LILACLILAC
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human advanced technology-user;
mad scientist-type
Occupation: Scientist;
Chief Scientist of I.C.O.N.
Group Membership: I.C.O.N. (International Crime Organizations Nexus; Berserker android, Cardinal, Dreadknight (Bram Velsing), Indigo, Rainbow (Ludwig von Frankenstein), Werner Schmidt, Strand, Vermilion, Voltarr, Zandor)
Affiliations: Rainbow (Ludwig von Frankenstein);
formerly the Berserker;
Enemies: Berserker, the Children of the Damned, the Frankenstein monster, Peregrine (Alain Racine), Shamrock (Molly Fitzgerald), S.H.I.E.L.D., Veronica von Frankenstein, Victoria von Frankenstein
Known Relatives: None;
created the Berserker, so she could be considered to be a figurative mother
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
known to have been active in Paris, France
First Appearance: Unpublished Shamrock & Peregrine story (see comments about the date)
Powers/Abilities: Lilac was skilled in multiple fields of science, including robotics, bio-engineering, etc.
She was able to create of androids and/or cyborgs, mutate other living beings, and dismember a reanimated being such as the Frankenstein monster while still keeping it alive.
Lilac was sadistic, and she enjoyed tormenting and torturing others.
Lilac wore a pale violet jumpsuit (which may or may not have contained belts and unspecified gimmicks).
Height: Unrevealed (neither pictured nor height-described)History:
(Unpublished Shamrock & Peregrine story (fb) -BTS) - Lilac joined I.C.O.N., the International Crime Organizations Nexus.
(Frankenstein Monster#16, 17, or 18 (fb) - BTS / Unpublished Shamrock & Peregrine story (fb) -BTS) - Humored by.' I.C.O.N.'s leader, Rainbow (secretly Ludwig von Frankenstein), Lilac created the Berserker android or cyborg, either using the body/brain or programming it with the mind of a person known only as "Legrand."
(Unpublished Shamrock & Peregrine story (fb) -BTS) - After the Berserker was decapitated by the Children of the Damned (mutates created by Basil and Ludwig von Frankenstein), Lilac recovered its head, "fixed its emotional malfunction," rebuilt it in a more powerful body, and used it to take over Castle Frankenstein.
Victoria von
Frankenstein, the Frankenstein monster, and the Children of the Damn
were captured. While Victoria was imprisoned in chains in the dungeon,
Lilac experimented on the monster and the Children.
Lilac
dismembered the Frankenstein monster, keeping it "alive" via her
advanced technology, rendering the monster virtually immobile while she
sought to master the genetic code that granted him immortality.
Most of the
Children died horribly. Some had their bones grow until their bodies
could not longer contain them. Some were forced to devour themselves,
because only their flesh could appease their hunger. Others were used
as raw materials for her monstrous experiments.
(unpublished
Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#3) - After
Shamrock, Peregrine, and Veronica von Frankenstein invaded Castle
Frankenstein, Lilac observed the former pair on a monitor and prepared
to alert Rainbow, although he had already observed them as well.
Rainbow instructed Lilac to stop them but not to kill them as he needed
to learn what they had done with Veronica.
(unpublished
Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#3 - BTS) - The Berserker subdued
the heroes who were brought to and strapped down in Lilac's laboratory.
(unpublished
Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#3) - With
other guards, etc. presumably distracted by Shamrock and Peregrine,
Veronica located and freed Victoria.
(unpublished
Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#3) - Awakening,
Shamrock questioned whether they were in Hell, and Lilac advised her
that she might prefer that to being in her hands. She then introduced
herself and her creation, the Berserker.
Lightly passing
her hand over the expressionless Berserker, Lilac's face expressed a
gleeful, almost sadistic expression as she noted how she had repaired
and reprogrammed the Berserker -- mocking it that it had learned its
lesson -- and then used him to take over Frankenstein Castle in pursuit
of I.C.O.N.'s goal of mastering eternal life.
Lilac
then activated the "nasty-looking machinery" above the heroes, and the
equipment began to glow, with various blades popping out, etc. As
Shamrock had complained about the Frankenstein monster's having
suffered, Lilac advised her that she did not yet know the least thing
about suffering, and that when she was through with Shamrock, each of
her cells will have been dissected a thousand times and each of her
nerves flayed.
(unpublished
Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#3 (fb) - BTS) - Veronica and
Victoria located the cell in which Lilac was torturing the heroes, and Victoria used
the controls to release both Shamrock and Peregrine.
Stating that she did not need Shamrock alive as her corpse could still
be of use to her, Lilac ordered the Berserker to kill Shamrock and
Peregrine.
In the
ensuing struggle, Peregrine kicked the Berserker back into an airlocked
door, and its elbow hit the control nob, opening the door into Lilac's
core laboratory,
which contained the agonized head and dissected body of the
Frankenstein monster.
Appalled by this, the
Berserker was convinced to turn against Lilac, and he told her, "You
killed my friend! You are evil! You must be destroyed!" Lilac futilely
instructed the Berserker that it was her slave as she backed into and
was
electrocuted by damaged machinery.
Shamrock asked that Lilac's soul could find some peace.
(unpublished Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#4 (fb) - BTS) - Veronica and Victoria reassembled the Frankenstein's monster.
(unpublished Shamrock and Peregrine story, episode#4 (fb) - BTS) - From Lilac's notes, the group located Rainbow's/I.C.O.N.'s base in the Swiss Alps.
Comments: Created by Jean-Marc Lofficier.
Jean-Marc Lofficier was kind
enough to send me the unpublished plot intended for a Marvel Comics
Presents story. You can read it HERE.
The identity of Rainbow as Ludwig von Frankenstein from Lofficier's story was included in the
Frankenstein Monster profile in OHotMU Horror 2005 (and in the A-Z hardcover), and the encounter
was also referenced in le Peregrine's profile in All-New OHotMU Update#3 and Shamrock's profiles.
--Markus Raymond
Since it is unpublished, I've listed most of the history/etc. in italics.
As noted in the above-mentioned plot, JML said:
This 4-part
SHAMROCK-PEREGRINE was commissioned by Terry Kavanaugh for Marvel
Comics Presents -- around the start of the series in the late 1980s --
and it was written & paid for. Then Kavanaugh got told that MCP
should feature more commercial characters like, say, Wolverine, so exit
Shamrock & Peregrine.
So far it would be of zero interest if not for the fact that this story (a) made
sense of all the von Frankensteins floating around in Marvel and (b) it also
wrapped up the unfinished I.C.O..N. storyline from the FRANKENSTEIN comic.
Also, though unpublished, a fair amount of the
background material got reused verbatim in DR STRANGE III #37 ("FRANKENSURFER"
story).
There was artwork, 2 or 3 trial pages
by by Leo Duranona, but I don't think I kept these, plus four pages (at least
AFAIK) by another artist.
--Jean-Marc Lofficier
Regarding Vermilion specifically, JML said: "commando guy in a scarlet jumpsuit and some kind of flying rocket pack enabling him to remain airborne. He holds a nasty-looking gun in his hands. Add belts and gimmicks."
A number of I.C.O..N.'s agents had color-based codenames, including Indigo and Rainbow, so Vermilion (a red orange color/pigment) fits in nicely.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Lilac should be distinguished from:
First posted: 02/25/2024
Last updated: 02/25/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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