Tracking the Cameo Queens: Karma; Real Name: Xi'an Coy Manh

Welcome to the beginning of my new series of posts: Tracking the Cameo Queens. As you may know, since Matt Fraction's introduction at Uncanny x-Men #500 we've seen some old faces return. But as you may also know, they only appear briefly and generally do very little besides stir a little excitement for the fan bases of these characters.
This series is dedicated to keeping track of the appearances of the cameo queens. The criteria for a cameo queen appearance is for it to be an appearance that happens after Uncanny X-Men #500, both in release dates and in-universe meaning no First Class appearances or any sort of flashbacks as well as it has to be in the 616 universe. It also has to be a genuine appearance, so it can't be something like Illyana looking at a picture of the New Mutants and Karma just happens to be there.
The criteria for what is a cameo queen is basically the character has appearances in Fraction's Uncanny X-Men with limited panel time and it helps if the character is LGBT friendly. So far I plan to do a cameo queen following of Karma, Dazzler, Northstar, Psylocke, and most likely the Stepford Cuckoos. You the reader are more than welcome to correct me when I miss an appearance or you can suggest a character you feel is a cameo queen. These posts will be updated when a cameo queen makes a new appearance. Also, if anyone knows a code to get the text to wraparound an image on the right side for blogspot please feel free to share.

Anyway, our first cameo queen is Karma, aka Xi'an Coy Manh, who also doubles as queen of the headbands (which is her tag in this blog):

Uncanny X-Men #501
# of panels: 4
# of lines: Singing a song off her music player, so not counting it.
# of times using her powers: power signature at end of the issue.
Craption: Psionic mind-posession. Likes girls.
In this issue, Karma only appears at the end as a woman walking on the street who’s singing along with her music when she’s all of a sudden attacked but revealed to have been the bait to lure out the Hellfire cult.

Uncanny X-Men #502
# of panels: 5
# of lines: 7
# of time using her powers: Twice, but the first time is unsuccessful.
Craption: Psionic mind possession. Living bait.
This issue Karma is seen on the first page with her own panel as part of the active roster and also shown only on the first page of the opening battle scene. She discovers her powers can’t work on the Hellfire Cult so she simply leaves. Later on she’s called in to perform some sort of interrogation using some acupuncture thing. Which is useless, Emma could’ve just snatched the information out of the guy’s head. She’s seen exiting looking absolutely Land-ified with huge boobs, perfect face with long hair.

Uncanny X-Men #503
# of panels: 5
# of lines: 5
# of time using her powers: 0
Craption: Mind Posessor. Recreational Beer Enthusiast.
Karma this time only appears in the opening bar scene with Dani Moonstar and Cannonball. All she says is she likes beer and she agrees that a normal life sounds nice. Shown to be again, Land-ified.

Uncanny X-Men #504
# of panels: 4
# of lines: 9
# of time using her powers: 0
Craption: None.
Karma this time only appears on the last page of this issue to alert Scott and Emma to the release of the footage from Cooperstown, Alaska; the site of Hope Summers being born which caused a massive fight. She also asks what Emma and Scott are doing and when Emma replies that they were talking Karma stupidly mentions that their lips weren’t moving. This is from a psychic power. To a woman with psychic powers. WTF Fraction? Also, the way she’s drawn/acts seems to be more appropriate for Jubilee than her.

Uncanny X-Men #508
# of panels: 1
# of lines: Does NNNNNGGGGGGGKKKKKK-- count as a line?
# of time using her powers: 0
Craption: Psychic posession. Wasn’t crazy for the wrap-up of Battlestar.
This appearance was only one panel during the psychic attack, but had a lot more interesting things than any of her previous Uncanny appearances. First, we see her de-Landed which is made complete with her headband and full pajames. Then she’s shown in bed with another woman who’s naked. Probably the most risqué scene I’ve seen with lesbians in comic books, I have to give props to Fraction for that.

