Lyja

Origin

Lyja was a Skrull selected to infiltrate and destroy the Fantastic Four, as assigned by Paibok The Power Skrull. The plan involved secretly replacing the real Alicia Masters, The Thing‘s blind lover, and taking her place. Lyja’s Skrull teammates kidnapped Alicia when the Fantastic Four where on a mission during the events of the Secret Wars. The plan seemingly failed however when Lyja found out that the Thing had not returned from the team’s mission. The plan nevertheless fell through as she instead seduced Human Torch in hopes of staying close to the team. The two eventually married one another. The long running facade eventually came to light and the group discovered that the real, human Alicia was actually being held captive by the Skrull nation. Lyja tried to explain to the Fantastic Four that she started out as a spy, but eventually started having real feelings for Johnny and the rest of the team. The Fantastic Four where however shocked and planned a rescue for the real Alicia. Lyja helped the team but seemingly died in the process as she sacrificed herself to save Johnny when Paibok attacked.

Creation

Lyja first appeared as Alicia in the pages of Fantastic Four issue 265 (1984), but it wasn’t until issue 358 (1991) that her true form was seen as she was revealed to be a Skrull. As such, she was created by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan.

Major Story Arcs

Return

It was revealed that Paibok recovered her and revealed to Devos the Devastator that she was still alive. Paibok, with the assistance of Devos, awoke Lyja from her comatose state, also bestowing her with the power to fly and fire energy blasts from her hands (becoming “Lyja the Lazerfist” . These powers were later revealed to come from a special device implanted into her. Joining them in search of vengeance, the three arrived on Earth, and isolated and battled the Torch at Empire State University. Panicking, the Torch burst into his Nova Flame and destroyed the campus. Alongside Devos and Paibok, Lyja witnessed a battle between the Fantastic Four and an alternate Fantastic Four. However, Lyja still bore feelings for the Torch and once again betrayed her cohorts to side with the Fantastic Four.

Lyja then first encountered Uatu the Watcher, and aided the Fantastic Four against Doctor Doom. Alongside the Fantastic Four, Lyja battled Devos, Paibok, Klaw, and Huntara. Lyja impersonated Bridget O’Neil, and became jealous on discovering Johnny Storm’s affection for Bridget. After returning to the Fantasic Four and Johnny, Lyja claimed she was pregnant with Johnny’s child. Over time, Lyja and Johnny began to grow close again. When Lyja delivered the “child” (an egg , the implant that gave her the “Lazerfist” powers was also removed, returning Lyja to an ordinary Skrull with no extra powers beyond her shapeshifting. The implant was subsequently absorbed by a normal human, apparently an electronics expert named Raphael Suarez, who gained the “Lazerfist” powers, and attempted to contact the Fantastic Four for their assistance. However, after the hectic events that followed the hatching of the “egg”, Raphael wandered off, realizing the Fantastic Four were not going to be of any help in their current state, and has not been referenced since.

Although Lyja and Johnny were growing close, Lyja was continuously torn about telling Johnny something. She was too scared to risk shattering the bonds they had managed to form again, and kept putting it off. Ultimately, it was too late. The “egg” was revealed, not to be their child, but rather a Skrull bio-weapon, which Lyja subsequently destroyed after it hatched. Johnny, enraged at being betrayed and deceived again by Lyja, broke things off with her again. However, still in love with Johnny, Lyja stalked him while as a human, Laura Green. Johnny was initially interested in a fellow college student but when he realized nothing was going to materialize with her his focus shifted to Laura/Lyja. Lyja, having learned her lessons well, decided to eventually reveal herself before Johnny felt betrayed again. However, after sharing a kiss with Laura, Johnny already knew that his ex-wife was in fact Laura Green. During the Onslaught crisis when Lyja was injured she attempted to tell Johnny the truth but he informed her that he already knew. The couple seemed to be on track to reconciling their relationship but then the Fantastic Four were thought dead after fighting Onslaught, and Lyja left to attempt a normal life, masquerading again as a human woman.

Secret Invasion

During the Secret Invasion storyline, Lyja poses as the Invisible Woman in order to send the Baxter Building to the Negative Zone. She reveals herself to her former spouse and attacks him, feeling angry that he had forgotten her. During the course of their battle, Johnny saves Lyja from being hit by a police car, pulled in through the portal. The two reconcile after that, but a Negative Zone creature attacks them. They manage to defeat the creature, but Lyja passes out from her injuries. A bit later, when the “NEW” Fantastic Four fly off to the prison, Franklin and Valeria are grabbed by Negative Zone creatures, but Lyja saves them. She tells Johnny that she was working in a book store when a Skrull approached her, telling her to join them. They told her to blow up the Baxter Building, but instead she suggested sending them all to the Negative Zone, in hopes of keeping them from harm’s way. When Ben, Johnny, Franklin, Val and the Tinkerer were ready to leave the Negative Zone she refused to leave, because she wanted to find out who she is.

Powers

Lyja’s Deviant Skrull heritage gives her the ability to change size, shape, and color at will, taking on the appearance but not the characteristics of other beings and objects. Skrulls cannot duplicate the superhuman powers of the beings they use their shape-shifting powers to impersonate.

Lyja has the shape-shifting abilities of an average Skrull. She could assume the shape of another person or object but is limited in the distribution of mass required for the transformation. She can not assume the form of someone with twice her own mass or with less a 3/4 of her mass. The Skrulls live longer than humans, average age of death being 210 years. An average Skrull is about as strong as an average Earth human being of the same physical age, height, and build who engages in the same amount of exercise.

For a brief time, because of genetic alteration (really an implant by Paibok the Power Skrull) Lyja had the ability to project blasts of laser-like beams called her “bio-blasts” from her hands without harm to herself. She could suspend herself in the air by firing her bio-blasts beneath her. These powers were lost when her body rejected the power-generating implant during her giving “birth.”

Lyja wears body armor of unspecified materials. She wore special contact lenses that rendered her blind while she impersonated Alicia Masters. Lyja has been trained in armed and unarmed combat by the Skrull military. She is also trained in acting and educated in Earth culture and history and the English language by Skrull tutors. She is also talented as a creator of abstract sculpture.

In the Secret Invasion storyline, she has recently regained her energy powers through unspecified means, as well as the ability to resist the incredible levels of heat and flame the Human Torch can generate. Lyja has also been seen

manifesting dragon like wings through her shape-shifting powers, enabling her to fly.

Alternate Realities

Earth-982 (MC2

Lyja is a member of the Fantastic Five and she is now official married to Johnny Storm and had a son with him named Torus Storm. Torus has his mother’s shapeshifting powers and his father’s power of fire.

Earth-2149 (Marvel Zombiverse

When the Marvel Zombies attacked the Skrull planet, Lyja was one of many skrull that defended their planet, but she was eventually turned into a zombie. When the Fantastic Four of Earth-616 came to their reality, the zombies attacked them. Lyja was later decapitated by Black Panther and her head was destroyed by Storm before she could take a bite on the Human Torch.

Earth-5631

Lyja is introduced within the Skrulls vs. Power Pack miniseries as a young Skrull who is impersonating Katie Power, as well as being a commander under the orders of Warpriest Kh’oja; in which he framed the Power siblings by stealing special treasures from Patchworld.