Namor the Sub-Mariner of Atlantis, a friend of Karthon's, voyaged to Lemuria to seek an alliance against the surface people's ocean pollution. Finding Karthon in chains, Namor engaged Llyra in battle. Llyra dispatched some of the most formidable creatures of the deep at Namor, but Namor prevailed. Llyra was then caught in a rockslide caused by a sperm whale under her command and was severely injured, apparently killed. Karthon was freed and regained the throne.[2]
Namor returned Llyra's body to her mother for burial, but Rhonda Morris discovered that her daughter was only in a coma. Using special technology acquired from an undisclosed source, Morris resuscitated Llyra. Llyra journeyed to Lemuria to recruit mercenaries to accompany her to Atlantis where she could wreak vengeance upon Namor. Llyra and her men kidnapped the
Lady Dorma, Namor's bride-to-be, and brought her to the oceanarium owned by her mother. Llyra then used her chameleon powers to disguise herself as Dorma. As soon as the wedding ceremony was over, Llyra revealed herself, claiming that she was now Namor's wife, not Dorma.[3] However, according to Atlantean law, even though the real Dorma was not present, it was still Dorma who was now Namor's wife. When she learned her ploy failed, Llyra fled Atlantis. Namor tracked her to her mother's oceanarium. Witnessing his approach, Llyra smashed the water-filled cylinder holding Dorma, and by the time Namor reached her, Dorma had suffocated.[4]
Llyra escaped and became a professional subversive, and soon allied herself with Namor's enemy,
Byrrah. The two of them kidnapped Namor's kinsman Namorita to use as a hostage against Namor. In her scuffle with Namor, Llyra slipped into an oil spring on the ocean bottom and apparently drowned.[6] Llyra was also shown to have fatally poisoned Namora,[7] (though later it was revealed that Namora was still alive). In an as yet unrevealed manner, Llyra had survived the oil spring. After lying low for a time, Llyra freed the surface criminals, the Wizard, Sandman, and the Trapster from prison, to help her carry out her latest plot on Namor's life.[8][9] Llyra and these criminals formed the new Frightful Four and battled Namor and Spider-Man. Her plot, whereby Namor was supposed to be driven insane by the acquisition of Spider-Man's spider-sense, failed and Namor took Llyra back to Atlantis to stand trial.[10]
Llyra was later broken out of prison by
Llyron, nevertheless was a legitimate heir and temporarily took the throne before Namor regained it.[volume & issue needed
]
In the events during the Atlantis Rising storyline, Llyra was betrayed by her own son, Llyron, and left dead, chained within the walls of destroyed Atlantis. Prince Namor encountered her there, where she begged her to release him from the shackles. Instead, Prince Namor mercilessly left her to die.[volume & issue needed]
Llyra was seen in the "Marvel Tarot" mini-series, focusing on magic-related characters. Here she had been supplanted by her rival Nagala as high-priestess of Set, as well as transformed into a guardian sea-hag due to her god's displeasure. At the end Nagala likewise falls out of favor as she loses the Serpent Crown to intruding wizard Ian McNee, and the two fight over becoming Set's favored concubine.[volume & issue needed]
Powers and abilities
Llyra is a member of the
Homo mermanus race whose shape-changing powers are a mutant
ability. Like all Atlanteans and Lemurians, Llyra has a certain degree of superhuman strength and durability, and is able to withstand the ocean pressures. She can breathe underwater and withstand the extreme water pressure and freezing temperatures of the sea. She differs in her ability to alter her skin pigmentation to look like a human, Atlantean, or Lemurian. She also possesses a psionic control over certain orders of marine life, including gigantic sea monsters. As a servant of Set she may also possess certain skills as a mystic.
Llyra temporarily possessed certain hypnotic powers conferred upon her by the Serpent God Set.[volume & issue needed]
Llyra wears a costume of bulletproof fabric. She carries various Atlantean and surface world armaments. She occasionally employs sub-sea crafts, and once used the Wizard's anti-gravity discs for flight.
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