LEONG & NGA COY MANH(twin siblings)
Karma is in between Nga (on her right) and Leong (on her left)
LEONG & NGA COY MANH
(twin siblings)
Karma is in between Nga (on her right) and Leong (on her left)
Real Name: Leong Coy Manh; Nga Coy Manh (see comments)
Identity/Class: Human; suspected latent mutants; twice mutated (both times reversed)
Occupation: Students
Group Membership: None;
formerly the Xavier Institute's Lower Class;
formerly
Bratpack
(Cannonball/Sam Guthrie,
Jubilee (Darla), Magik/Illyana Rasputin,
Magma/Amara
Aquilla, Mirage/Danielle Moonstar,
Snitch (Butch),
Straight-Arrow (Alfie), Sunspot/Robert Da Costa, Wolfsbane/Rahne
Sinclair)
Affiliations: David Alleyne, Father Michael Bowen, Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Fantastic
Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr.
Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Jeffrey Garrett (presumptive classmate), Shola Inkosi, Dylan Maguire, New Mutants (Cypher/Doug
Ramsay, Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Magma/Amara Aquilla, Mirage/Dani
Moonstar, Sunspot/Roberto Da Costa,
Warlock/technarch), Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), X-Force (Caliban, Domino/Neena Thurman, Meltdown/Tabitha Smith, Shatterstar/Gaveedra-7, Sunspot/Roberto Da Costa), X-Men (Beast/Hank McCoy, Colossus/Peter Rasputin, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke/Betsy Braddock);
unspecified doctor (who apparently cured them from their Spiral-induced mutations);
Magneto (Max Eisenhardt) & Tessa futilely tried to help locate the
children; Magneto may or may not have known them personally;
they presumably knew many of the students and/or X-Men present at
the Xavier Institute and/or mansion at any of the times Shan was
present there
Enemies: Brentano, General Nguyen
Ngoc Coy, Deruge, Dr. Graves, Hellfire Club (Shinobi Shaw), Lawson,
Mindmeld, Mojo, Sentinels (wild type; potential threat), Spiral, Viper;
unspecified landlord at apparent first apartment near University of
Chicago, Thai pirates, unspecified Vietnamese soldiers;
possibly Clear-Cut, the Marauders (mutant assassins serving Mr. Sinister)
Known Relatives: Unidentified parents (deceased),
Xi'an Coy Manh (Karma, "Shan," sister),
Tran Coy Manh
(brother, deceased), Nguyen Ngoc Coy (uncle);
Leong and Nga are twin brother and sister, respectively;
possibly others (see comments)
Aliases: Formerly Template
Base of Operations: Last seen in San Francisco, California;
formerly Xavier Institute, Salem Center, New York;
formerly another apartment near the University of Chicago, Illinois (owned by Dylan Maguire)
formerly an apartment near the University of Chicago, Illinois;
formerly Spiral's extradimensional Body Shop(pe);
formerly an unspecified Hellfire Club facility;
formerly the Wildways;
formerly St. Anne's church in Manhattan's Lower East Side;
formerly Shan's apartment in Manhattan;
formerly southern Vietnam (place of birth); her older sister, Xi'an, was born in Vietnam's ventral highlands
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#100 (December, 1980)
Powers/Abilities: Leong and Nga are bilingual; French is their primary language, but they speak fluent English as well. They enjoy playing a game called Monnaie Disponible, a madeup game where they were the only ones who knew the rules (except anyone would could read their minds or gain their knowledge)
As Template, they could -- apparently via drawing power through Psylocke -- artificially age and mutate others to join their group. They served as the leaders of the Bratpack.
While mutated by Spiral, Leong was "independent ectomorph": he could shed portions of his own flesh to wrap around and ensnare other (and presumably other functions), after which "techno-mites" (nanites?) repaired and replaced the lost tissue. He could also control the tissue after it has left his body, keeping someone bound as well as forming legs to walk a captive to a new location (while keeping the captive bound).
Spiral's mutation placed a cocoon-like structure on Nga's back. After analyzing a being, she would swiftly create a "techno"-replica of that being (complete with that being's powers; and, in the Beast's case, greater strength) under her control; it was unclear (to me, at least) whether her primary form decayed after she took on the new form, but when she was done with the replica, her primary form could burst forth from the replica-form-shredding it.
It has been hinted that Leong and Nga are latent mutants (and Dr. Graves' testing seemed to indicate they had the gene), and they may develop abilities on their own at some point.
Height: Unrevealed; approximately 4'4" (they look about a foot shorter than the 5'4" Karma in the main picture)
Weight: Unrevealed; (Leong) approximately 63 lbs.; (Nga) approximately 62 lbs.
