Superheroes Assemble!

K: Karma


Karma
Real Name: Xi'an (pronounced "Shan" Coy Manh
Occupation: (current) Adventurer, (former) Student
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: Citizen of Vietnam with no criminal record, legal alien in the United States
Other Aliases: None known
Place of Birth: Central highlands of Vietnam
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Coy Leong (brother), Coy Nga (sister), Tran Coy Manh (brother, deceased), General Nguyen Ngoc Coy (uncle, deceased)
Group Affiliation: (former) New Mutants, Hellions
Base of Operations: (current) Mobile, (former) Vietnam, Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State; Madripoor
First Appearance: MARVEL TEAM-UP #100

History: Xi'an Coy Manh was the daughter of a colonel in the Vietnamese army. Xi'an and her twin brother Tran Coy Manh were mutants with the power to take mental possession of the minds of others. While still a child, Xi'an saw an enemy soldier threaten Tran. Not realizing she had a superhuman power, Xi'an nevertheless, acting impulsively, took possession of the soldier's mind and stopped him from killing Tran. Tran then successfully attempted the same feat and forced the soldier to kill himself. While Tran took great delight in this use of his newfound power, Xi'an was frightened of her power. She kept their powers secret, but Tran told their uncle Nguyen, a general in the Vietnamese army.

General Coy later arranged for Xi'an's family to leave Vietnam, which was now entirely under a Communist government, but only Tran was sent abroad. Eventually, the rest of the family left Vietnam on a small, crowded boat. Xi'an's father was murdered by attacking pirates, who assaulted the women; her mother died the day the survivors were rescued by the United States Navy. Xi'an, her younger brother Leong, and her younger sister Nga, were sent to the United States to be reunited with her uncle Nguyen and Tran. General Coy had become a powerful and prosperous criminal in the United States (although he was publicly known as a businessman), and Tran was using his powers in his uncle's employ. When Coy asked Xi'an to use her powers in his service, she refused. She sought help from a Catholic priest, Father Michael Bowen, whom she had known in Vietnam. With Father Bowen's aid Xi'an secured employment and an apartment and enrolled her younger siblings in school.

But then General Coy kidnapped Leong and Nga in an effort to blackmail her into working for him. Desperate, she located Spider-Man, whom she believed to be a criminal from accounts in the New York Daily Bugle, and took possession of his mind so she could use his powers to rescue the children. While possessed by Xi'an, Spider-Man fought three members of the Fantastic Four, who were present at a party Coy was hosting, unaware that he was a criminal. Xi'an was forced to release Spider-Man's mind without having freed the children. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four located Xi'an and Bowen, learned her story, and agreed to help her. Tran used his powers to take control of the Fantastic Four and have them attack Spider-Man. To save Spider-Man, whom she now knew was no criminal, Xi'an was forced to kill her brother by absorbing his life essence into herself. Xi'an was then reunited with Leong and Nga.

Shortly thereafter, Xi'an, who now called herself Karma when using her powers, accepted the invitation of Professor Charles Xavier to enroll in his school in order to learn to use her mutant powers better. Thus, she became the first leader of the new team of young superhuman mutants he was training, the New Mutants.

Eventually Karma left the New Mutants and she subsequently embarked on a long search for Leong and Nga, who had again disappeared. For a time she served General Coy in Madripoor in the hope that he could locate her brother and sister. For a time Leong and Nga were the prisoners of Shinobi Shaw, who made them the subjects of genetic experiments. He then turned them over to Karma's longtime foe, the terrorist known as the Viper, and the extradimensional being Spiral. Recently, Karma and the X-Man known as the Beast joined forces to rescue the two children.

Height: 5 ft. 4 in.
Weight: 90 lbs.
Eyes: Dark Brown
Hair: Black

Stength Level: Karma possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: Karma is a mutant who has the psionic ability to take possession of the minds of other people or animals. She can control her subject's actions and experience what the subject's senses perceive. During the possession her subject's higher brain functions revert to diminished levels, similar to their state in a dreamless sleep, and the subject is left with no memory of the actual possession.

Although Karma can possess multiple subjects simultaneously, her control over her subjects is fragmented as she shifts her attention from one to another. Possibly she will overcome this handicap as her experience in using her powers grows.

When Karma first takes possession of someone, she can only move her subject's body awkwardly until she acclimates herself to her new host. If she remains in possession of a host for too long she will begin to think and act as her host would, and eventually her own personality would become subordinate to one identical to the host's.