The island nation was created by Rick Leonardi and Chris Claremont,[2] who used it as an allegory for apartheid-era South Africa, portraying a society where mutants were subjugated and transformed into mindless "mutates" by a brutal regime led by the Genegineer, David Moreau.

[3][2] Initially depicted as a paradise with a dark underbelly, Genosha was ruled by a government that treated mutants as second-class citizens, exploiting them as slave labor.

This civil war storyline deepened Genosha's role in the X-Men mythos as a symbol of the broader struggles faced by mutants.

[3] Magneto, the X-Men's long-time adversary, was later granted control of Genosha by the United Nations in an attempt to deter him from further aggression against humanity.

In New X-Men #115 (2001), Cassandra Nova, the evil twin of Charles Xavier, unleashed a devastating Sentinel attack on Genosha, wiping out most of its population.

[3] The island is located off the east coast of Africa, to the north of Madagascar, and boasted a high standard of living, an excellent economy, and freedom from the political and racial turmoil that characterized neighboring nations.

Citizens who attempt to leave the country are tracked down and forcibly brought back to the island by the special force known as Press Gang.

In the first storyline to feature the nation, some members of the X-Men (Wolverine, Rogue, and their ally Madelyne Pryor) were kidnapped by Genoshan Magistrates, under the order of the Genegineer.

A period of general turmoil and a number of attacks by superhumans, including Magneto's Acolytes who were unwilling to forgive the former Genoshan government for its crimes against mutants, followed.

Genosha was also shown to have typical suburban tract housing, like many small towns in America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

[8][9] Magneto and his Acolytes managed to reestablish a modicum of peace and stability only briefly until civil war broke out between him and the remaining human population on the island led by the Magistrates.

Magneto eventually defeated the Magistrates and restored order to most of the island, with hold-outs briefly remaining at Carrion Cove before being obliterated.

[10] The elimination of the Legacy Virus gave Magneto a freshly healthy army, leading him to declare a campaign of global conquest.

Magneto snatched Wanda from her battle with her fellow Avengers and brought her to Genosha, where he asked Xavier to restore the Scarlet Witch's sanity - but to no avail.

Their decision was rendered moot, though, as by the time they reached Genosha reality altered around the heroes - changing into the world ruled by the House of M. While conventional reality was eventually restored, it came at a high price, as thousands if not millions of Earth's mutant population lost their powers or died in the process, leaving only a few hundred mutants alive and powered.

Since Magneto was the last person on Genosha, it seems that it's now totally uninhabited, which is corroborated by Wiccan and Speed when they began their search for their mother, the Scarlet Witch.

[17] With Eli Bard, Selene resurrects the massacred residents of Genosha, with Cerebro and Bastion's computers detecting the rise of mutant numbers into the millions.

Selene is eventually defeated and killed, thus ending the effect of the corrupted Techno-organic virus in the bodies she revived[19] and returning Genosha to an empty land.

After being freed by Scarlet Witch, Rogue, and Havok, he bites down on a vial beneath his skin of Mutant Growth Hormone, giving himself enough power to fight.

[24] As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel, Magneto and his Uncanny X-Men use Genosha as a staging ground for an ambush on the Dark Riders, who have been targeting mutants with healing powers.