Eyes: (Both) brown
Hair: (Both) black
History:
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - The infant Leong and Nga were forced to travel --
along with their older siblings Tran and X'ian, and their mother -- with their
father, a colonel in the Vietnamese army, as he was given the most assignments
(both because of his ability and (primarily) as punishment, because he was
honest). Though their father tried to protect them, the children were exposed to
the horrible weapons of war.
(Wolverine II#28 (fb)) - Xi'an and Tran carried the infant Leong & Nga through the jungle (possibly under fire). See comments
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - Xi'an knew and trusted Father Michael Bowen for most of her life; presumably Leong and Nga knew him as well.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - Xi'an and Tran both developed mind control (possession) powers, and Tran, who was happy to use his powers to punish others (unlike Xi'an who feared to use her powers), confided in and earned the favor of their corrupt uncle, General Nguyen Ngoc Coy.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - When things turned for the worse in their part of the country, Nguyen arranged for their evacuation, but, in the confusion, only Tran was rescued. The rest of the family was left to the tender mercies of the communist regime.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - The next few years were hard for the family remaining in Vietnam. Xi'an, by necessity, used her powers to keep the family together and keep her parents from prison or summary execution. They suffered, but survived, and, eventually, escaped in a small, barely seaworthy boat.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - As they crossed the rough sea, they were attacked by Thai pirates, and the sick and hungry Xi'an was too weak to stop them.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - The pirates slew the children's father and all the men aboard. The women's fate was "worse than death." (see comments)
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - They were eventually rescued, but the children's mother died that same day, overcome by the horrors she had endured (see comments).
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb)) - Leong, Nga, and Xi'an were sent
to America, where they were reunited with Tran and Uncle Nguyen, who had grown
cold and calculating, and wealthy, respectively. When Nguyen suggested Xi'an use
her powers in his service, as Tran did, she refused and then took the children
and left.
Xi'an brought Leong and Nga to Father Bowen's Church, as the
Navy had told her how Bowen had established a self-help relief agency for
refugees who had traveled to America by boat.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - With Bowen's aid, Xi'an rented an apartment for herself, Leong, and Nga, and she got a job. As Leong and Nga prepared to enter school, they finally began to smile again.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - Nguyen's men, with or
without Tran's aid, abducted Leong and Nga and ransacked their apartment. When
Xi'an returned home, Nguyen called, telling her if she wanted to see the
children again, she was to go to work for him; he gave her until midnight to
decide.
Mistakenly assuming Spider-Man to be a criminal based on the
Daily Bugle, Xi'an took mental possession of him and sent him to her uncle's
apartment building.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - Nguyen Ngoc Coy brought Leong & Nga, along with Tran, to a party he was hosting in Freedom Tower (see comments), in the heart of New York City's Financial District.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100) - At the party, General Coy introduced
Tran and the twins to Reed and Susan Richards, noting the twins had recently
escaped from Vietnam. When Susan bent down and offered her sympathies, noting
she had a son about their age, Coy interrupted, noting that the twins spoke no
English. Adding that it was also long past their bedtime, he summoned his agents
Lawson and Deruge to see to the children.
Once out of sight, Leong asked (speaking English) where their
sister was, and one of their "caretakers" pushed him back, saying, "Shaddup,
kid!" Having led Spider-Man to monitor the party in secret, Karma had Spider-Man
swiftly take out Lawson and Deruge, but not before one of them got off a
gunshot. Realizing the gunfire would bring more guards, Karma had Spider-Man
tell them he had been sent by their sister; but Spider-Man/Karma was swiftly
distracted the Fantastic Four, who had been drawn by the gunfire and incorrectly
assumed Spider-Man to have gone bad and was attacking the children. The kids
watched passively until, when the Fantastic Four failed to capture Spider-Man
quickly enough, General Coy had Tran use his powers on Spider-Man, neutralizing
Karma's influence. The Thing kiboshed the confused Spider-Man, and they
departed.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100 (fb) - BTS) - Tran guided the twins in a trip to Brooklyn's Pier 32B on the East River, promising them they would see Xi'an.
(Marvel Team-Up I#100) - Later, at Pier 32B, Nguyen prepared
to have Leong and Nga taken aboard a ship to an unspecified location, where he
told his agent Brentano that the children were to be well treated; he wanted
them observed and tested for any sort of paranormal psychic ability; and if they
lacked such talents, his organization would put them to other...profitable uses.
When Leong asked Tran where Xi'an was, Tran told him "All in good time," and
then the twins aboard the ship, assuring them they were in no danger and would
be looked after. Spider-Man then snared both kids with a web and pulled them to
safety in the Fantasticar, mocking Tran as a lawyer. Xi'an, Spider-Man, and the
Fantastic Four confronted Tran, Nguyen, and their men; after Tran possessed the
Fantastic Four and threatened to kill Spider-Man, Xi'an absorbed Tran into
herself, effectively killing him.
