futures. After the first dupe was sent into the time stream to one of these futures, the second dupe prepared to leave only for Layla to jump in with him as the pair were sent 80 years into the future.[29]

X-Factor Vol 3 25 Textless

Layla and a Madrox dupe jump into the timestream

While there, they discovered that mutants had been confined to internment camps.[30] Captured and interred, both Madrox and Layla were branded as mutants.[31] They learned from a young Bishop that the "mutant messiah" had caused this by killing a million humans, prompting humanity to intern and restrict mutants. Layla then proceeded to kill the dupe to send the information back to the original Jamie, leaving her alone and stranded in the future.[8]

Despite being trapped in the future, Layla still interacted with Jamie as a figment of his imagination. This figment served as "stuff Jamie knew deep down", appearing in moments of self-realization, such as when Jamie admitted to himself that he knew about Theresa's pregnancy.[32]

The Summers Rebellion[]

Layla eventually escaped the camp and helped a new mutant called Linqon. Layla informed some bystanders about a secret government program called Operation Purity, which involved every citizen being tested for mutant genes. Though this was untrue at the time Layla knew it would happen eventually and that by spreading this misinformation people would believe it was coming and she could make it happen quicker. Layla got a young man named Dwayne to drive her to Atlantic City and met up with Cyclops and his daughter Ruby. Together with Ruby, Dwayne, and Linqon she helped initiate the Summers Rebellion which she had spread fear to help incite and that she knew had to happen.[5]

X-Factor Vol 3 43 Textless

Adult Layla Miller kissing Jamie Madrox

After years of trying, Layla found a way to project a solid hologram to her present.[33] Pretending to be a nun, she made an arrangement to meet with Pastor John Maddox. When she arrived at John's church, she found Jamie about to kill himself. She stopped him and revealed who she really was, much to his shock.[34] After convincing Jamie to travel to the future with her, they were attacked by Sentinels, but together with the Summers Rebellion they managed to escape.[35] Once they were safely back in Atlantic City, Layla and Jamie argued about how they never came for one another, the two finally gave into their emotions and shared a kiss. Jamie wasn't very comfortable about starting a relationship with Layla, feeling she was still a child, though Layla told him even when they met, she hadn't truly been a child.[36]

The next morning, Cyclops tasked them to find out why some of the rebellion's mutants were winking out of existence.[37] To find out more about time travel, Madrox, Layla and Ruby went to enlist the help of Doctor Doom, now old, destitute and living in a hotel, barely able to discern reality from his remembered glory days.[37] Doom revealed he had previously met Layla, and explained the concept of a Doomlock, a device that allowed a cybernetic organism to change its personal timeline. They brought Doom back to Atlantic City to aid in solving the mystery, but Doom betrayed them by enslaving Cyclops and summoning Cortex to kill them all. Cortex quickly killed Trevor Fitzroy, and Layla was forced to reveal her true powers, reviving Fitzroy at Ruby's request, inevitably turning him into the villain he was destined to be, since Layla could bring people back, but without their souls.[19] The initial mystery was also revealed to have been Cortex's attempts to kill the rebellious mutants' ancestors to prevent their births.[4]

After defeating Cortex, Anthony Falcone, and his Sentinels, both Layla and Madrox were sent back in time via a Time Platform. Jamie arrived at XF Investigations Headquarters just a few days after he left, but Layla went even further back to arrive at Saint Joan's Orphanage just before she joined X-Factor to give her younger self information about the future.[19]

Back from the Future[]

After the meeting with her younger self, Layla traveled to Latveria to speak with Doctor Doom. After revealing her knowledge of the future, Doom agreed to share some of his knowledge of science and magic in exchange for Layla's advice about the future. Layla stayed with Doom as an advisor and apprentice for a year until the disappearance of the Invisible Woman brought X-Factor into direct confrontation with Doom.[38]

After they learned this Doom wasn't to blame and an alternate version of him was in New York about to kill Franklin and Valeria Richards, X-Factor used one of Shatterstar's portals to teleport back. While they were making the jump, Layla intentionally distracted Shatterstar in the exact moment that Strong Guy was punching the evil Doom, causing Shatterstar to abruptly close the portal and behead him, leaving himself and Layla behind.[38]

