DE'LILA

Real Name: De'Lila

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull Deviant);
    criminal record in the Skrull Empire

Occupation: Thief, terrorist

Group Membership: Unidentified group of Skrull renegades

Affiliations: Kristoff Vernard;
    influenced Mr. Fantastic and the Mole Man (Harvey Rupert Elder) to aid her

Enemies: Skrull Empire (Meg'ror, Bag'le, others), Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch/Noble Kale), Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Impersonated the Invisible Woman (Sue Richards), Namor the Sub-Mariner, Kang Nebula, Ben Grimm, Alicia Masters and Mary Jane Watson-Parker (see comments).

Base of Operations: The Skrull Empire, Andromeda galaxy

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#347 (December, 1990)

Powers: Like most Deviant Skrulls, De'Lila possesses the ability to shape-shift. She can alter her size, shape and color at will, taking on the appearance of other beings and objects (some sources note a limitation of this to being within a volume range of .75 to 1.5 times her original volume). She is also a low-level telepath, able to influence the thoughts of others, particularly men. These powers were briefly enhanced by Kristoff Vernard.

    She is considered learned, though the specifics of her knowledge/education are unrevealed.

    She wore on her hand a synapse disruptor, capable of paralyzing targets for hours.

Height: 5' 6" (variable)
Weight: 140 lbs.
Eyes: Green (variable)
Hair: Black (variable)

History: (Fantastic Four I#347) - De'Lila, a renegade Skrull, came to Earth in pursuit of a powerful Skrull weapon, the Inorganic Technotroid, which had landed on Monster Island. Needing the resources of the Fantastic Four to locate it, she entered Four Freedoms Plaza, and appeared to each member of the team as a person they loved, then used her disruptor to knock them unconscious. Then, disguised as the Invisible Woman, she summoned the Hulk, Ghost Rider, Wolverine and Spider-Man to Four Freedoms Plaza, and claimed that the Fantastic Four had been killed by a band of assassins. She supplied them with a device which she claimed would locate the assassins, but was actually set to find the Skrulls which had pursued her.

(Fantastic Four I#348) - Unable to locate the Inorganic Technotroid by herself, De'Lila revived Mr. Fantastic, and forced him to aid her. He led her to Monster Island, where they ran into the Skrulls sent to find her, and the four super-heroes she had dispatched to find them.

(Fantastic Four I#349) - Revealing her true appearance to the assembled characters, she attempted to influence the Mole Man and heroes into killing the Skrulls, but the Ghost Rider, immune to her powers, protected them. Escaping with Mr. Fantastic, she found the Inorganic Technotroid being guarded by Mole Man's monster Giganto, but to her horror, the "egg" hatched, and imprinted itself upon them, as if it were their own child. De'Lila attempted to escape again with Mr. Fantastic, but he stole away her disruptor and defeated her himself. To punish her, Ghost Rider used his "penance stare" upon her, causing her to be overcome by all the evil acts she had performed. De'Lila was then released to the Skrulls for punishment.

(Spider-Man/Fantastic Four#3) - Seeking to cause a distraction while he stole a sample of the Inorganic Technotroid's shell, a time-traveling Kristoff Vernard magically woke De'Lila from her trance and enhanced her mental powers. She tried to use her powers to turn the male heroes against each other: While Spider-Man's spider-sense kept him safe and Ghost Rider was unaffected, the Thing, the Hulk, Wolverine, the Human Torch, and Mr. Fantastic went on a violent rampage. Spider-Man, She-Thing, and the Invisible woman used jealousy (and for the Human Torch, disgust) to break De'Lila's hold on the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and the Torch; and Ghost Rider freed Wolverine of her influence with his Penance Stare. They then maneuvered the still-rampaging Hulk over to the Skrull spaceship; seeing the imminent destruction of her only way home, De'Lila released the Hulk, only to find herself surrounded by nine superheroes. She surrendered, and was taken into Skrull custody.

Comments: Created by Walter Simonson and Art Adams.

    Although Mary Jane Watson was not married to Peter Parker in the current continuity, it is clearly an alteration of reality, or an altered reality. In the "True," unaltered reality, it was Mary Jane Watson-Parker who was impersonated. I'm leaving this as is for now in hopes that this nonsense is eventually reversed.
--Snood.

by Prime Eternal; OHotMU image supplied by Loki; text update by Minor Irritant; update processed by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
De'Lila should not be confused with:

• Delilah, Dr. Delia Childress, an enemy and former girlfriend of Doc Samson, @ Marvel Team-Up I#102
• Delilah, an assassin and former agent of the Rose, @ Amazing Spider-Man I#414
• Lila Cheney, mutant rock-pop singer and thief, @ New Mutants Annual#1