Leong and Nga rushed to and were reunited with Xi'an, who
left with them.
(New Mutants I#24 (fb) - BTS) - At some point after Karma joined the New Mutants, Leong and Nga apparently met Karma's new teammates, Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Dani Moonstar, Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa), and Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair).
(New Mutants I#24) - At St. Anne's Church on Manhattan's Lower
East Side, Father Bowen tidied up after evening services, with help from his
wards, Leong & Nga.
Nga noted (in English, though she called Father Bowen, "mon
pere"/my father) that she was amazed to find the reverend sisters were allowed
to have a sense of humor. When Sunspot and Wolfsbane -- their powers distorted
by drugs and interaction with Cloak & Dagger -- suddenly teleported in, Leong
noted (in French) how Roberto looked awful and wondered if he was ill. As
Roberto collapsed, Father Bowen instructed Nga to fetch his first aid kit.
Leong was present as Wolfsbane helped rescue Colossus (Piotr
Rasputin) from within Cloak's Darkforce Dimension, which Sunspot was briefly
able to access.
(New Mutants Annual#2 - BTS) - After enslaving the mutant Psylocke (Betsy Braddock),
Mojo and Spiral initiated the Wildways cartoon, which proved a hit with many of
the nation's youth. The show gave a phone number which fans could call if they
wanted to join the Wildways, at which point Mojo and Spiral would appear and
transport their victim to the Mojoverse.
Captain Britain followed his sister's trail, intending to
liberate her from her captors, but was instead mentally overcome by Spiral &
Mojo, reduced to physical and emotional adolescence, and left behind.
(New Mutants Annual#2 - BTS) - Coy Leong and Coy Nga Manh made the call and were transported to the Wildways.
(New Mutants Annual#2) - Mojo forced the enslaved Psylocke to
transform the Manh twins into Template whom they then used to transform the
others who had made the call -- Alfy, Butch, and Darla, three
members of the youth skateboard club/gang known as the Bratpack, aka. Fatboys;
Sunspot; and Wolfsbane -- into adult versions of themselves subject to Mojo's control; Mojo dubbed
them his Bratpack and promised them glory as they rode the Wildways. The New
Mutants (Cannonball, Cypher, Magik, Magma, Mirage, Warlock) tracked their
missing teammates to Alphabet City where they were confronted and challenged by Snitch, Wolfsbane,
and Jubilee. Template then arrived,
commanded the others to stop fighting, and treated them like school children.
When Magma objected, Template regressed her into childhood, depriving her of the
use of her powers. Cypher and Warlock escaped, but Template then transformed the
remaining New Mutants into adult form and welcomed them into the Bratpack as
Cypher and Warlock found the young Brian Braddock and joined
forces with him. Magma resisted Template yet again, and they reduced her to
childhood again, and she fled. The Bratpack caught up to her, but Brian Braddock smashed into the Bratpack from
behind and then flew Magma away. The Bratpack followed, and Brian did his best
to avoid either of them being captured.
well.
Cypher and Warlock merged forms, located Psyclocke, and
tapped into her neural network, ultimately convincing her to resist Spiral with
all of her might and to cast off her influence. Captain Britain returned to
adulthood, and the Bratpack returned to their true ages and personae, and they
were sent back to where they had come from.
(New Mutants I#46 (fb) - BTS) - Leong & Nga left the Xavier School and headed home.
(New Mutants I#46 - BTS) - Karma called home from the Xavier school hours later and was distressed when they did not answer. Magik (Illyana Rasputin) teleported them to Shan's apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side. When Shan turned on the lights, an explosion occurred. Magik teleported herself and Shan to safety, though they were still stunned. Illyana concluded that the Marauders had set a bomb, rigged to explode when the light switch was turned on. The New Mutants prepared to search for them, but were distracted by the arrival of the Technarch Magus.
(New Mutants I#54 (fb) - BTS) - Xavier School headmaster (and also the Hellfire Club's White King) Magneto had Sebastian Shaw's aide, the computer-minded Tessa perform a search of all public and government data networks with an unlimited search program. When the search yielded nothing, Magneto had her constantly update the search.
(New Mutants I#54 (fb) - BTS) - Magneto told Karma he had futilely done everything possible to find her siblings. Though she believed Magneto, she felt she had to try for herself; she felt there had to be an answer somewhere.