Uncanny X-Men #511
# of panels: 2
# of lines: 0
# of time using her powers: 0
Craption: Psychic posession. Underestimated and ignored a lot.
Karma this time appears briefly for two panels, one of them being Land-ified so that she’s duplicating Emma’s stance. She’s not even shown at the end of the battle with the rest of her team. Her craption is funny considering this was one of her least valuable appearances and most of her Uncanny appearances lack substance like no other.

Uncanny X-Men #514
# of panels: 4
# of lines: 0
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None

This is an appearance that I find questionable. Nowhere in the issue does it say that this Asian woman is Karma. And Dodson's women basically look the same. BUT what we can do is say, who's a part of Fraction's cast that is Asian and a woman: Betsy, Hisako and Karma. Betsy's been shown already, so we're down to two. Hisako's hair is generally longer AND this woman is being shown with two other cameo queens. So I assume this to be Karma with this being her most obscure appearance ever.

X-men: Manifest Destiny #1
# of panels: 41-ish
# of lines: Her third of the issue is almost all her, I’m not counting that one.
# of time using her powers: 5, the first time is for an extended period and the third and fourth are in a flashback.
Likely Karma’s most quality appearance during her time as a cameo queen. She basically gets a third of the issue and it’s generally Emma showing her that her control over her power is slipping. Then it’s a flashback and regret over Kitty’s death. Her little siblings tick her off, she lashes out and then she apologizes. That’s the REALLY short summary of it. Also, suppose it’s required of me to note that Karma looks extra frumpalicious this appearance.

X-Men Worlds Apart #4
# of panels: 7
# of lines: 7
# of time using her powers: 0
Karma’s appearance here is basically to show that she’s absolutely terrified of being taken over by Shadow King. Then Ororo fights a Shadow King-influenced team, noting that she takes out the telepath, Karma, first.

X-Infernus #2
# of panels: 5
# of lines: 3
# of time using her powers: 0
Karma’s appearance is limited to being surprised to see Illyana, helping the knocked down Kurt up, and serving as background filler in a meeting.

X-Infernus #4
# of panels: 3
# of lines: 1
# of time using her powers: 0
Karma is part of the team in the Danger Room that encounter the returning team at the end of the issue.

New Mutants #1
# of panels: 10
# of lines: 8
# of time using her powers: Essentially using her powers for the duration of her opening appearance.
This issue makes Karma’s first cover appearance since cameo queendom, in group shot. However, she’s not included in the non-wraparound group cover. Karma’s only speaking appearance is at the beginning of the issue where she wanders around the mindscape of Legion and essentially tries to talk to Marci. She’s later shown to be found unconscious.

New Mutants #2
# of panels: 28
# of lines: Too many to count, plus she’s sometimes shown talking through Legion.
# of time using her powers: Hard to say. She’s trapped on a psychic field in this appearance, but she does unconsciously attack Roberto once.
This appearance is definitely a quality one, she’s shown running through Legion’s mindscape with Marci away from Legion‘s other personalities. She gets possession of the doll which enables her to talk through Legion to her teammates and then she ends up getting conquered by the other personalities after trying to hide from them and also fighting them.

New Mutants #3
# of panels: 4
# of lines: 0
# of time using her powers: 0
This issue, Karma’s unconscious body is only shown.
That and her predicament is discussed.

New Mutants #4-Present
Considering Karma is a part of the main cast for this book, I'm going to stop updating on her New Mutants appearances since it's way too time-consuming. All other appearances will be noted though.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot
# of panels: 5
# of lines: 4
# of time using her powers: 1
Craption: None.
Shown at protest concerning Prop X which erupts into a battle that is halted by Moonstone. That’s it.

Dark Avengers #8
# of panels: 1
# of lines: 0
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Brief appearance with all the other X-Peeps in the church.

The List #4

Before I start I have to mention that this week's The List is very brief considering the amount of issues and also some of these titles are a bit new to me so I can only comment so much.

