Name: Lillian (Crawley) Jefferies
Marvel Comics X-Men
Base of Operations: Canada
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #1 (partial), Alpha Flight #11 (full)
Aliases: Diamond Lil
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada, with a criminal record
Occupation: Retired professional adventurer
Identity: Known to the Canadian government
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Madison Jefferies (husband), Lionel Jefferies (deceased brother-in-law)
Team Affiliations: Inactive member of Alpha Flight, former member: Gamma Flight II, Omega Flight
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 165 lbs
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Brown
Super Powers: Diamond Lil's body is shielded in a bio-aura, effectively giving her "Diamond Hard" skin and hair. Also possessing superhuman Strength, the exact limits of which have not been explored.
First Appearance: Alpha Flight
Powers/Abilities: Diamond Lil's body is invulnerable to almost any attack. Her hair, pulled out from the roots, is strong enough to be used to cut through things.
History:
Later writers have had Crawley reform and join Alpha Flight. But if I'm going to ignore the atrocities these same writers have inflicted on the other characters from that series, I can't pick and choose which bits I like and decide to acknowledge them. This section of my site is for Canadian characters, and Alpha Flight stopped being that when Byrne left the comic.
It is unknown how Lillian Crawley gained her super-human powers or joined Department H's original Gamma Flight. However, after the government disbanded Department H, she was drafted by Delphine Courtney and Jerome Jaxon into Omega Flight, and had a hand in the "death" of the original Guardian. She re-appeared again when Delphine released her from prison to help the android defeat Alpha Flight. Again, their attempt was unsuccessful and Crawley went to prison.
When Alpha Flight proved it's self unwilling to blindly follow the Canadian Government's commands, they formed a new team, Gamma Flight. Diamond Lil was released from prison to become a member of this team, however she did not. Instead she sought out her old boyfriend Madison Jefferies, who was Box IV of Alpha Flight. For some time Diamond Lil fought alongside Alpha Flight, and eventually re kindled her romance with Jeffries. When Department H was reformed, and Alpha Flight was returned to official status, Diamond Lil was made a proper member of the team, having proved herself reformed and a trustworthy ally. In time Crawley and Jeffries were married, and both then retired from active duty with Alpha Flight.
Diamond Lil served in one more mission, as a part of a strike-force formed by Shaman to defeat the Chaos Lord, Carcass. Shortly after that mission, Alpha Flight was suspended by General Clarke of Department H.
When the Clarke headed the formation of a new Alpha Flight, Madison Jeffries was drafted as a member. When the newly formed Alpha Flight was on their first mission, Jeffries was captured by the group known as The Zodiac. The other members of Alpha Flight had this event erased from their memories by Department H. Diamond Lil came to Department H looking for her missing husband, and was captured. Lil underwent a series of experiments at the hand of Dr. Horatio Huxley. She was intentionally infected with the "thetagen-24" bacteria, which was used to create a new Weapon-X. When Weapon X was defeated, and Huxley had fled, Lil made a full recovery.
Diamond Lil was one of many super-powered beings captured by the Weapon-X program and incarcerated in the "Neverland" mutant concentration camp. Madison Jeffries was also under the power of the Weapon-X program, however he was brainwashed into working for them. In this capacity Jeffries created the robotic guards of Neverland, who at one point inflicted a terrible beating on Diamond Lil. It is not known if she survived this ordeal, and if so, what her current whereabouts are.
Explanation of the conversion: Lil's high Constitution, Physical Defense, Energy Defense, Armor, Lack of Weakness and Life Support represent her invulnerability to most harm. Her Hand Killing Attack represents her hard, claw like fingernails.
History: It is unknown how Lillian Crawley gained her super-human powers or joined Department H's original Gamma Flight. However, after the government disbanded Department H, she was used as a dupe by Delphine Courtney and Jerome Jaxon and had a hand in the death of the original Guardian. She re-appeared again when Delphine released her from prison to help the android defeat Alpha Flight. Again, their attempt was unsucessful and Crawley went to prison where she remained until the government decided to form another team of super-heroes, one it could control. She didn't join the team though. Instead she sought out her old boyfriend Madison Jefferies, who was Box IV of Alpha Flight. She became a defacto member of Alpha Flight until she was made an official member of the team when Department H was re-formed. She and Madison fell in love again and soon married, retiring from active duty.