Layla Miller (Earth-616) and Victor von Doom (Earth-616) from X-Factor Vol 1 202 0001

Layla with Doctor Doom

Layla next appeared at the Dublin Airport with Shatterstar to save Theresa (now going by Banshee) from Trask's M.R.D.[39] After they escaped, the trio joined the rest of X-Factor back in New York City.[14] Once back with the team, Layla returned to her old tricks of giving advice and steering others in certain directions. Layla still maintained a somewhat romantic relationship with Madrox, including joking about marriage[40] and acting playfully jealous.[41]

When her teammate, Strong Guy, was fatally wounded in an attack by Ballistique, Layla used her reanimation powers to secretly bring him back to life, much to the astonishment of X-Factor and Doctor Castillo.[42] By resurrecting Strong Guy, Layla Miller veered off the timeline she had known and created new possibilities and new unknowns.[43] She chose to resurrect Strong Guy in part to spare Monet from the guilt about his death and also because she wanted to take fate into her own hands, tired of merely following a laid out path.[44][45]

With the birth of Wolfsbane's child approaching, Layla began to prepare to defend the X-Factor Investigations Headquarters from being besieged by mystical forces by adding warding symbols and laying salt at the doors and windows.[46]

Along with Madrox and the rest of the X-Factor Investigations crew, Layla traveled to Lawrenceville, Kansas where she met Sally Roland and her son Terry living on Jamie's old family farm.[47] When Sally was found dead with an X-Factor Investigations card, they were called back out to Lawrenceville. While inspecting the body, the corpse was reanimated to deliver a threat from B.B.[48] After facing Sally's ex-husband, the Hangman, the team traveled to Los Angeles, where they were attacked by Bloodbath, who killed Madrox.[49] With Jamie dead, Bloodbath revealed Layla's true powers of resurrection to the entire team. As Layla contemplated resurrecting Madrox without a soul, Bloodbath attacked again. With help from Hangman, Shatterstar decapitated Bloodbath who promptly possessed Madrox's corpse leading to Layla performing an exorcism to banish him back to Hell.[6]

Jamie had in fact survived, with his soul being set bouncing throughout the Multiverse. Layla brought his body back to New York, had a third-year medical student repair the physical damage, and stored it with dry ice. After that, she sat and waited. When Madrox was eventually returned to his body, Layla was there to greet him and the pair had sex for the first time.[50]

When Madrox was found alive by the rest of the team, Monet (believing Layla had resurrected him) was furious with Layla and flew off with her to the Empire State Building. After scaring some tourists, Monet demanded answers from Layla and she revealed the reasons she chose to resurrect Strong Guy.[51]

Since resurrecting Strong Guy and altering the timeline, Layla continued to try to play her part in the timeline like telling Madrox about Far Sight's illiteracy[52] and rescuing Angelique Sasson from committing suicide. However, her actions seemed to continue to alter and splinter the timeline further.[45]

Layla Miller (Earth-616) and James Madrox (Earth-616) from X-Factor Vol 1 247 001

Layla Miller and Jamie Madrox's wedding photo

As the X-Factor team began to splitter, Jamie spontaneously asked Layla to marry him and the couple ran off to Las Vegas to be married as soon as possible.[53] During the honeymoon, the couple were pulled into an investigation of the murder of an Abraham Lincoln impersonator at the hands of a zombie Robert E. Lee.[54]

Following their honeymoon, the couple flew back to New York and were immediately pulled into the Hell on Earth War.[55] As X-Factor battled the Lords of Hell, Jamie was taken by Mephisto and changed into a demon.[56]

Retirement[]

Following the Hell on Earth War, Layla found the demonic Jaime in Marrakesh, Morocco where he was being held by a family that believed he was a djinn. After freeing him, Layla brought Madrox to his old family farm. When Layla told him that she was pregnant, the demon Madrox prayed to Morrigan to change him back to his original form. Once Jamie was back to normal, he and Layla retired from X-Factor Investigations.[13] Sometime after retiring, Jamie sold the rights to the "X-Factor" name to Harrison Snow and Serval Industries.[57] On the farm, Layla and Jamie lived off of half of the earnings from Matt Rocks, Esq.[58]

