CILICIA
Real Name: Lady Cilicia
Identity/Class: Extradimensional
(Microverse
extraterrestrial (Spartakian - Acroyear race))
Occupation: Regent; commander of the nomadic
Acroyear space fleet
Group Membership: Royal House of Spartak;
formerly Micronauts
Affiliations: Acroyear,
Acroyear elders, Ant-Man (Scott Lang) , Argon/Force
Commander, Enigma
Force/Time Traveler, Esmera,
Jasmine, Micronauts (Acroyear, Biotron, Marionette/Mari, Microtron, Arcturus
Rann, Scion,
Solitaire),
Slug,
Spartak's
Worldmind;
Enemies: Antrons,
Baron
Karza and his forces, "Best Darned Burglar", Computrex,
Dagon,
Major D'ark, Dog Soldiers, Fixer, HYDRA, Helen
Lipinski, Mentallo,
Odd
John, Psycho-Man,
Shaitan
Known Relatives: Acroyear
(husband), son (name unrevealed), Shaitan
(brother-in-law), King of
Spartak (father-in-law, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile across the
Microverse;
formerly Spartak
First Appearance: Micronauts I#9 (September,
1979)
Powers/Abilities: Cilicia has the enhanced
strength and durability afforded to her by denser Acroyear physiology.
Her
metallic armor augmented these capabilities and was capable of
withstanding extreme heat and could stop a bullet fired at point-blank
range. Part of her
armament included an energy sword that could cut through almost
anything, as well as anti-gravitational glider
wings that she used with considerable skill, yielding great speed and
maneuverability. She had a strong sense of honor and tremendous loyalty
to the Acroyear race.
Height:
(Microverse) 5'6"; (Earth) 5.7" (by approximation)
Weight: (Microverse) 185 lbs.;
(Earth) 1.7 oz. (by approximation)
Eyes: Black
Hair: Auburn
History:
(Micronauts I#59 (fb)) - Lady
Cilicia loved an
Acroyear male (name unrevealed) but she was forced to forgo this to
marry Prince Acroyear to ensure continuity on their planet Spartak. Her
loyalty and love for her people meant that she make sacrifices and,
wearing the mask and armor of courtship, she crushed her crystal-flower
(symbolizing her love for her previous mate) as she spoke to the
similarly forlorn Prince Acroyear, who was likewise forced to surrender
his beloved, that with sacrifices, love may grow greatly in time. The
Prince realized at that moment what true love was.
(Micronauts I#9 (fb) - BTS) - With
the aid of tyrant Baron Karza, the traitorous Acroyear Shaitan
thoughtwashed
his people to ally
themselves with Karza, with only Prince Acroyear able to resist.
(Micronauts I#9) - After fleetingly defeating Karza,
the rebel team Micronauts
(Biotron, Bug, Marionette/Mari, Microtron, Arcturus Rann) arrived back
in
the Microverse in their spaceship Endeavor using the Prometheus
Pit only to be surrounded by an Acroyear
battle-fleet, which towed them to Spartak. There,
Cilicia and the Acroyear people welcomed back Prince Acroyear as king,
the
thoughtwash of Shaitan removed when the traitor returned home, although
judgment was deferred in favor of a war council meeting, including
Cilicia. Karza knew the Acroyears' loyalty had shifted and launched a
full-scale attack on Spartak led by Major D'ark. Acroyear ordered that
the attackers be forced to land while he became one with the incredible
power of the Worldmind of Spartak; Cilicia feared for his safety.
(Micronauts I#10) - Cilicia guarded Shaitan, who
tried to turn her against Spartak. Prince Acroyear had Spartak
destroy the opposing fleet
while Cilicia led the Acroyear ground forces until victory was secured
against Karza's Dog Soldiers. While Prince Acroyear disengaged
from the Worldmind, Cilicia showed Spartakian mercy to a captured Dog
Soldier on his knees by beheading him.
(Micronauts I#11) - The Acroyear fleet led by
Acroyear (with Cilicia at his side) sided with the Micronauts on
Homeworld and flew against
Karza and his forces, thereby helping to bring about the Baron's
physical
destruction and ending his despotic reign.
(Micronauts I#12) - The Acroyears
stood side by side with the
Homeworld victors and then left for Spartak. There, Cilicia joined
those condemning Shaitan a traitor. Acroyear accepted Shaitan's
traditional challenge of blood-feud, which Acroyear proved victor with
Shaitan's death.