(New Mutants I#54 - BTS) - Karma
sneaked into the Hellfire Club and took mental possession of Tessa,
hoping she would possess the codes to access the Club's computers in
hopes of learning Leong & Nga's whereaboutss; she was surprised to
find Tessa actually had a computer-like mind. Despite this, Tessa's
search came up with no data. Karma attempted to force Tessa to try
again, harder, but then Sebastian Shaw arrived and forcibly
stopped her. Unharmed and sympathetic to Karma's desperate maneuver,
Tessa asked Shaw to be merciful. Magneto then arrived and convinced
Shaw to let Karma go, after which Tessa explained how weeks ago
she had done the same seach for Magneto.
Soon
after, Karma met with and said goodbye to her New Mutants teammates,
preferring to dedicate her time to finding her brother and sister.
Despite Magneto's assurances he would find Leong and Nga, Karma left
soon after.
(Wolverine II#6 (fb) - BTS) - Having exhausted all reasonable hopes, Karma agreed to work for her uncle in hopes that his underworld contacts would enable her to locate and rescue Leong & Nga.
(Wolverine II#27 - BTS) - General Coy met with the Broker (of Andover Enterprises), telling him that despite their plans for the future, the matter of Leong and Nga took absolute priority. When the Broker sympathized, noting how his niece (Karma) must be frantic with worry about them, Nguyen added, "Karma's concerns are my concerns." Karma arrived immediately thereafter (see comments).
(X-Force
I#62 (fb) - BTS) - Shinobi Shaw somehow obtained Leong and Nga (or
perhaps he had them from the start?). He made some arrangement
with Spiral to take them away at a moment's notice at his request.
(X-Force I#62 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking a means to neutralize his
father as a threat (correctly fearing that Sebastian had survived their recent
encounter) as well as to put himself in a supreme position of power in the
continuous struggle between man and mutant, Shinobi Shaw had his scientists work
to develop a means to eradicate the x-factor gene from mutants. He offered to
them Leong and Nga Coy Manh as test subjects.
Apparently learning that Shinobi was up to something, Cable
sent X-Force (Caliban, Domino, Meltdown, Shatterstar, Sunspot) to investigate.
(X-Force I#62) - Under the direction of Shinobi Shaw, Dr. Graves and other scientists experimented on Nga. After the process started, Nga screamed in agony, while Leong helplessly watched in shock from a cage. After Dr. Graves frustratedly noted that Nga still possessed the x-factor gene and told Shinobi he would need to run more tests, Shinobi told Graves he demanded results. When Leong shouted that they should use him as a guinea pig and leave his sister out of it, Shinobi silenced him, telling him his day would come. X-Force soon arrived, and Shinobi's sensors detected them.
(X-Force I#62 - BTS) - Nga was returned to a cell alongside
Leong.
(X-Force I#62) - Caliban detected mutant presences, after which Shaw's agents, Clear-Cut and Mindmeld assaulted and subdued them, bringing them to cells near the children. Sunspot introduced (though they already knew each other) himself to Nga and told her that Xi'an was looking for her. Nga asked him if he was there to rescue them, and he told her not to worry as everything would be fine. However, Shinobi then arrived and taunted Sunspot before offering to release the children if Sunspot would join Shinobi him as a partner in the Hellfire Club. When Sunspot refused, Shinobi then told Spiral that the children were hers an told her to take them. Spiral then appeared and transported the children away to "a place most wondrous"; Leong shouted "No!" and Nga asked Sunspot to tell Xi'an.
(X-Force I#62 - BTS) - X-Force got free and destroyed Shaw's equipment and base.
(Beast I#3 (fb) - BTS / Beast I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking vengeance on the Coy Manh family for being previously enslaved by Tran, Viper made a contract with Spiral to mutate Leong & Nga and then sell the mutated twins to Viper (see comments).
(Beast I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Spiral began her sub-cellular reconfiguration of the young Coy Manh siblings.
(Beast I#1 - BTS) - Spiral met with Viper and prepared to bring her to the Body Shop(pe) to obtain what she had contracted.
(Beast I#1 - BTS) - Karma took possession of Best so he would help her force information on her missing siblings from the Hellfire Club guards. Beast battered a number of guards, who did not seem to have ever heard of her siblings were. When Karma tried to force the information from their minds, Beast stopped her.
(Beast I#1 (fb) - BTS) - From the Hellfire Club's computer records, Karma and Beast apparently learned that the Hellfire Club had passed her siblings on to Viper (see comments).
(Beast I#1 - BTS) - Beast and Cannonball offered to help Karma locate Leong & Nga, after which Spiral sent a psionic blast that informed Karma that her siblings were in Spiral's Body Shop(pe).
(Beast I#1) - As Leong and Nga's biomed transmutation processes reached a rapid acceleration point, Spiral noted that it wouldn't take much longer, and that a nutrient bath was the final stage. The process was excruciating, though Spiral had sound-proofed the units to avoid the distraction of her subjects' screaming, much to Viper's disappointment.