Recently, Madison returned to Alpha Flight, without his Box identity, after the two had a fight but was captured by the new Zodiac. Lil eventually visited Department H looking for him and was captured by the Epsiolons. She was then placed under the experimentation of Dr. Huxely. He attempted to infect her with Thetagen-24, but her bio-aura resisted the infection. Her capture was soon realized but her current status is unknown.
Powers: Diamond Lil is superhumanly invulnerable, as well as having a bio-aura which protects her from disease. Her strength is also superhuman, able to lift about 2 tons.
Real Name: Lillian (Crawley) Jefferies
AKA: Creepy-Crawley (but I wouldn't recommend you call her that to her face).
First Appearance: A brief cameo (one panel) in Alpha Flight 1; her first complete appearance was in Alpha Flight 11.
Favorite Quote: From Alpha Flight 91, this small bit of dialogue: Lil: "Ah, Vindicator's spouting off those big words again." Puck: "Ayuh, I could see how that might unduly confuse you." Lil: "Pretty gutsy move -- Makin' fun of a gal whose arms are wrapped so close to the family jewels, Juddsie."
Team Affiliation: Lil started out as a member of Alpha Flight's second level training team known as Gamma Flight. After it disbanded she joined the original Omega Flight, the group responsible for the death of James Hudson (the original Guardian)! She was still with them when they tried to destroy Alpha Flight. Thankfully, she can be relieved of most of her responsibility for these actions as she was under the influence of the ... uh ... Influencer, which manipulated her emotions. Eventually, she joined the new Gamma Flight, a government controlled team to counter the now-independent Alpha Flight. She didn't stay long, tagging along with Alpha Flight instead. She soon turned to inactive status to spend some time with her husand, fellow Alphan Madison Jefferies (AKA Box).
Powers: While the origin of her powers has never been explained, Lil is tough. Incredibly tough. Her hair can act as a garrote wire. And she's no weakling in the strength department either.
Favorite Storyline: No contest. Lil's battle with the idea of breast cancer would have to be one of the best storylines I have ever read. It began on the final page of issue 94 and concluded in issue 101, where it was revealed that the lump in her breast was a benign cyst and that she did not have cancer. One of the more interesting aspects of this story was how Lil reacted to something she could not battle. And let's not forget that her skin is almost impervious to any harm, so how could they perform a biopsy to remove the tumor? How far would she be willing to go? A very interesting answer (which I won't reveal).
Least Favorite Storyline: Her initial appearance as a villain doesn't thrill me, but she was under the ..*ahem*..Influence.
Name: Lillian (Crawley) Jefferies
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #1 (partial), Alpha Flight #11 (full)
Aliases: Diamond Lil
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada, with a criminal record
Occupation: Retired professional adventurer
Identity: Known to the Canadian government
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Madison Jefferies (husband), Lionel Jefferies (deceased brother-in-law)
Team Affiliations: Inactive member of Alpha Flight, former member: Gamma Flight II, Omega Flight
Alpha Flight returning to their governmentally sanctioned status, and them also having taken in the members of Gamma Flight, they had more members at their disposal than ever before. Before the official line-up was picked, it was decided to try out the various heroes in different combinations over the next few missions, to see how well they would work together. Not wanting to be separated from her lover, Lil was determined to prove her worth to the team. However, something that Lil had been trying to deny and ignore made its way to the surface. When Heather found her crying in the showers, Diamond Lil could no longer deny that she had a lump in her left breast, and it was getting bigger. Believing it to be cancer, Lil was scared and angry. While no outside force could hurt her indestructible body, she had no idea how to fight a threat originating from within. Her powers even turned out to be a curse, for with the doctors being unable to do a biopsy, as none of their instruments was able to penetrate her diamond hard skin, they couldn’t tell whether the tumor was malignant or benign. On the day the official roster of Alpha Flight was announced, including both Madison and Lillian, she filled her teammates in on her medical status and promised to do her all for Alpha Flight. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #91, 94-95]
Weeks later, while Canada was harboring the woman known only as Her, the Consortium, an intergalactic business conglomerate, sent numerous aliens to invade the county in order to blackmail Her being turned over to them. Amidst the battle, Diamond Lil was caught by surprise when her skin was cut by one of the alien’s lasers. Realizing this weapon to be the solution to her problem, Lil skipped the fight and pursued the alien throughout the entire city, demanding the gun from him. The fact that it was an implant, cybernetically connected to the alien’s body, didn’t stop her from acquiring the laser. Returning to the fight, Lil apologized for bugging out on the others, who proved to be rather understanding. However, she kept mum about what exactly she did to the alien that the weapon had belonged to. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #97-100]
