Layla Miller is not the most well-known character from the X-Men universe, but she did play a pivotal role in Marvel’s huge superhero crossover, House of M. With the powers of precognition and memory restoration, she is the catalyst by which Magneto’s tyrannical reign over humans and mutants is put to an end.
This core eight-issue series of the 2005 House of M is by Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Tim Townsend, and Frank D’Armata, and House of M #4 gives us our first introduction to Layla Miller and sets the stage for all the adventures she has after.
After the Scarlet Witch alters reality, Layla awakens to find that she is aware the world has changed. Layla’s unique telepathic abilities make her impervious to the new reality and also allow her to reawaken the lost memories in others as well. This ability is an integral part of bringing down Magento’s House of M. Without her, the heroes would never have fought back to restore their reality, which had been rewritten by the Scarlet Witch. In the end, they succeed in defeating Magneto, but restoring their world comes at the cost of millions of mutants’ powers.
After the events of House of M, Layla joins the mutant led detective agency called X-Factor Investigations, led by Jamie Madrox's Multiple Man and featuring other X-Factor veterans like Strong Guy and Wolfsbane. Layla now has precognitive abilities and claims she “knows stuff,” but her precognition powers are not always perfect. She suffers from blind spots and gaps in her future knowledge. During her time with X-Factor Investigations, she helps save the lives of her fellow teammates, foils nefarious plans, and even stops a mutant genocide planned by the telepath Joseph Huber, also known as the Isolationist.
Layla ends up trapped in the future during the events of X-Men: Messiah Complex. When a mutant messiah is born, Jamie sends duplicates of himself into alternate realities to collect data on all the possible futures. Layla goes with a duplicate without Jamie’s blessing, which strands her in that alternate future. Unfortunately for her, the future she travels to has mutants enslaved in internment camps. While Layla is trapped in this dystopian future, she helps the mutants to the best of her ability. She also utilizes her true mutant power, the power of reanimation, which she uses to resurrect Trevor Fitzroy, turning him into a soulless killer in the process.
With the help of an older, frail Doctor Doom, Layla travels back before she joined X-Factor Investigations. She visits her younger self and downloads all of her future knowledge. This closes the time paradox of how Layla got her “precognitive” powers. It also explains that her blind spots and gaps in knowledge are from the limited room in her brain.
As the older Layla returns to the present, she becomes an adviser to Doctor Doom. In exchange for his knowledge about science and magic, she trades her knowledge of the future. It’s during this time that Doctor Doom also makes her a gauntlet, which can create force fields and emit energy blasts. Her involvement with Doctor Doom increased her abilities and made her a stronger fighter, which came in handy when she rejoined X-Factor Investigations as an adult.
After all the adventures of X-Factor Investigations, Layla and Jamie finally retire and settle down on a farm where they have a son. It isn’t an entirely happy ending because Jamie caught a deadly case of M-Pox due to exposure to Terrigen Mist. Even after all of this, Layla still offers help and advice to the X-Men when they need it, even if she's drifted into a further orbit away from the main team.
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