(Beast I#1 - BTS) - Spiral traveled to the Xavier Institute and transported Cannonball and Karma, whom she had subdued, back to the Body Shop, and Beast leapt into her warp as well.
(Beast I#2 - BTS) - Within the Body Shop, Beast, Cannonball, and Karma -- in hopes of being brought to Leong and Nga -- surrendered to Spiral's mutates.
(Beast I#2) - Viper introduced the mutated and adult Leong and Nga to Beast, Cannonball, and Karma, who were horrified by what the children had become. Karma leapt at Viper, but Leong jumped into their midst and then opened a rent into his chest from which projected tendrils of flesh to bind Karma, after which techno-mites (Beast also called then nanites, though they were grossly visible) spun new layers of dermal tissue to replace that which he shed to encase Karma.
(Beast I#2) - Leong subsequently caused his shed flesh to grow legs that carried Karma over to Nga.
(Beast I#2) - Nga then created a nanite/techno-Karma replica within her cocoon before it was released; the replica possessed Karma's powers but was controlled by Nga. Nga's Karma then possessed Cannonball and forced him to attack the Beast until Spiral struck down Beast. Nga then emerged from her Karma replica, shredding it in the process. Viper had Leong bring Karma into the Body Shop's lab, and she ordered Nga to kill the unconscious Beast and Cannonball (who had collapsed as Nga-Karma ceased to exist). Despite Karma's pleas and the unwilling Nga's tears, Nga obeyed orders, taking a large dagger and cutting into Beast's neck.
(Beast I#3) - Karma possessed the unconscious Beast, forcing him to fight back against Nga. When Cannonball attempted to take Karma to safety, they were both captured by Viper and Spiral. Beast regained awareness, but Nga then released/transformed into a Beast techno-replica, which mimicked the Beast's savage frenzy that Karma had incited. Beast defensively fought Nga-Beast, who proved stronger than him.
(Beast I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Beast discovered that the X-Men's communicator patch, set to sub-sonics 4, could be used to jam the control-signal from the Body Shop. He used this to release Nga-Beast from Viper and Spiral's control.
(Beast I#3) - As Spiral began her efforts to mutate Karma,
they discovered that Tran was still woven into her, at which point Nga-Beast
tossed the seeming defeated Beast at their feet. While Viper tried to negotiate
to regain Karma from Spiral, Nga shredded her Beast form and returned to her
own, while the real Beast revealed he was conscious and swiftly freed
Cannonball. Viper ordered Leong to kill the traitorous Nga, who tearfully
pleaded with him. Instructed by Beast, Cannonball used his communicator patch to
free Leong from the Shop's control as well.
When Spiral tried to molecularly dissemble Karma as payback,
Viper destroyed Spiral's equipment, causing Spiral to attack Viper. As the Body
Shop began to destabilize, Karma first tried to force Cannonball and Beast to
leave her siblings behind, as she felt they were no longer her brother and
sister, then tried to force Beast to revert them back to normal; but he told her
this was behind even his capabilities. He further added that their bodies had
been changed on a genetic level, that there was no external agent or actualized
virus or foreign substance to be removed from them, and that this is what they
now were forever. Beast, Cannonball, and Karma escaped back to Earth along with
Leong and Nga, and Beast offered to bring them to the Xavier Institute where
they would be considered family.
(X-Force I#75 (fb) - BTS) - Karma found a doctor who thought he could undo the damage Spiral had inflicted upon Leong and Nga. While her siblings were undergoing treatments, Karma's doctor convinced her to try to reclaim her own life.
(Mekanix#1 (fb) - BTS) - While studying at the University of Chicago and working in its library, Karma got an apartment, which she shared with Leong and Nga.
(Mekanix#1) - Leong and Nga had dinner with Shan and Kitty Pryde (who was also studying at the university as well as working in a local bar, the Belles of Hell) when Shan invited her back for dinner. Before the kids went to bed, they said their prayers with Shan.
(Mekanix#3
(fb) - BTS) - Following the anti-mutant Purity organization's
assault that became known as the Bessemer disaster, Shan made her
statement to the police; meanwhile, federal agents investigated her
apartment without her knowledge (as they did with everyone connected
with the attack).
After the federal agents
departed, Shan's landlord evicted her and her siblings; unwilling to
put Leong and Nga at risk by living there any longer, Shan took the
kids and left.
(Mekanix#3) - Shan brought Leong and Nga with her to the Belles of Hell to talk to Kitty about what happened. Hearing their plights, bar owner Dylan Maguire offered to let them stay in an apartment in his building that needed some work. Kitty and Shan carried the sleeping Leong and Nga back to their new apartment.
