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.

MELLANCAMP

 

MELLANCAMP

Real Name: Seamus Mellancamp

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #300, May 1993

Powers: Seamus Mellancamp's mutation gives him a hideous and demonic appearance, with his body possessing hoofed feet and covered with thick green epidermal plated scales. He had superhuman strength, agility, and reflexes, a near-indestructible hide courtesy of his scales, and razor sharp claws on his fingers.

MULTIPLE MAN

 

MULTIPLE MAN

Real Name: James Arthur Madrox

First Appearance: Giant-Size Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #4, February 1975

Powers: Known as the Multiple Man, James “Jamie” Madrox possesses the mutant ability to generate exact physical and mental duplicates of himself on impact.

He uses the kinetic energy he receives upon impact as a catalyst for a body-wide cellular replication process. He disperses some of the impact during this process (protecting him from a degree of harm), but every impact, no matter how large or small, produces only one duplicate. A molecular field extends out from Jamie's body, automatically replicating additional matter in close contact with him when he duplicates. As a result, his duplicates are generated wearing the same clothes he is, but also if his hands are tied or bound in some way, the ropes will materialize on the dupe as well. Though they regularly materialize right next to each other, Jamie can apparently control where a duplicate emerges in relation to himself -- by sliding his finger under a doorframe and triggering his power, he can will the duplicate to appear on the other side of the door, as opposed to next to him in the hallway.

Each of his duplicates are capable of independent thought, feeling, and action (though they are guided by whatever decisions prompted the original to create them). They can create duplicates, and though their original limit was 40, that limit has changed and now the upper number of duplicates that Multiple Man can create is no longer known. Each duplicate is Multiple Man’s complete copy up until the moment they split. The longer the duplicates remain in existence, however, the more independent they become, displaying unique personality traits and individualism. A running quirk in the duplication process occasionally creates a dupe that almost immediately develops a sense of individuality. In which case, it is more difficult for the original Madrox to forcibly re-absorb the renegade duplicate. The duplicates have a low-level telepathic link with each other at all times, but cannot actually read each other's thoughts (though it may seem like it sometimes since each dupe IS Madrox, so naturally they'll think along the same lines). This link only extends to a general sense of another's presence and a psychosomatic sharing of pain.

He can re-absorb his duplicates back into his body through a deliberate thought command. Any Madrox duplicate can recombine with any other on contact, regardless of if it was the one they split off from in the first place. Apparently, even the slightest bit of physical contact is enough to allow a merger. Continuing from the above example, Jamie is capable of leaving his apartment chain-locked by having one dupe in the apartment and one outside, chain-locking the door, and then making contact with each other underneath the doorframe so that the inner Jamie is absorbed into the outer Jamie. Presently, Jamie seems capable of reabsorbing dupes who are in very close proximity, without even actually touching them. The duplicates dissolve into "proto-matter" and are recalled into his body in an almost liquid state, from at least a block or two away if necessary. Once merged, two Jamies then share memories and experiences.

According to most accounts, emotional connections do not transfer over during the merging process. When one duplicate departed for a while and ended up falling for Siryn, then was later reabsorbed, Madrox-Prime was aware of the relationship, but didn't suddenly develop the same feelings for Theresa that his dupe had. Originally, any injuries Jamie suffered would be averaged by a merging: If a healthy duplicate and a duplicate with a gut wound remerged, the single Madrox left would have a gut wound roughly half as serious as the injured dupe did. He could use this to his advantage by having a healthy dupe generate multiple copies and then absorbing the injured one into each dupe in turn, fractioning the injury each time to continually lessen its severity. At present, it seems re-absorbing an injured dupe only causes the Madrox-Prime to experience a psychosomatic version of the pain they were experiencing.

All the various changes detailed above can be attributed to either a growing development of his power or the shock trauma of his death from the Legacy Virus. The Madrox who died then was apparently the real Jamie Madrox, and for months afterwards he existed as a collection of duplicates. A new Madrox-Prime seems to have exerted himself in the time since his death, though. A new development in his power is that Jamie's duplicates now frequently seem to manifest as enhanced versions of his various character traits or emotions: Depressed, happy, serious, humorous, and so on. His duplicates are infertile in the normal sense, but apparently can generate embryonic dupes inside of sexual partners, that grow like regular babies in the host.

In part via his explorer dupes, Madrox possesses an eclectic variety of skills: He is trained in human anatomy, Shaolin monk martial arts, meditation and stealth techniques, escapology, stage magic (including throwing playing cards with lethal proficiency), acting, espionage, and first aid. He is a qualified lawyer and speaks fluent Russian and Hawaiian.

Jamie Madrox's power manifested at birth and he wore a special suit (designed by his parents and Charles Xavier) most of his life that insulated him from kinetic energy, preventing him from generating duplicates through accidental impacts. It malfunctioned at one point, absorbing ambient electrical which increased his physical strength (up to Class 70 when he drained all of the power in the borough of Manhattan). Modifications were made to the suit by Reed Richards and Charles Xavier. Through training, he overcame that difficulty and gained full mastery over his mutant power, no longer requiring the suit.