LAYLA MILLER

 

LAYLA MILLER

Real Name: Layla Rose Miller

First Appearance: House of M (Vol. 1) #4, September 2005

Powers: Layla Miller is a mutant capable of reanimating dead organisms via physical contact. This effect apparently reverses any physical or physiological consequences of the organism's demise, returning them to full life and health. Her power is unable to restore an entity's conscience, however. Though this has proven to have little consequence when it comes to resurrecting animals, restoring a human being to life can have disastrous effects on their personality, though. Layla claims responsibility for young Trevor Fitzroy becoming the hedonistic sociopath he was as an adult after she brought him back from the dead.

Perhaps more important than her mutant ability is Layla's knowledge. Shortly before her first appearance, Layla's time-traveling future self used a technological aid to imprint the full scope of her memories onto young Layla. This gave the present-day Layla perfect awareness of everything that was going to happen to her up until she met her own future self. Layla's life then, in essence, became a self-fulfilling prophecy as she carried out all the acts she knew she was destined to take. This meant that Layla seemed to have something similar to cosmic awareness. The pre-ordained and necessary development of the timeline was now hardwired into her nervous system. She knew virtually everything going on around her (except for the occasional blind spot) and what was going to happen to her and various others in the future. Additionally, the pre-destination paradox latent in her memories meant she was intimately aware of how her knowledge of these events would affect their outcome, and so she created seemingly innocent "butterfly effects" by causing one small action or making a particular comment to lead things towards a conclusion she desires.

Layla has since reached the end of her programmed knowledge, meaning she no longer "knows stuff" to the extent she did before, reliving past memories. However, she spent over ten years in the future accumulating knowledge since she knew she would eventually return to the present. In particular, Layla collected her own journals, journals written by her future self in the past when she eventually returned to the present, which gave an in-depth detailing of the progression of events after her return. Layla defied her own knowledge, however, when she used her mutant power to resurrect Strong Guy even though she knew history required him to remain dead. This has created a divergence in her knowledge, a "butterfly effect" that leaves her still knowledgeable, but not infallible as before. For instance, she was surprised by the sudden appearance of a volcano in Manhattan because she expected it to turn up six months later in Brooklyn instead. Some aspects about Layla have yet to be properly explained.

During House of M, Layla's unique awareness made her aware of the changes performed by the Scarlet Witch, and Emma Frost could somehow use her telepathy to impress this awareness on others, breaking Wanda's spell on their minds. Another curiosity is that her body seems to only sporadically register as a mutant on scanning mechanisms. During her time with Doctor Doom in Latveria, Layla gained a working knowledge of various spells and incantations. He also provided her with a mechanical glove able to produce a force field. The field can protect Layla from various forms of attack, and expand in order to encompass other people in its protective barrier as well. The field can also be used offensively, expanding in a confined space to break it outwards, or repulse people and objects caught too close to the growing field.