(Micronauts I#14) - Back in the
royal palace,
Acroyear told Cilicia he would rejoin the Micronauts
and leave ruling Spartak to a more able monarch. Bonded to him, Cilicia
affirmed she would follow him. The two then met and were welcomed by
the other Micronauts on the Endeavor, including Bug's
paramour Jasmine.
(Micronauts I#15) - Cilicia
helped the rest of the crew defeat a sudden attack by Antrons that had
been sent by Psycho-Man, only to have a dire warning sent from the
master manipulator's starship.
(Micronauts I#16) - The Micronauts were taken on
board the spacecraft and put before Psycho-Man, who used his Psycho-Ray
panel against them. Acroyear was struck with hate for Cilicia, and the
two repeatedly and fiercely punched each other until
the sudden arrival of the Fantastic Four (except the Human Torch),
but the fighting instead expanded between the two teams. This quickly
ended when the full-sized Human
Torch arrived after he went through the Prometheus Pit.
(Micronauts I#17) - The Human Torch's flaming arrival
began rapidly depleting the finite oxygen stores in the worldship,
causing them to quickly grow weary or collapse. Rann saved them but
Psycho-Man recovered the fastest and imprisoned each of his opponents
in his Psycho-Manipulator, intending to siphon their emotions to
dominate the Microverse. However, teamwork between the Fantastic Four
and the Micronauts helped them escape, and they launched a direct
attack against Psycho-Man. The teams
escaped in their respective crafts but lost Jasmine.
(Micronauts I#18) - Breaching the
Spacewall, the
Micronauts landed on Earth, but did not recognize it as such.
Bug mourned Jasmine's death and Cilicia helped in her burial. They left
the ship for the robots to repair, with Bug bounding off to be
alone. The others rolled off in their Star-Searcher, coming across a
furnished
house their size amidst giant
vegetation. What they considered lifeless mannequins inside were
actually dolls in a dollhouse controlled by the child Helen Lipinski.
Cilicia fought by Acroyear's side as the
Micronauts battled the assembled mannequins and drove back to their
ship, still unaware that they were on Earth.
(Micronauts I#19) - Looking vainly
for Bug before going into the Endeavor, the Micronauts saw a
telepathic image of what Bug could see of a malformed insect. They
followed the origins and came across Odd John, who was mutating insects
to make an army and intended to do the same with the tiny team, who
finally realized that they were on Earth. Cilicia stayed on the
Endeavor with the others while Acroyear and Rann flew out and
attacked, but Odd John disabled
their ship, trapping those inside and unleashed his mutated insect
horde against them, led by the now
monstrously deformed Bug.
(Micronauts I#20) - Marionette
knocked out Odd John, and Acroyear and Cilicia bound him in chains.
They then pursued Bug aboard the Endeavor and fought the mutated insect
horde at a nearby supermarket. The timely arrival of Ant-Man (Scott
Lang) and use of his shrinking
gas returned all the insects back to normal, including Bug. Although
separated from the rest of the the Micronauts, Acroyear, Bug, Cilicia
and Microtron left the scene.
(Micronauts I#21/1) - Acroyear,
Cilicia, Bug and Microtron scoured the local area for their teammates.
(Micronauts I#22/1) - Flying on
the NY state thruway, the small group believed themselves to
be pursued by semi-trailer and ultimately resulted in the truck
careening off into a fast food outlet where a
robbery was in progress by Rodney, the "Best Darned Burglar". Cilcia
helped overpower Rodney and the Micronauts fled in the Astrostation as
the police arrived,
meeting up with Rann and Marionette.
(Micronauts I#23/1) - The Micronauts
found their way back to the Endeavor and Biotron. All of
them assisted in the repairs, with Acroyear and Cilicia
attending to the Star-Searcher.
(Micronauts I#23/2) - Later, Acroyear and Cilicia
recalibrated the Star-Searcher unit on the
Endeavor; Cilicia asked Microtron for food, but the robot nervously
rolled away.
(Micronauts I#24) - The Endeavor
fixed, the team flew off. The onboard computer was activated, but this
allowed the nefarious Computrex, the so-called living computer, to take
control and force the ship to Computrex's base. The roboids were taken
over
while the rest of the Micronauts flew out and fought off other
technological devices sent to kill them. Cilicia and the
others watched on a viewscreen the now-captive bodies of Rann and
Biotron,
held inside Computrex's hardware, until Marionette was able to free
them.