Wolverine #76
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli

A positive aspect of this issue I'd have to say is the modifications done to Moonstone's costume:

Considering how crotch-tacular some artists get with this costume, I consider covering Moonstone up a bit a nice alternative. She's ungodly skinny here though. And sort of a flat personality-less version of herself. Whatever.

I have to complain though, I am absolutely bored by Daken. For the same reason that I disliked the Cabal: Too many similar personalities on one team. Daken has not proven to be anymore special than any of the other members of the team. Cold and calculating? Moonstone and Osbourn do it better. Vicious? Bullseye and Venom. All Daken's got is being the son of Wolverine, a mohawk, bad tattoos, and a questionable sexuality. Which is used frequently in conversation because it tickles fangirls yaoi-censors. Honestly, I think it's bullshit to cover up the fact that Daken's nothing new. Check here for this month's serving of Bi-Daken.

This series will not be returning to The List next month unless there's substantial improvement on this title.

Gotham City Sirens #2
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Guillem March

If you're like me and love Harley and Ivy (Catwoman's never interested me), then this is a must have series. In terms of this past issue, leave it on the shelves and read it from a friend or get the summary since only two things were accomplished in #2. One: Finding out the identity of Batman which obv didn't get anywhere. Two: Hush kidnaps Harley. While this issue was crap, I can see #3 being absolutely wonderful so stay tuned.

X-Force #17
Writer: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Artist: Mike Choi

After what was one of the most pointless crossovers, Messiah War, X-Force is finally back on track. This issue just ties up loose ends in a predictable fashion, but look for X-Force to get back to business next month.

Runaways #12
Writer: Kathryn Immomen
Artist: Sara Pichelli

Runaways has been suffering since Whedon left us, but not without first leaving us with another add-a-kid. Klara is her name and she's single-handedly fucked up the series since. Since now Molly has someone her own age, the series has spent more time focusing on Molly and Klara and been set for a mindset of other more her age. Except Molly's 13, not 7. Apparently the writers seem to think it's all the same, so Molly and Klara are being drawn as children rather than young teens and given the personalities and intelligence of 7 year olds. It's really annoying, but it seems Immomen is sort of getting Runaways back on track considering how serious this past issue was. If she can continue raising Runaways back to its former glory before Gert comes back then let me just say she's got my full support. My only worry is the fact that Runaways was omitted from the last set of solicits. Here's hoping it's just a break or a false alarm.

Ms. Marvel #42
Writer: Brian Reed
Artist: Sana Takeda

First off, I have to say that the crap anime artist returned for this issue, but he actually worked for this issue considering all the fighting. He weakens the series when there's more dialogue though. Next I have to say that this is the title I was most excited for this week and it was the one that came closest to delivering. My problem was the fight scene was sort of too much and dominated the whole issue without making progress. That and Moonstone is being used so poorly in this series. A cruel and manipulative woman very close to Emma Frost's personality could've been used infinitely more creatively. Instead: bad plot, pointless guest appearances, and now a fight scene that did nothing. Still, I can see a way that this may improve in future issues.

The List #3

X-Factor #46
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Marco Santucci

Before I even begin, my biggest pull factor to this next issue was the follow up of the kiss of last issue. Unfortch, RicStar was limited to one panel this issue. Here it is:

Awww.
Still I wish there was more, but no worries, look at the fab cover of issue 50:

Aren't they so goddamn cute?

Moving onto the issue itself, I have a few things to say. The Monet and Darwin fight was admittedly fun especially in the Fraction era of poorly written fight scenes. But it sort of felt a little better than lukewarm which I feel is the general temperature of the book when there's not something "shocking". Or disturbing like Layla and Madrox. I just feel like this book needs some extra TLC even though I know David is probably busting his ass to make sure this book gets it.
Still, David adds in entertaining little moments that make me smile:

Another funny part was the Layla being "hurt" by Doom because I freaked like Ruby at first since I despise Doom. So to find out he's completely pathetic just feels right since it's how I've thought of him all along. Seriously, I've got zero respect for repetitive, megalomaniac men.