(Mekanix#3 (fb) - BTS) - Dylan Maguire stayed in the apartment while Shan and Kitty went out to meet with Shola Inkosi, a powerful mutant that had helped during the Bessemer disaster.
(Mekanix#4) -
Leong and Nga fell asleep sitting up while Kitty told them how she and
Shan had joined the X-Men. When Shan and Kitty tried to leave, however,
the kids tried to stop them, fearing the people who wanted to kill
them. Shan and Kitty promised they were safe and would be right in the
kitchen, and told the kids to go to sleep. Soon after, however, the
kids started yeling for Shan after spotting a "monster" (actually a
wild-type Sentinel) peering out their window. Shan and Kitty destroyed
the Sentinel.
(Mekanix#5) - While Kitty, Shan, and Shola discussed the Sentinels' threat, Leong & Nga watched out the window for more Sentinels approach, Leong with a baseball bat, and Nga with her stuffed bunny.
(Mekanix#5 - BTS) - Kitty, Shan, and Shola subsequently left to attend a freedom of speech discussion involving Purity; presumably Dylan or someone else stayed with the young twins.
(X-Men: Manifest Destiny#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - When "Aunt" Kitty babysat the kids, she -- at least according to the kids -- let them stay up late and watch TV with her.
(New Mutants II#4) - Leong and Nga accompanied Shan to attend her University of Chicago commencement with guest speaker Dr. Sean Garrison. They came upon some Purity members defacing a poster of Garrison with the words "Race Traitor," and Karma possessed the vandal and made him spray paint one of his associate's heads; Leong recognized Karma as having caused this. As Shan sat them in their seats, Leong realized with disappointment that Leong was not coming.
(New Mutants II#4 - BTS) - During the ceremony, they were joined by Shan's old teammate Dani Moonstar, who the seat that had been reserved for Kitty.
(New Mutants
II#4) - After Shan's graduation, Leong and Nga accompanied Dani as she
was reunited with Shan. Back at their apartment, Leong and Nga asked
Dani to play Monnaie Disponible, but Karma warned Dani off, telling her
it was a madeup game where they were the only ones who knew the rules,
and that they just wanted to get her money.
Later, after Shan and Dani recruited David Alleyne as a new mutant, he
introduced himself to Leong and Nga, who asked him to play Monnaie
Disponible. He quickly agreed, as his mutant power allowed him to know
anything those around him knew, and he told them he knew the rules.
(New Mutants II#5) - At the Xavier Institute, Leong and Nga questioned David about his ability, repeatedly asking him if he could mimick the super-powers of certain beings, despite him repeatedly telling them he could only absorb/replicate knowledge and skills. Eventually Shan and Professor Xavier came to check on David, and Shan told the kids to leave him alone.
(New Mutants II#6) - Leong and Nga were present with Professor Xavier and Gail Collins at the Xavier Institute when Shan and Dani returned alongside David Alleyne, Sofia Mantega, Laurie Collins, and Kevin Ford.
(New Mutants II#9) - Leong and Nga were attending the Institute's Lower School , taught by Shan, when Noriko Ashida (aka Surge) brought in and introduced the new student, the ghost Jeffrey Garrett
(New
X-Men II#24) - Leong and Nga attended a mass funeral at the Xavier
Institute for all of those slain in Revere
nd Stryker's assault on
de-powered mutants leaving the school.
(X-Men: Manifest Destiny#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - Shan moved to San Francisco with Leong & Nga, independently of the X-Men who relocated there around the same time. She tried to teach them about self-control.
(X-Men: Manifest Destiny#1/3 (fb)) - Shan found a church and priest to whom she introduced Leong & Nga.
(X-Men:
Manifest Destiny#1/3) - Shan picked up Leong and Nga from school and
then had dinner at home with them. She noted they were all each other
needed and -- as she put them to bed -- that she had control over her
life now. The twins awakened to Shan sobbing over the seeming death of
Kitty Pryde (when she had been seemingly lost inside of a giant bullet
she had made intangible to save Earth). When they saw the picture of
Kitty, they got very excited and wondered if she was coming over. Shan
told them know and that they needed to go back to bed, but when the
kids continued to argue despite Shan's explanations and orders, she
possessed the two of them to silence them, shouting, "I'm in control
here!"
Almost instantly, Shan was mortified by
what she had done, and she released her control. The kids were confused
and asked what she had done to them. Shan apologized and hugged the
kids, realizing that she had lost her edge and needed to regain control
of her powers, emotions, and her life.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, and Bob Wiacek.
Obviously, connections to "the" Vietnam
conflict/war are topical references, but the twins nonetheless are Vietnamese
and escaped a violent region. In the original story, they were from South
Vietnam, and Tran and Coy escaped when South Vietnam fell (which would be 1975).
