Karma (Xuân Cao Mạnh) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, the character first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980). She is mostly in association with The X-Men. She belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Karma is endowed with the ability to seize control of another's mind, though she has sometimes been depicted with other more extensive psionic abilities. The origin of the character relates to the Vietnam War, as she and her family were among the boat people fleeing the country shortly after the advent of Communism and in the wake of violence. Her Vietnamese origin contributes to two of her main traits—her Catholicism and her mastery of the French language, both of which stem from France's strong historical influence in Vietnam. Karma, in fact, speaks English with a French accent rather than a Vietnamese one. Karma was one of the five founding members of the New Mutants, along with Cannonball, Mirage, Sunspot and Wolfsbane. Being several years older than the others, and the legal guardian of her siblings from a young age, she was the most mature member, and the only one in the original lineup who was introduced in published comics before the team itself. Karma is one of the first major lesbian characters in a mainstream comic book. Publication history Karma first appears in Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980). She joins the New Mutants as a founding member in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 (1982) and appears as a regular cast member in New Mutants from issues #1–6 (1983) and issues #29–54 (1985–87), in which she leaves the team to search for her kidnapped siblings. Her search brings her to Madripoor, and she guest stars in Wolverine volume 2 issues #4–8 (1989) and #27–30 (1990). In 1994, she appears in the Child's Play crossover between X-Force and The New Warriors, and features in three limited series: Beast #1–3 (1997), New Mutants: Truth or Death #1–3 (1997–98) and Mekanix (2002–03). In New Mutants volume 2, she returns to the X-Mansion as a faculty member and continues to appear irregularly as a supporting character when that title was relaunched as New X-Men. After M-Day, Karma retains her powers, and joins the main X-Men team when they relocate to Utopia. She is assigned to the New Mutants team of