Lyla Michaels

**Lyla Michaels**, also known as **Harbinger**, is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. She first appeared in *New Teen Titans Annual* #2 (August 1983), but her first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #30 (November 1984). She was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

## History

### Pre-Crisis

Lyla Michaels was rescued from floating in the sea as a child by the Monitor, who then brought her on-board his satellite to raise her as his assistant, studying the Multiverse alongside him. Then the time came for Lyla to summon the heroes the Monitor needed to protect his cosmic tuning forks when very few of the positive-matter universes remained. Entering into an energy chamber in the heart of the satellite, Lyla was transformed into a multiple-copy person named Harbinger and sent across time and through different universes to gather up the selected heroes: some went willingly, others by force, and yet others by coercion. On her way to gather Arion the sorcerer, a Shadow Demon possessed one of Harbinger's copies, allowing the Anti-Monitor to manipulate and use her for his purposes. Ultimately, she was used to kill the Monitor, only to find out that the Monitor had intended for Harbinger to kill him so that he could activate the machines and shunt the Earths 1 and 2 universes into a Netherverse where they would be safe from the antimatter wave. But with the vibrations slowing between the two universes, they started to merge with each other and would eventually annihilate each other. Harbinger gathered a group of heroes to send them to the remaining positive-matter universes of Earths 4, S, and X to protect its citizens from the anti-matter wave while she concentrated all her power on bringing those universes into the Netherverse. As she succeeded in doing so, Lyla lost her power to become Harbinger, though she continued to assist the heroes in other ways. With the resetting of the universe that took place following the battle at the Dawn of Time, Lyla became Harbinger again, revealing that with the resetting of time, all the surviving positive-matter universes have all merged into one universe with one history. She helped the heroes defeat the Anti-Monitor once and for all when he used his power to transport Earth into the antimatter universe. She returned to Earth and joined her fellow surviving team members Lady Quark and Pariah in the exploration of the New Earth reality. After the Amazons attack on Superman and Batman in Central Park, Lyla was shown to be living on Paradise Island. When the Amazons returned with Kara Zor-El, Lyla and Kara become quick friends, although Lyla was burdened by visions of what she believed to be the oncoming death of Supergirl. When Darkseid attacked Paradise Island, Lyla gave her life in an attempt to save Kara, and it turns out the death she had foreseen was her own all along.

### DC Rebirth

Harbinger is the station intelligence of the House of Heroes who aids the Monitor in his mission to guard the Multiverse. Harbinger awoke after a long slumber when Earth 23's Superman interfaced his personal computer to connect with the House of Heroes' AI, reactivating her in order to get answers of the situation. To which she informed them that the Multiverse is in need and that the stakes are absolute. When the House of Heroes was under attack by Hellmachine of The Gentry, Harbinger was being slowly drained of her power and knowledge until Earth 17's Batman used the Monitor files of the 52 worlds to restore her abilities and repel their attacker. She used the Transmatter Cubes to summon and assemble the Orrery of Worlds' greatest heroes to save the Monitor and defeat The Gentry. And after the threat was over, she congratulated the Monitor for his heroic actions in front of the champions of the Multiverse. When a mysterious planet from outside the Multiverse started to cross the Bleedspace, the Monitor requested Harbinger to analyze the anomaly.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Unique Physiology**
	+ **Superhuman Strength**
	+ **Flight**
	+ **Energy Projection**
	+ **Superhuman Hearing**
	+ **Electromagnetism**
		- **Sound Manipulation** and **Darkness Manipulation:** She can turn off the sound and darkens the light.

### Former Powers

#### Powers lost during *Millennium*

* **Bio-Fission:** Originally Lyla could split herself in 20 copies, each one only a fraction of the original in power level.
* **Chronokinesis:** Originally Lyla could freely travel between different periods of time and "freeze" the flow of time in an area.
* **Dimensional Travel:** Originally Lyla could freely travel between different dimensions.
* **Superhuman Reflexes:** She could easily dodge arrows shot by Green Arrow.
* **Teleportation**
* She seems have some specie of cosmic awareness, feeling danger on the Earth while herself was in other Solar System.
* In addition, she could release all her energies to bring three different universes into other plane of existence.

### Weaknesses

* Harbinger would feel any physical damage taken by Jet on the same body part.

## Paraphernalia

### Equipment

* **Universe Orb:** this orb held records of all events in all possible timelines, including those wiped out in the Crisis.

## Notes

* It was never revealed which Earth the Monitor rescued the young Lyla Michaels from, though *History of the DC Universe* #2 implied it was Earth-One.
* An alternative Harbinger was created by the Anti-Monitor from Earth-Seven's Donna Troy. Because of this previous relationship, Donna Troy inherits Harbinger’s Universe Orb after her death.