If the kids are Franklin Richards age, I guess they are like
8 now...which would make it hard for them to have been around in 1975...
New Mutants#24 referenced "Leong Xui Manh, and his twin sister, Nga." I'm not sure what the Xui deal is...I don't recall seeming it used elsewhere and not sure whether it is straight errata or perhaps an alternate spelling of Coy?
Is/was there a Freedom Tower in Manhattan's
Financial District in 1980? My internet searches all show the modern Freedom
Tower, rebuilt from the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
Was there an older Freedom Tower? Or was this just strange coincidence? Maybe Destiny told Chris Claremont?
The note about Karma learning the Hellfire
Club had passed Leong and Nga off to Viper was odd, as her former fellow New
Mutants had seen Shinobi give them over to Spiral.
I guess the Hellfire Club had contracted with Viper to receive the
Spiral-mutated twins or something, so Karma learned from the Hellfirre
Club that the young twins were in Viper's hands.
And,
apparently despite the apparent urgency, no one in X-Force had
had a chance the chance to contact Karma? Plot device, sure, but
unrealistic for friends who would appreciate the urgency of the
situation for Shan.
A flashback in Wolverine II#28 noted the Coy Manh siblings' father to
have vanished into the jungle and to have never been seen again, and
their mother to have been murdered by those who claimed they would
liberate them.
This contrasts with the flashback
in Marvel Team-Up I#100, in which Thai pirates on the boat killed her
father, and her mother died the same day they were rescued, after the pirates had repeatedly assaulted
her.
As Wolverine: Official Index to the Marvel
Universe noted, it is possible that Karma's mother was accidentally
shot by the soldiers who had rescued them from the pirates.
I
would further add that the pirates could have posed as liberators (when
they starving and sick on the overcrowded boat) before assaulting them.
I would also note that it is possible the pirates took the men aboard
the boat into a jungle and executed them away from their family. That
would make both versions work.
In X-Men: Manifest Destiny#1/3, Karma notes that she, Leong, & Nga have "run into other long-lost family members over the years...but no one wants to spend too much time with their odd, murderous uncles." This statement comes after she mentioned having had to slay Tran. It's possible that she was just being cute when making the above statement (in which she was shown encountering her uncle Nguyen), but she does use the plural, which could mean she has met other family members not referenced elsewhere.
Thanks to Jeph York for noting Wolverine II#6 and X-Men: Premium Edition (Toys'R'Us Special) as two issues where the twins are referenced but not shown.
Thanks to Roger Ott for pointing out the Wolverine II#27-28 references/appearances!
Tran was "Tran" in his first appearance.
How old are the twins? I remember somewhere that Karma was the oldest
of the New Mutants, something like 19 years old in New Mutants I#1? The
kids look like they could have as young as 4-5 in their first
appearance in the modern era circa Marvel Team-Up I#100, but they could
also have been as old as 6-9 years old then. Two different flashbacks
(MTU#100 and Wolverine#28) showed the twins as babies when Shan and
Tran looked to be like 6-8 years old.
They seemed
even younger in the Mekanix series, which was 22 years later real-time,
so perhaps 4-5 years later Marvel time. Their latest appearance
in X-Men: Manifest Destiny made them look like they could have been
12-13 years old, which seems a bit more believable to me.
I guess any age variations could be chalked up to malnutrition in their
early years, and their various mutations in their more recent years.
Why couldn't Tessa find them? While it might seem like the Hellfire
Club had them the whole time when they were shown in Shinobi's
possession in X-Force I#62, that is not outright states, and Shinobi
was not associated with the Hellfire Club at the time of Tessa's
search. It's possible that Shinobi or someone else had them, and
managed to make sure they were never mentioned on any computer system
Tessa could access...or perhaps Spiral or someone else had them
off-Earth, where there wouldn't be any records Tessa could access. If
Spiral or Mojo had them the whole time (and then transferred them to
Shinobi for a time, for whatever reason), you have to wonder why
nothing happened with them the whole time.
I
guess the easy answer is that this is fiction, and no one cared enough
to resolve the issue yet. Maybe we'll find out some day?