Layla eventually gave birth to her son Davey.[13][59][60]

After receiving an ominous warning from Kid Cable, Wolverine sought out Layla Miller for advice on protecting Cyclops. Layla turned down Wolverine's invitation to join him, but encouraged Jamie to "go be a hero for a while".[60] Layla was one of the many attendees of Wolfsbane's funeral.[61]

When the mutant nation of Krakoa was formed, the Five seemingly resurrected Jamie Madrox and recruited him to research and development,[62] leading Madrox to split his time between his family and his work.[11]

During the launch of the Ionospheric Bandwidth Generator, Layla asked Jamie to come home to witness Davey's first steps. Madrox sent a dupe, planning to reabsorb him and gain his memories, but the dupe died and the memories of Davey's first steps were lost.[11]

She was seen on Krakoa with her son, Davey, greeting a newly resurrected Madrox at Arbor Magna.[12]

Post-Krakoan Era[]

Although she was still semi-retired, with her husband's dupes manning and operating X-Corps Island, Layla used her sleuthing skills to gather intelligence for Mirage and her X-Corps.[63]

Attributes

Power Grid[78]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Gifted

Powers

Layla Miller (Earth-616) from X-Factor Vol 3 6 002

Layla reanimating a dead butterfly

Layla Miller is a mutant with powers including:

  • Resurrection: Layla has the ability to resurrect dead beings, completely restoring their bodies and consciousness, but not their souls. Without their soul, the subject will have no conscience or morality. Both Strong Guy and Trevor Fitzroy eventually experienced drastic changes in their personality without their souls.[3][4][42][6] This resurrection can only be performed within minutes of the individual's death.[6] Layla claims she can also reverse the process, taking back the life that she gives.[4]
  • Fire-Breathing and Horns (allegedly): Layla claimed that, when her power first manifested, just prior to M-Day, she had grown horns and gained ability to breathe fire.[3][64] This was most likely a ruse she told specifically to hide her true power and the source of her "precognition".

Abilities

In addition to her mutant powers, Layla has acquired:

  • Pseudo-Precognition: When an adult Layla returned from the future, she uploaded all the knowledge about her lifetime and information from the next 80 years into the mind of her younger self at Saint Joan's Orphanage just after M-Day before Layla came to join X-Factor Investigations. However, the process was imperfect and left gaps in her knowledge, or "blind spots", but enabled her to seemingly "predict" the future, or "know stuff."[4] The more Layla veered off from what she knew had to happen, the more unreliable her precognition became. She also displayed the ability to see different timelines that might be created from her actions. [45]
    • Reality Warp Immunity: Likely due to possessing this foreknowledge, Layla was immune to Scarlet Witch's reality warp, retaining her memories about true reality during the House of M.[65]
      • Memory Restoration: Layla was also able to restore the true memories of individuals affected by changes to reality. Emma Frost commented what this power was similar, but also unlike any other telepathic power she ever witnessed.[66]
  • Magic: After returning from the future, Layla spent a year in Latveria studying magic under Victor von Doom.[38]
    • Warding: Layla was able to apply protective warding on X-Factor Investigations Headquarters successfully preventing entry from multiple mystical attackers including Cu Sith, Bastet, Okami, and Kasha.[46]
    • Exorcisms: Layla is capable of exorcising demons and banishing them back to Hell.[6]
    • Location Spells: Using a map and certain occult items, Layla can cast a spell to locate specific individuals.[54]

Weaknesses

  • Blind Spots: When an adult Layla returned from the future, she uploaded all the knowledge about her lifetime and information from the next 80 years into the mind of her younger self at Saint Joan's Orphanage just after M-Day before Layla came to join X-Factor Investigations. However, The process is imperfect and left gaps in her knowledge, or "blind spots".[4]
  • Temporal Variance: Since choosing to resurrect Strong Guy,[42] Layla has altered her own timeline, leading to more variance in possible futures. She still appears to be able to predict some events, but can now also see other possibilities making it harder to choose actions and predict the consequences.[45]
  • Depression / Suicidal Ideation: At times, knowing that horrible things will happen to her and the people around her, and that she can do nothing to change them, has led Layla to wish she was dead instead and beg others to kill her.[5]
Force Field Glove from X-Factor Vol 1 212 001

