DIAMOND LIL
Real Name: Lillian Crawly
Other Aliases: "Creepy" Crawly
Group Affiliation: Former member of Alpha Flight, Gamma Flight and Omega
Flight
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada with a criminal record; pardoned by
the Canadian Federal Government
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #11
Creator: John Byrne
Absolutely nothing is known of Lillian Crawly's past before she became
involved with Department H.
The only thing known about
her time with H before its original shutdown is that she was a member of
the second tier training team called Gamma Flight
and that she was romantically involved for a time with fellow member
Madison Jeffries.
Crawly was one of the members of Beta & Gamma
Flights recruited by Jerry Jaxon into the criminal
organization Omega Flight. Crawly was present for both
of the original Omega's confrontations with Alpha.
After each encounter Lil was incarcerated.
Crawly was given a pardon by
the Canadian Federal Government and released in order to join the new
Gamma Flight. After regaining her freedom Lil
decided to look up her old flame Jeffries, and ended up accompanying
Alpha Flight on their journey through
a variety of mystical dimensions at the hands of the
Sorcerer.
After returning to Earth
Crawly stayed with Alpha rather than
joining Gamma. Eventually she and Madison rekindled their romance,
and the two married. Both retired from super-heroics after the wedding.
Lil and Madison quarreled over
the latter's decision to rejoin
Alpha Flight. Not having heard from Madison in some time (and having cooled
off a bit) Lil went to Department H headquarters to look for him. There she was
forcibly sedated and restrained. Department scientists then began running
experiments on her. One experiment apparently involved the removal of some
internal tissue. It's unknown what methods the Department used to pierce
Lil's skin.
The experiments eventually
evolved to where Dr. Huxley attempted to
infect Lil with the Weapon X bacteria. Lil's
invulnerability prevented this. Lil was eventually discovered in a
holding tank by Mr. Gentry and Alpha Flight. The Weapon X bacteria were
covering her skin.
After being freed from her
captivity at Department H, Lil Crawly was next
seen as an inmate of the Neverland mutant concentration camp run by the
Weapon X project. Lil was freed from Neverland along with most of the other
inmates.
Lil was one of the few mutants
to keep her powers following the
M-Day
incident. Like most of the world's
remaining mutants she eventually made her way to the X-Men's Utopia Isle, off
the coast of San Francisco. There she was reunited with her estranged husband,
and the two eventually reconciled.
The reunion was shortlived.
Soon afterwords Lil was killed by a mutant called Mortis during an attack on
Utopia Isle.
[Compiler's Note: Judging from
information gathered from the Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition, Diamond Lil served as the
basis for the Next Men character code-named White Diamond.]
Diamond Lil was a mutant who
possessed superhuman strength and an extreme degree of
resistence to injury. Her skin was characterized as being "diamond
hard"; at one time extreme measures were necessary to do a biopsy
of a possible cancer tumor. Even Lil's hair shared this resistance to
damage; in the past she employed one of her hairs as a
garrotte.
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