I'd also like to point out I enjoy the artist. He isn't my beloved Pablo Raimondi or Ryan Sook, but he certainly is better than that sales-killer Larry Stroma or whatever. A couple panels of interest:

A bit BJ-face-y, don't you think? Seriously dear, let's save those for Land.
And something I found absolutely odd to see:

Is Madrox not Michael McDonald from Mad TV in this panel. Seriously?

This issue also saw the return of Siryn actually doing something and using her powers considering her sidelined position as of late. Actually, it seems the entire cast of is sidelined half the time except Madrox and I understand that he's the star character, but for such a big cast I really have to say star character needs a timeout if EVERYONE on the team has so little spotlight time.

In other news, yet another unwanted resurrection has sprung up on us. This time it is one of the lamest you will EVER see. Who is it you may ask?

Trevor bloody Fitzroy. Tune in next week as I fully bash this poor plot point.

New Mutants #3
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Diogenes Neves

My initial thoughts on the revamped New Mutants were that it was lukewarm and I would not even bother discussing it here. But this issue impressed me enough to get a couple thoughts and hopefully promote this refreshing series.

Unfortch, I don't have a LOT to say, not for lack of awesome factor in this book, but for lack of thoughts to go with the awesome. I do have to say Sunspot is one sexy guy in this book and him and Cannonball are rocking a bromance that could nix the b. Other than that, it's all about Dani:

This past issue, Sam left Depowered Dani in a cell as a way to slow Legion from attacking her. I almost shit when I found out that this was a serious moment. I expected Sam to be revealed to be possessed. I read up on the latest interview with Zeb Wells and it's legit: Sam really did do that dick of a thing to Dani. Not to worry, she got back at him:

If Dani turns into someone like depowered Storm was then I am going to be hooked from here on out. Mohawked, independent Storm is the version of Storm I love the most and I wish Dani well on her journey to prove her usefulness to the team. I actually am rooting for a team leader position for her.

Also, just by the way, I plan on making a series of posts on tracking the cameo queens which will focus on Fraction's cameo queens Dazzler, Psylocke, Northstar, and Karma. I know that Karma's in her NM now, but she hasn't appeared at all this past issue so I feel she's still obscure enough to consider one of the queens.

Dark Avengers #7
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Luke Ross

Once again, I have to say the variant is better.

I'm sad to see this issue on The List since I thought I'd have more to say on it, but that's when I thought Bendis was writing. Fucking Fraction is dominating the X-World it seems.

Anyway, I'm glad it seems Beast is getting depowered in here, I suspected it was going to happen since the one-shot. It would definitely add spice to a character that falls flat a lot.

I loved this so much since Hellion throws mantrums way too often.
But why is Emma still flying around?

Group shot love! Even if it is glorified D-Listers and Namor and Emma!

About the fight, I felt it was the first well-done Fraction fight. It was the actual meat of the fight rather than the beginning and end like Uncanny has seen a lot.
This issue was generally better due to a fuck of a lot less speechifying. I even sort of like the Daken/Emma conflict. Except Emma was written with barely any personality for the second half of the issue. It was quite frustrating to say the least. That and Fraction seems to overuse her diamond form.
My biggest complaint though is one craption that sends me into pissy overdrive:

Fraction, do not fucking slut-shame and think I'll miss it.
Seriously, I'm sure you wrote Iron Man to be a total player and glorified it. But now Moonstone gets this shit? So men can be sex-positive, but women can't? Fuck off.

Last moment of calling out sexism comes from this cover:

Her boobs would not plunge forward you fucking twit! Although I suppose you'd have to sleep with a woman to know that. I'm sorry, but I can't imagine men who are objectifying women like this all day get very much success sexually.