Layla's mysterious device

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Transportation

Notes

  • Layla has long claimed she would eventually marry Jamie Madrox.[67] Since Layla's return to the present as an adult, Jamie has shown a romantic interest in her, but is still confused about his feelings.[36][64][40] Additionally, Wolfsbane had a vision of herself murdering both Layla and Jamie on their wedding night.[68][69] Madrox has actually been inadvertently transported to the wedding night massacre.[6] The pair was eventually married (off panel) between X-Factor #245-247.
  • Layla was once able to stand still on one spot for ten days with only snow that fell in her mouth to drink. During these days she was also able to sleep while standing up.[5]
  • Siryn once described Layla Miller as "Nostradamus reborn as Wednesday Addams".[70]
  • She is one of the few people with whom Shatterstar "connected", and who can be used as a "anchor" for his teleportation powers.[14]
  • Some, including Doctor Strange, have theorized Layla powers and even her existence may have been a manifestation of Scarlet Witch's subconscious desire to undo the House of M.[71] However, it has also been stated that the Scarlet Witch cannot create souls.[72]
  • Layla Miller's status as a mutant post-M-Day remains somewhat unclear. If she had now proved to possess mutant powers, some events indicated doubts:
    • Layla claims that she lost her mutant powers on M-Day.[3]
    • When Quicksilver tried to harm her with Terrigen Crystals, she wasn't affected, and he stated she wasn't a mutant.[9]
    • While in the future, Layla was scanned as both a human and as a mutant within seconds of each other. Her only explanation to this phenomenon was "Yeah, it comes and goes."[10]
    • Layla later explained some of her powers come from her X-Gene, while others come from technology, magic, and her knowledge of the future.[4][38]

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 House of M #8
  2. X-Factor #245247
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #6
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #50
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 X-Factor Special: Layla Miller #1
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 X-Factor #228
  7. X-Factor #244
  8. 8.0 8.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #27
  9. 9.0 9.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #20
  10. 10.0 10.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #26
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 X-Corp #3
  12. 12.0 12.1 X-Corp #5
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 X-Factor #262
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 X-Factor #206
  15. X-Factor #202
  16. 16.0 16.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #1
  17. House of M #48
  18. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #9
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #4850
  20. 20.0 20.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #2
  21. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #3
  22. 22.0 22.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #8
  23. Silent War #2
  24. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #1720
  25. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #2224
  26. X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead #1
  27. Mighty Avengers #13
  28. Uncanny X-Men #492
  29. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #25
  30. New X-Men (Vol. 2) #44
  31. Uncanny X-Men #494
  32. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #32
  33. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #41
  34. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #40
  35. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #4143
  36. 36.0 36.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #43
  37. 37.0 37.1 X-Factor (Vol. 3) #44
  38. 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 X-Factor #200202
  39. X-Factor #205
  40. 40.0 40.1 X-Factor #215
  41. X-Factor #222
  42. 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 X-Factor #218
  43. X-Factor #230
  44. X-Factor #233234
  45. 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 X-Factor #240
  46. 46.0 46.1 X-Factor #221222
  47. X-Factor #224.1
  48. X-Factor #225
  49. X-Factor #226227
  50. X-Factor #229230
  51. X-Factor #234
  52. X-Factor #238
  53. X-Factor #245
  54. 54.0 54.1 X-Factor #247
  55. X-Factor #248251
  56. X-Factor #252255
  57. All-New X-Factor #1
  58. She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #8
  59. Multiple Man #5
  60. 60.0 60.1 Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #11
  61. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #17
  62. Wolverine (Vol. 7) #1
  63. X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #124
  64. 64.0 64.1 X-Factor #200
  65. House of M #4
  66. House of M #45
  67. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #10
  68. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #1213
  69. X-Factor #216
  70. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #7
  71. House of M #7
  72. Uncanny X-Men #526
  73. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #12
  74. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #23
  75. X-Factor (Vol. 3) #48 ; letters page
  76. X-Corp #2
  77. X-Factor #200
  78. X-Factor Vol 1 200
Advertisement