Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3: Who Is Lylla?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is right around the corner, bringing James Gunn’s take on Marvel’s cosmic odyssey to a close. In addition to continuing the years-long narratives of its titular band of misfits, Vol. 3 is set to introduce several new characters into the fray — some friends, some foes, and some who probably skirt the line between. One of the most intriguing additions to Vol. 3‘s ensemble might be Lylla (Linda Cardellini), the anthropomorphic otter who has been shown uniting with Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) in multiple parts of the film’s marketing. While there’s still a lot we don’t know about Lylla’s MCU debut, she’s a character whose appearance in the franchise has been a long time coming, after a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment of the first Guardians film listed her as one of Rocket’s associates.

Even as Marvel fans have spent years waiting to see how Lylla fits into Rocket’s onscreen story, her story in Marvel Comics has been something entirely unique. At the time of this writing, Lylla only has ten comic appearances to her name — but they paint a portrait of a fascinating heroine.

Created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, Lylla made her Marvel Comics debut in the same exact issue as Rocket, 1982’s Incredible Hulk #271. The issue’s tale starts out as a madcap space adventure for Bruce Banner to endure in his Hulk form, but becomes something wilder. Always clad in sensible teal or light blue robes, Lylla is one of several MacGuffins that Hulk, Rocket, and Rocket’s sidekick Wal Russ need to rescue from a horde of evil anthropomorphic animals on the alien planet of Halfworld. To Rocket, saving Lylla might even be more important than the main mission, which is retrieving a mysterious tome known as the Halfworld Bible. As it turns out, Lylla and Rocket are in love, as the raccoon and otter exchange pet names and sweet nothings amid the chaos that ensues.

After that point, Lylla, Rocket, and their world could have easily fallen to the wayside, joining countless other zany pockets of comic lore that are never expanded upon. But just three years later, Mantlo, Mike Mignola, and Al Gordon would craft a four-issue Rocket Raccoon miniseries, and only make Lylla’s world even weirder. The lore of Halfworld went from a one-off gimmick to a surprisingly dense science fiction concept — the planet was a cosmic insane asylum abandoned by its human owners generations ago, and a society of talking, robotically-enhanced animals rose to prominence over the humanoid “Loonies.” In this status quo, Lylla is the Princess of the planet’s biggest enterprise, a toy company called Mayhem Mekaniks, which creates gizmos to keep the Loonies in check (and fend off the threat of killer clowns and/or robots). The conflict of much of the miniseries hinges on Lylla, as a Toy War breaks out between two warring anthropomorphic animals, a mole named Judson Jakes and a reptile named Lord Dyvyne, over who can get Lylla’s hand in marriage.

That isn’t to say that Lylla is without agency in the pages of Rocket Raccoon — she is regularly the instigator in her and Rocket’s relationship (especially when he becomes more concerned with decoding the Halfworld Bible than with romancing her), and in one notable scene, she escapes by punching her captor, a flirty rabbit named Blackjack O’Hare. For Lylla, Rocket, and their merry band of cohorts, the final battle of Rocket Raccoon is as emotional as it is physical, as they create and administer helmets that help the Loonies gain self-awareness. These helmets also appear to help Lylla and Rocket’s relationship as well, as he becomes overwhelmed with his feelings of love towards her. When the two of them leave Halfworld to save other planets, it’s with a sense that their adventures could go on forever.

That only makes the next chapter of Lylla’s story — a two-part backup story in 2011’s Annihilators — all the more surprising and heartbreaking. Rocket, who has now become a Guardian of the Galaxy and a companion of Groot, stumbles upon Lylla and his other friends in Halfworld, and quickly learns that things are not how they appeared. In truth, the noble antics of the Rocket Raccoon miniseries were actually falsely implanted memories, which romanticized Rocket’s efforts to stop a prisoner uprising amid the desolate psychotherapy of Halfworld. To add insult to injury, whatever romantic feelings Lylla had for Rocket decades prior have long passed, and she is happily married to the previously-chauvinistic Blackjack. As the animals join forces once again to stop Star Thief from destroying Halfworld, Lylla fades into the background, but she and Rocket embrace each other’s new status quo by the series’ end.

Lylla is far from the first or last of a particular type of character in superhero comics — a heroine whose gimmick and central narrative are heavily tied to the male hero who was introduced next to them. But across her decades-long, incredibly sporadic Marvel Comics appearances, Lylla has proved to be one of a kind. It’s not just that Lylla is one of the very, very few talking otters to kick butt in popular fiction, it’s what she represents. Nothing about Halfworld should make sense – but somehow, in the lovelorn eyes of a talking raccoon, Lylla makes perfect sense.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be released in theaters on Friday, May 5th.

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