Right after the conflict with the aliens (during which James Hudson apparently died again), Madison helped Department H‘s medical staff to modify the laser gun, so that it could be used like a scalpel. Lillian was rather thankful that Madison was there for her as she had feared with Hudson gone, he might go back to Heather. Madison easily calmed her fears, explaining that, while he and Heather had loved each other, he had come to the realization that they had never been in love. Fortunately, the biopsy revealed that the lump was nothing more than an infected cyst containing clotted blood – she didn’t have cancer. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #101]
Next time, it was Madison’s health that was endangered. Having transformed the Box armor into an aircraft, Madison submerged with it and was then seriously injured when Diablo somehow cut its electrical power, causing the Boxship to crash. Diamond Lil refused to leave his side, even though they faced certain annihilation by one of Diablo‘s flame creatures. Proclaiming their love for each other, Madison asked Lil to
marry him, should they make it out alive. Her positive answer gave him enough strength to assemble a shelter from nearby wreckage parts and, once Alpha Flight had defeated the foe, and returned home, the happy couple announced their engagement to the rest of the team, just like their intent to retire from active duty. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #102-104]
Naturally, Alpha Flight wouldn’t let them go without celebrating the good news. While the men took Madison to a tavern, Heather and Aurora arranged a bachelorette party for Lillian in a female strip club. During their night out, it became rather obvious that Lil and Heather had fully gotten over their enmity and now considered each other close friends. Lil even went as far as asking Heather what to expect from Madison in their wedding night.
[Alpha Flight (1st series) #104-105]
Unfortunately, though, the marriage did not go as well as they had hoped, as Madison missed the super-hero life too much: He would often sneak out at night to spend a few hours in his Box armor, and over-eagerly answered to summon calls from Alpha Flight, even when it weren't true any emergency situations. Lil did not take too kindly to this, confiding in Heather about her concerns and even outright threatening Madison to call it quits if their relationship wouldn’t have top priority for him. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #109, 122, 125]
With anti-mutant / superhero hysteria rising in Canada, mostly due to the schemes of Joshua Lord, the Senator already responsible for the Superhuman Registration Act, it was decided to temporarily shut down Department H’s Flight programs and lay low for a while. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #130]
When Alpha Flight was restarted several moths later, Lillian was furious about Madison re-joining the active roster. After a certain while, having calmed down a bit, Diamond Lil wanted to talk to her husband face to face and dropped by Department H for a visit. She was unaware of things being handled differently than back in her days, the superiors of Alpha Flight having many secrets and hidden agendas, them even ordering Alpha Flight to be brainwashed every now and then to cover up them learning too much. The fact that Madison had been among the team, only to be kidnapped by the villain team called Zodiac, was just one of the things the team no longer remembered. [Alpha Flight (2nd series) #5]
Chief scientist Dr. Horatio Huxley had Diamond Lil knocked out and taken to his labs, where she was subjected to a barrage of tests and experiments. To study its effects on human physiology, Lil was infected with a low dose of Thetagen-24, an aggressive strand of bacteria. Previous test subjects had died of the bacteria’s effects, however Lil’s mutant power saved her, keeping the infection from spreading more than skin deep. As such, it couldn’t mess up her system and rather lived as a parasite on her skin. It was long weeks before Alpha Flight eventually discovered Huxley’s experiments and rescued Lillian. [Alpha Flight (2nd series) #6, 11, 18-19]
It is unknown what happened to Lillian after this as she did not rejoin Alpha Flight, so presumably she was recuperating elsewhere. If she or Alpha Flight made any efforts to locate the missing Madison, they must have been futile, for he was later stolen from his kidnappers by operatives of the revamped Weapon X Program. After having Madison brainwashed, the Director ordered him to design a concentration camp for mutants. In a cruel twist of fate, Lil happens to be one of the dozens of mutants who were captured by Weapon X and taken to the camp. Her bad temper getting the better of her, Lillian tried to fight with the guards but was beaten to a pulp, her mutant power canceled out by a negation field covering the entire camp. [Weapon X (2nd series) #5]
It remains to be seen whether Diamond Lil will survive the ordeal, and how she will she react when she learns of her husband’s involvement in Weapon X’s plans.