(Micronauts I#25/1) - In their quarters on the ship,
Acroyear and Cilicia revealed their emotions for each other and bonded.
However, an attack by the criminals Fixer and Mentallo, eager to gain
information
on subatomic space for HYDRA and following in anti-grav harnesses, left
the Endeavor encased in a shroud fired by the Fixer, but the Micronauts
retaliated in a fight that forced the two villains to the ground.
Acroyear and Cilicia were encased in a crystal shatter-sphere, but the
two broke free despite the feedback, and they knocked the Fixer out.
The two Acroyears then joined the other Micronauts as Mentallo was
telepathically interrogated and they learnt that Karza had been
resurrected and was now controlling the terrorist organization HYDRA.
(Micronauts I#26/1) - In the
Endeavor, the Micronauts joined S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fight against the
invading HYDRA forces
using glider-pacs, helping Nick Fury and Dugan along
the way. The Micronauts rejoined with new Acroyear warrior
Dagon (actually a Karza agent), despite Cilicia's suspicions of him.
They discovered that Karza
was reborn with the aid of likewise resurrected Shaitan and the
faceless priests, with the villain also imprisoning the Enigma Force.
(Micronauts I#27) - Onboard a S.H.I.E.L.D.
helicarrier, the Micronauts discussed how
to thwart Karza's planned conquest of Earth, but remained suspicious of
Dagon's ability to traverse the Spacewall. Excepting the roboids and
Dagon, the Micronauts then joined S.H.I.E.L.D. against the
HYDRA troops and invading Microverse forces, which were arriving
through Karza's interdimensional transporter at a Florida fun-park,
with
Acroyear and Cilicia silencing HYDRA snipers hidden in roller coaster
cars.
(Micronauts I#28) - Acroyear and Cilicia continued
battling,
then joined the others on the Endeavor, discovering that Rann had been
captured by Karza and that Biotron had been destroyed (secretly by
Dagon). Cilicia asserted Dagon's cowardly excuse came from Acroyears
mixing with other races. The Micronauts rejoined the fight, bravely
tackling Karza
head on. Acroyear used the Worldmind to stop Karza, aware
this would
result in Spartak dying. Cilicia could only watch with the
other Micronauts as Acroyear battled Karza, the two evenly matched
until Queen Esmera of Kaliklak impaled Karza on her suicide
sting, weakening the despot. The last of
the Worldmind's power blasted Karza, seemingly destroying him, but
really only suppressing his consciousness with the host body of Argon.
(Micronauts I#29) - The surviving
Micronauts stood
solemnly before caskets of
fallen friends. Acroyear revealed to Cilicia the terrible price
paid by Spartak and the Acroyear people, but she turned away from him
and called him traitor. She departed for the Microverse with the
Acroyear forces.
(Micronauts I#52 (fb)) - Cilicia found Spartak had
become a cold dead world after the Worldmind had sacrificed itself
fighting Karza. She rallied her people against Acroyear and became
regent as her people boarded space arks and spaceships, becoming a
refugee fleet.
(Micronauts I#39) - Force Commander (possessed by the
spirit of Karza) delivered an ultimatum to Cilicia to join him on
Homeworld, offering information where Acroyear was on Earth. Still
seeing her former betrothed as a traitor, she dispatched an Acroyear
elite strike team to kill him, but they proved unsuccessful.
(Micronauts I#51) - Seeking to warn others of Karza's
carnage on Homeworld, as well as secure allies against the despot, the
Micronauts chanced upon the homeless Acroyear fleet
commanded by Cilicia, who recognized the Micronauts' Bioship design.
Cilicia ordered the aggressive hull breaching and boarding of the
Bioship to extract and punish Acroyear, who had since burnt the
traitor's brand on his own forehead. Acroyear invoked Spartakian law
with trial by combat against Cilicia as she was the Acroyears'
commander and his accuser.
(Micronauts I#52) - The other Micronauts could only
watch as Acroyear
sought peaceful resolution, but
Cilicia wanted battle. She fought him in the arena but he would only
block her
blows, refusing to fight the woman he still loved. He was able to grip
her in a tight embrace that cracked her abdominal armor, revealing the
shining skin of her pregnancy. The duel was halted with the welfare of
the
unborn ruler seen as paramount. Acroyear was no longer considered king,
nor Cilicia regent. Cilicia was forlorn that her vengeance had to be
delayed and she had to bear the son of the "traitor" Acroyear.