Despite Nguyen Coy and the Broker's discussion of Leong & Nga being top priority, I don't think we ever heard another word discussed about them by either Nguyen or the Broker. They apparently told Karma of the Master Form, and she went after it...and that was the end of that discussion.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Leong & Nga Coy Manh
have no known connection to:
images: (without ads)
Marvel Team-Up I#100, pg. 6, panel 1 (Freedom Tower);
panel 4 (meet
Sue Richards);
pg. 18, panel 3 (as infants, with
family);
pg. 19, panel 5 (on boat);
panel 8 (meet
with Nguyen and Tran in USA)
Wolverine II#28, pg. 13, panel 3 (Shan & Tran carry baby Leong & Nga through
New Mutants Annual#2, pg.19, panel 2 (normal form);
panel 4 (as Template);
pg. 25, panel 3 (closeup);
X-Force I#62, pg. 3, panel 1 (Nga tested);
pg. 4, panel 2 (Leong face in cage);
pg. 12, panel 4 (taken away by
Spiral)
Beast I#1, pg. 17, panel 2 & 5 (Leong undergoing transmutation process, face & body);
panel 6 (Nga undergoing mutation; face);
#2, pg. 9, panel 1 (fully mutated by Spiral);
pg. 10, panel 3-4-5 (Leong projecting flesh);
pg. 16, panel 4 (Nga replicating Karma);
#3, pg. 6, panels 3,5 (Nga-Beast in cocoon);
pg. 8, panel 1 (Nga-Beast)
Mekanix#5, pg. 16, panel 1 (watching out window)
X-Men: Manifest Destiny#1/3, pg. 4, panel 4 (kids walking alongside Shan)
panel 6 (Nga face, closer, slight oblique)
pg. 7, panel 2 (Leong, face, slight oblique)
panel 4 (Karma possessing Leong & Nga)
Appearances:
Marvel Team-Up I#100 (December, 1980) - Chris Claremont (writer,
co-creator), Frank Miller (penciler, co-creator), Bob Wiacek
(inker/embellisher), Denny O'Neil (editor)
New Mutants I#24 (February, 1985) - Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz
(artist), Ann Nocenti (editor)
New Mutants Annual#2 (October, 1986) - Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis (artist)
New Mutants I#46 (December, 1986) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jackson Guice (penciler),
Kyle Baker (inker), Ann Nocenti (editor)
New Mutants I#54 (August, 1987) - Chris Claremont (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Wolverine II#6 (April, 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Buscema (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Bob Harras (editor)
Wolverine II#27 (Late July, 1990) - Jo Duffy (writer), John Buscema (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Bob Harras (editor)
Wolverine II#28 (Early August, 1990) - Jo Duffy (writer), Barry Kitson (penciler), Keith Williams (inker), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Force I#62 (January, 1997) - John Dokes (writer), Kevin Lau with Adam Pollina
(pencilers), Andrew Pepoy with Norman Lee (inkers), Bob Harras (editor)
Beast I#1 (May, 1997) - Keith Giffen (writer), Cedric Nocon (penciler), Jaime
Mendoza & Hackshack Studios (inkers), Jayne Gardner (editor)
Beast I#2 (June, 1997) - Keith Giffen (plot), Terry Kavanaugh (script), Cedric
Nocon (penciler), Jaime Mendoza & Hackshack Studios (inkers), Jayne Gardner
(editor)
Beast I#3 (July, 1997) - Terry Kavanaugh (writer ), Cedric Nocon (penciler),
Jaime Mendoza & Hackshack Studios (inkers), Jayne Gardner (editor)
X-Force
I#75 (March, 1998) - John Francis Moore (writer), Adam Pollina
(penciler), Mark Morales & company (inkers), Mark Powers (editor)
Mekanix#1 (December, 2002) - Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Andrew Lis (editor)
Mekanix#3-5
(February-April, 2003) - Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo
(penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Andrew Lis (editor)
New Mutants
II#4 (October, 2003) - Nunzio deFilippis and Christina Weir (writers),
Keron Grant (penciler), Rub Stull & Rich Perotta (inker), MacKenzie
Cadenhead (assistant editor), C.B. Cebulski (editor)
New
Mutants II#5 (November, 2003) - Nunzio deFilippis and
Christina Weir (writers), Mark A. Robinson (penciler), Aaron Sowd,
Wayne Faucher, & Scott Elmer (inkers), MacKenzie Cadenhead
(assistant editor), C.B. Cebulski
(editor)
New Mutants II#6 (December, 2003) - Nunzio deFilippis
and
Christina Weir (writers), Mark A. Robinson (penciler), Pat Davidson & Scott Elmer (inkers), MacKenzie Cadenhead
(assistant editor), C.B. Cebulski
(editor)
New Mutants II#9 (March, 2004?) - Nunzio deFilippis
and
Christina Weir (writers), Carlo Pagulayan (penciler), Norm Rapmund (inker), Moore & Sean Ryan
(assistant editors), Mike Marts
(editor)
New
Mutants II#24 (May, 2006) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers), Paco
Medina (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Sean Ryan (assistant
editor), Nick Lowe (associate editor), Mike Marts (editor)
X-Men:
Manifest Destiny#1/3 (November, 2008) - C.B. Beluski (writer),
David Yardin (artist), Will Panzo (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (editor)
First Posted: 07/04/2015
Last updated: 05/21/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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