There are plenty of cool female villains in the DC universe. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Enchantress, and Lady Shiva are just a few of the formidable female characters. It is also worth noting that in their comic book representations, these characters take on a whole new meaning. Today we are looking at Lady Styx, a relatively new female DC villain.
Lady Styx originally appeared in 52#31 as the major opponent in all her grandeur, arrayed against Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Starfire. She went on to appear in films such as Countdown to Adventure and Omega Men. The religion of Lady Styx appeared in Rann/Thanagar: Holy War, but she was not present. According to Keith Giffen, 52’s breakdown artist, Lady Styx was created to be an opponent analogous to Darkseid, who they felt was being overused.
“Behold the new beginning,” she says in one of her most remembered lines. “Behold the alpha woman. I am the Lady Styx. And I am God!” She is extremely strong, and many people worship and revere her. Her origins are unknown, yet she has the ability to defeat even the most seasoned heroes. Let us have a look at this galactic goddess, who is rumored to be the major enemy in the upcoming Blue Beetle film.
Who Is Lady Styx?
The first thing to know about Lady Styx is that she is strong enough for her presence to have alarmed the Guardians of the Universe, who believe she comes from far beyond the known cosmos. She is believed to be older than time itself and has lived through many ages with one singular goal. The Lady, who is worshipped as a deity by her believers, sends out her vast armies to pillage planetary systems and turn their inhabitants into her immortal slaves. This process of rampage and collection of people to add to her armies is called the “Stygian Passover”.
This, in her warped mind, is a means of bringing order to a chaotic universe by trying to unite all people and species as one race with one goal: to worship her. Because of course, the best way to unite all species in the universe is through more chaos. The troops that serve Lady Styx in her twisted vision are referred to as “Darkstars,” named after the defunct intergalactic peacekeeping force with the same name. These indoctrinated beings that are converted into zombies and stripped of their individual personalities, preach her glory and encourage their adversaries to “believe in her.” Quite the cult eh?
As far as appearance goes, Lady Styx is not like your usual femme fatale and is often depicted surrounded by chaos with her being at the very center of it all. She has silver skin, often depicted as blue in the comics and has four hands. She always has a menacing look about her and visually, is quite terrifying. She is also immensely powerful due to her ability to practically strip individuals of their identities and make them her blind followers who would do absolutely anything for their God.
Lady Styx put a target on the heads of Starfire, Adam Strange, and Animal Man, who were stuck in space after the Infinite Crisis, in her first full-length appearance in 52. The trio of space heroes ends up deciding to take a stand against her after witnessing the devastation caused by her believers and dreading that their home realms could be next. They were able to enlist the help of a hesitant Lobo, who had recently converted to Christianity.
Lobo led them to Lady Styx under the guise of trying to collect their bounty before attacking her throne room in full force. The ensuing fight would also lead to Animal Man’s apparent death due to a neurotoxin, although he would later be resurrected by the very aliens who had originally bestowed upon him his powers. Lady Styx was later subsumed by a Sun-Eater during a battle with the Green Lantern Ekron. However, bad guys don’t stay dead for very long at all and she was able to grow new flesh for herself from a pregnant captive sometime later, leading to her resurgence.
Lady Styx has made a comeback in several locations after her 52 appearances. She is the source of Captain Comet’s death and resurrection in the pages of “Mystery in Space,” a cycle that started when her troops fought him in their first appearance. She would also go on to battle the Omega Men when she attempted to recreate the universe and take up the role of God herself by seeking out powerful artifacts known as “headstones.” Lady Styx, who appears to be stuck in another dimension, appears as a giantess in this.
She tries to grow new skin from the bodies of her believers once more. Using the stones as a focal point, she creates a new, massive body by merging and reconfiguring the bodies of her servants. The Omega Men foil her plan, and she is murdered by a revived and energized “Felicity” who was the wife of the Omega Men’s commander-in-chief Tigorr, now renamed “Nimbus.” Lady Styx, on the other hand, appeared to be able to maintain her consciousness within Felicity’s subconscious. The Lady sat there with patience, poised to attack once more.
She has the most annoying habit of staying alive or clawing her way back into the world of the living no matter how many times she is taken out, making her a massive headache for heroes.
Lady Styx Interesting Comic Story Arc
As we already know, Lady Styx always finds her way back and has been resurrected post her death. Notably, she had a pivotal role in the story arc of Rann-Thanagar Holy War: Countdown to Adventure.
Post her ‘death’ at the hands of Felicity, only very few strongly held that Lady Styx had been permanently destroyed. And they were right to not put much faith in her demise as it appears that she had regenerated. Lady Styx wanted to exact her vengeance on Earth and also Rann, so she infected Steven “The Champ” Hazard, a Hollywood movie star. Styx infected Hazard after learning that Sardath had selected the celebrity to substitute Adam Strange as Rann’s protector, as Strange was starting to perform poorly in his responsibilities.
During the filming of his latest movie, Sardath transported Hazard. Sardath’s decision, of course, did not sit well with Adam, and Strange could see that Sardath was not acting like himself. Turns out that Sardath had dismissed his trust in science and adopted Lady Styx’s philosophy as his religion.
The spread of her Stygian Virus resulted in the formation of a radical group of followers. On Earth, there were numerous random outbursts of people acting homicidal and psychopathic, and on Rann, the populace rallied around a new hero, an Earthman named Champ Hazard, who was far more destructive and violent than Adam Strange, with her guidance. Hazard started rallying people to believe in her and soon amassed a large number of bloodthirsty followers, ready to do Lady Styx’s bidding.
However, when things look extremely bleak, Adam manages to defeat Hazard thus destroying patient zero of the Stygian Virus. But the battle wasn’t over because the virus continues to spread like an epidemic on both planets. In the meantime, the Thanagarians get involved as the Deacon urges them to attack Rann.
Despite the Rannians being free of Lady Styx’s direct influence, they continued to worship her as a god, albeit not as fervently. In the event of “Rann-Thanagar: Holy War,” her influence on Rannian culture is significant. When Sardath learns of the Grand Mor’s impending invasion, he decides to confront him and destroy Thanagar in Lady Styx’s name.
Later when Adam Strange learns of Synnar’s merger with the Nameless, he decides to divide his resources in order to defeat Lady Styx, and Synnar and Strange recognize that Starfire’s abilities are the only way to end Lady Styx’s occupation of Throneworld. Thus, she was one of the primary influences behind a massive cosmic war. This goes on to show the hold she truly has on her legions of followers who believe her until the very end.
Interestingly, When Styx was a child, a scarab named Khaji-Da tried to possess her while she was playing with her dolls. However, its attack on her seemed to trigger the evolution of her formidable abilities. She summoned ‘dollies,’ which were gigantic figures made of dark matter, and instructed them to tear the invader apart and remove all of its legs. Styx’s parents raced out of their rooms to check on Styx after Khaji-Da managed to flee from the terrifying child.
She told her parents that she had made something to defend her because she didn’t have anyone else to shield her and thus had to look out for herself. She then used what appeared to be mind control to send a jolt of electricity to her parents and other people. Other than the fact that her name has become synonymous with terror, nothing else has been revealed about her. This makes her an intriguing villain with a lot of space for character development and extended story arcs. If the rumors are true, we will be seeing her on the big screen soon!