(Micronauts I#53) - Cilicia sat
nearby as Acroyear
prepared to depart. As she had rejected him, she could not
rise to queen, nor he to king, so the Acroyear people would remain
neutral against Karza until Kingbirth. However, the traitor's mark on
Acroyear was seared over, signifying redemption.
(Micronauts II#7) - Acroyear reflected on his time
with past paramour Illyrie
while talking to a phantom vision of Cilicia.
(Micronauts II#11) - Cilicia and the Acroyear fleet
flew near the Spacewall when they were contacted by Acroyear and the
Micronauts onboard the Endeavor II, who were on the other side side of
the
Spacewall and sought to cross over. Initially angered at Acroyear,
Cilicia
chose to help the Micronauts and directed them to Breachpoint,
an ancient powerful citadel that pierced the Spacewall. Cilicia and
Acroyear confirmed their love for each other, but she still considered
him a traitor. Breachpoint became unstable and Acroyear used royal
command codes that forced the Acroyear fleet to flee at maximum speed
to safety.
(Micronauts II#18) - Cilicia and the Acroyear fleet
arrived at the desolate Homeworld, joining the Micronauts there, intent
on stopping the Pain Wave that threatened all of the Microverse. But
Cilicia's plan was to destroy the Pain Wave's origin, Homeworld.
Despite their differences, she still wanted to see her estranged
husband again. Although he disagreed with her plan, he insisted on
staying for the birth, aiding by slashing open her armor with precision
to allow his son to be born. The segments of Homeworld were separated
and Acroyear was called away to sacrifice himself rebuilding the
Microverse. Cilicia and Acroyear parted tearfully, each confessing
their love. After Acroyear teleported away, Cilicia, caught in mixed
emotions and holding her son, ordered the fleet away at maximum speed.
Comments:
Created by Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden, Al Milgrom.
Interestingly, the name Cilicia is associated with a region in southern
Turkey and has a long history.
This profile was completed 7/23/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile
by Grendel
Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Cilicia has no known connections to:
- any other "Cilicia" characters
Son
The son of Lady Cilicia and Prince Acroyear was born
in space in a deliberately delayed birth to strengthen the baby's body.
He was left in the care of Cilicia and her fellow Acroyears as they
traversed the Microverse, and was destined to be the next ruler of the
Acroyear people. Not named in-story, Acroyear tradition decreed that he
be named after his race, but given his people's dramatic upheaval, it's
uncertain.
--Micronauts II#18
images:
(without ads)
Micronauts I#52, p8, pan2 (main image)
Micronauts I#25, p3, pan1 (headshot)
Micronauts I#59, p15, pan6 (courtship armor)
Micronauts I#20, p12, pan1 (glider wings)
Micronauts II#11, p8, pan3 (ship command throne)
Micronauts II#18, p14, pan3 (ready to birth)
Micronauts II#18, p22, pan4 (son)
Appearances:
Micronauts I#9-12 (September-December, 1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer),
Michael Golden (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Micronauts I#14-18 (February-June, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer),
Howard Chaykin (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks/editor)
Micronauts I#19-20 (July-August, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Pat
Broderick
(pencils), Armando Gil (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Micronauts I#21/1 (September, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Pat
Broderick (pencils), Armando Gil (inks), Al Milgrom & Louise
Jones (editor)
Micronauts I#22/1 (October, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Pat Broderick
(pencils), Armando Gil (inks), Louise Jones (editor)
Micronauts I#23/1,23/2 (November, 1980) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Pat Broderick
(pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Louise Jones (editor)
Micronauts I#24,25/1,26/1 (December, 1980-February, 1981) - Bill Mantlo
(writer), Pat Broderick (pencils), Armando Gil (inks), Louise Jones
(editor)
Micronauts I#27-29 (March-May, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Pat
Broderick (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Louise Jones (editor)
Micronauts I#39 (March, 1982) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Steve Ditko
(pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Micronauts I#51 (March, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer),
Butch Guice (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Micronauts I#52 (May, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Butch Guice
(pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Micronauts I#53 (July, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Butch Guice
(pencils & inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Micronauts I#59 (August, 1984) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Butch Guice
(pencils), Bruce Patterson (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Micronauts II#11 (August, 1985) - Peter B. Gillis
(writer), Kelley Jones (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio
(editor)
Micronauts II#18 (March, 1986) - Peter B. Gillis (writer), Kelley
Jones (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
First posted: 09/14/2021
Last updated: 09/11/2021
Any
Additions/Corrections? please let
me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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