The List #2

X-Men Legacy #226

Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Dustin Weaver

X-Men Legacy is a book I tune into here and there, but never consistently follow. While Carey is talented, I wouldn't say all his work on this book has been. Nonetheless, I had to check this book out as it turns its direction from Xavier to Rogue especially because of her coming to San Fransisco. I'm also thrilled to see the return of her green and white costume since it's her best in my opinion.

To start, I have to say that I'm bored with Danger's reformed villainess thing. It's highly uninteresting and she should have stayed in comic book limbo or been shipped back to her homeland. Luckily enough, it seems she leaves this book after this arc I believe. She's just a character I've never liked and to make her reform makes her that much less appealing.

I was thrilled to see Psylocke in the previews, but not so psyched to see that was all we see of her. Lot of cameos in this book as well as anything Fraction does. I understand in this crossover it is to demonstrate the community rather than the teams we always see, but this should also be a chance to take some characters out of limbo especially the ones who have not been there for a decade. The cameos of Dragoness and Nekra are especially pointless because I believe that Nekra has never really appeared in the X-Universe or never significantly and there is no oppurtunity for them later. With someone like Carey who actually can write a character with personality, he should be made to use the characters longer than a scene to really give a less shallow feel to this. However there was one cameo I grudgingly did like:

Careful Gambit, her portal may return you to the 80's.
Honestly, the only reason I liked her is because of her flashy factor.

I was absolutely surprised when Moonstone as Ms. Marvel showed up to battle Rogue. It's a fight I didn't think of that totally works. I would also like to thank the artist for this:

Successful crotch coverage. More on this when we get to Ms. Marvel.

To summarize, I felt Carey was sort of lackluster in his writing for this issue. It was sort of plain and not altogether interesting except for a few moments. While I do not recommend this issue, I will be adding the next issue as either review or to the list because I have a feeling next issue will be better. The artist on the otherhand was sort of poorly fit for Utopia. This crossover is more of a dark note in X-History, so the cartoon-y looks of his work ruin some of the feel. Also, the colorist seems to have been focused on using Crayola's basics because this issue is too bright and colorful for me. Leave this one on the shelves unless your a diehard Rogue or Carey fan, but do keep this one in mind next month.

Ms. Marvel #41
Writer: Brian Reed
Artist: Sergio Arino

To start off, let me just say that I love Moonstone and I love her as Ms. Marvel. Unfortunately, this title is on a downhill adventure since she's come aboard. #38 is a must-have for a Moonstone fan and was wonderful, but since then we find ourselves in less and less interesting stories.

What I do enjoy this time around is that the crappy anime artist is gone. This is a book focused around a villain, not a pathetically anti-feminist relationship. So when you see this bullshit:

You sort of want to kick the artist's ass to an Austen book or to some crap attempt at capitalizing on romantic but pathetic tweens like Twilight.

Another point of bitchery that I have that especially affects this issue is the guest appearances. We've got Deadpool's pointless appearance which is really cheesy and f#%$ing annoying. Out of place in fact. I'm not a Deadpool hater, but he needs to be used correctly and in this case i only enjoyed him when he said, "You fight like a psychologist!" The other guest appearances are less annoying, but still irritating sine it's Moonstone! She can carry a book by herself and make it infinitely more interesting than what we're being served now.

This issue also continues the story of the split up Carol Danvers and the baby Modoks. Fucking shitty story that I'm not going to get into except I like Osbourn's reaction to Karla's report of Danvers probably being alive.

I happen to support only four resurrections at this point: Jean Grey because I miss her, Kitty Pryde because it'd be against everything Marvel believes in if she didn't come back, Gertrude Yorkes, and the Dead means Dead rule. This thing of resurrecting someone every two minutes at Marvel lately is more than tired and leaving people unamused. I don't want Carol dead for real, but this "death" thing needs to get reeled in.
Whatever, Carol's back everyone:

And that costume's not covering the crotch correctly. Seriously, Photobucket will probably delete it for how indecent it seems. Marvel artists, please take note of what I'm saying and correctly cover up the Marvel women's crotches and fannies. That or you will be forced to endure every mistake you've made by living it in Hell, unrealistic waists with no coverage with massive boobs while superheroing and all. Leave this one of the shelves, but remember that it's not Karla's fault.

Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1
Writer #1: Paul Cornell
Artist #1: Leonard Kirk

To start, I'd like to say that it seems every time Namor get naked it seems an artist that's too gritty gets assigned. Seriously Marvel, just get Bianchi and his gay porn pencils on this one, you have to serve more than one type of fan and there's one kind that likes Namor mainly for his speedo.

That aside, I have to say I can see the hype about Paul Cornell is well-deserved. He is an excellent writer and I enjoyed this story very much. I also have to come out of the Osbourn-loving closet. Since discovering this Dark Reign event for real, I have to say I've found Osbourn and all his manipulative tactics absolutely thrilling to read. I recommend this part of the story since it's a well written dialogue and there are a couple moments that get a bit dry, but this helps:

Can I wrestle with him next? I'll get naked too to make things fair.
Seriously, folks, he was naked allllll issue.
Writer #2: James Asmus
Artist #2: Jesse Delperdang

The second story featured Mimic and was surprisingly a good read. Not the most interesting, but a good story. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is the nicest thing I will ever say on Mimic. And I still hope he's one of the casualties of this crossover.

Writer #3: Shane McCarthy
Artist #3: Ibraim Roberson

First off, the art was pretty good for this part of the story. The writing on the otherhand was subpar. I'm convinced that for as long as Dark Beast is in this dimension he will never be interesting because so far this has proven to be true. Endangered Species practically a criminal offense. I've never read AoA, someday I will and I imagine that Dark Beast is wonderful in his native dimension. But here? Never. Especially that lame taunt to Osbourn about letting the beast inside out. Overplayed theme that Ellis did WAY better. And Bendis as well. McCarthy just gave us the cliche.

Overall, I'd say this issue, despite Cornell's wonderfulness, is pretty forgetable. Hopefully next issue improves on this. With an Emma story not written by Fraction.

The List #1

While I tend to review only a handful, I do actually read quite a few comics books. Unfortunately, sometimes I only have so much to say on a book, so I leave my thoughts out of it if I can't generate enough of them. This list will be a short version of my reviews for all the books I've read, but didn't want to review. This week's is short due to lack of patience, but I'll probably have reviews for Dark X-Men the Beginning #1, depending on how much Emma's involved if not much then it goes on The List, Ms. Marvel #41, and X-Men Legacy #226 and The List will have whatever else I read. Anyway, this week's is just a preview of how The List will work:

X-Factor #45

Last month, something massive happened

Some people were absolutely in pain over it *cough*Liefeld*cough*

Some people felt a conflicting array of emotions. Luckily, Land represents all forms of surprise, good or bad.
Now, you may ask
What the hell happened?
Here's your answer:

Yes! Rictor and Shatterstar finally got on-panel smoochies!

To get on track, X-Factor has been generally lukewarm lately. The plot isn't as exciting and it seems like the past two years of it climaxed with the baby arc. Since then Madrox is in the future banging Layla. Which apparently does not gross out the general comic book population. I can't say the same for myself. Not only that, but Layla is now just a precog, not the special creepy girl she once was. The character's magic is gone! Honestly, I don't even want to talk about what else is going on since it generally is interesting, but not enough to keep anyone entertained by talking about it. BUT I recommend next issue to see how David continues this since I consider this a big deal and I'm glad it finally happened. Hopefully not a move to save sales, but that matters not: It still happened. Buy next issue and see what's going to happen with RicStar.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #2

With this one I don't necessarily recommend it so much as I'm calling attention to YA activity within the Marvel universe for those of us like me who miss the series so very much. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet though.