Super Powers: Diamond Lil's body is shield in a bio-aura, effectively giving her "Diamond Hard" skin and hair. Also possessing superhuman Strength, the exact limits of which have not been explored.
History: It is unknown how Lillian Crawley gained her super-human powers or joined Department H's original Gamma Flight. However, after the government disbanded Department H, she was drafted by Delphine Courtney and Jerome Jaxon into Omega Flight, and had a hand in the "death" of the original Guardian. She re-appeared again when Delphine released her from prison to help the android defeat Alpha Flight. Again, their attempt was unsuccessful and Crawley went to prison.
When Alpha Flight proved it's self unwilling to blindly follow the Canadian Government's commands, they formed a new team, Gamma Flight. Diamond Lil was released from prison to become a member of this team, however she did not. Instead she sought out her old boyfriend Madison Jefferies, who was Box IV of Alpha Flight. For some time Diamond Lil fought alongside Alpha Flight, and eventually re kindled her romance with Jeffries. When Department H was reformed, and Alpha Flight was returned to official status, Diamond Lil was made a proper member of the team, having proved herself reformed and a trustworthy ally. In time Crawley and Jeffries were married, and both then retired from active duty with Alpha Flight.
Diamond Lil served in one more mission, as a part of a strike-force formed by Shaman to defeat the Chaos Lord, Carcass. Shortly after that mission, Alpha Flight was suspended by General Clarke of Department H.
When the Clarke headed the formation of a new Alpha Flight, Madison Jeffries was drafted as a member. When the newly formed Alpha Flight was on their first mission, Jeffries was captured by the group known as The Zodiac. The other members of Alpha Flight had this event erased from their memories by Department H. Diamond Lil came to Department H looking for her missing husband, and was captured. Lil underwent a series of experiments at the hand of Dr. Horatio Huxley. She was intentionally infected with the "thetagen-24" bacteria, which was used to create a new Weapon-X. When Weapon X was defeated, and Huxley had fled, Lil made a full recovery.
Diamond Lil was one of many super-powered beings captured by the Weapon-X program and incarcerated in the "Neverland" mutant concentration camp. Madison Jeffries was also under the power of the Weapon-X program, however he was brainwashed into working for them. In this capacity Jeffries created the robotic guards of Neverland, who at one point inflicted a terrible beating on Diamond Lil. It is not known if she survived this ordeal, and if so, what her current whereabouts are.
1) Upon being recruited by Department H, Lillian received the standard red and blue training uniform worn by all new recruits and Gamma Flight members. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #1]
2) Lil was wearing her first individual outfit when Omega Flight made its debut. Basically a green bodysuit, it featured a number of yellow, diamond-shaped areas, accentuating her breasts, shoulders, and hips. At her knees and elbows, the yellow ornamentals perfectly connected with the boots and gloves of the same color. A domino mask in the same color scheme completed the costume, which became Diamond Lil’s most recognizable uniform. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #11]
3) Deciding it was time for a change and wanting to show off her perfect body, Lil changed to this black leather outfit at one point. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #87]
4) Right after she told her teammates of the lump in her breast, Lil changed her costume. While it was still skintight, the chest area was now entirely covered. The bodysuit, that was either made of black leather or latex, had diamond-shaped cutouts on her thighs, and another big one in the back. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #97]
-) No longer an active member of Alpha Fliight, Diamond Lil was seen wearing her old green and yellow costume on several occasions. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #125]