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.

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.

In 1994, she appears in the Child's Play crossover between X-Force and The New Warriors,[6][7] 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[8] and continues to appear irregularly as a supporting character when that title was relaunched as New X-Men.

[1] Love Unlimited Infinity Comic #31 was written and illustrated by Vietnamese-American cartoonist Trung Le Nguyen, who explained the rationale for the change:[1] As a reader who spoke Vietnamese as a child, it was really difficult for me to connect with Karma because I knew her name was gibberish.

While Tran was rescued from the throes of war by their crime lord uncle, General Nguyen Ngoc Cao, Xuân's father was shot and killed during the fall of Saigon.

Xuân finally lashed out and bested Tran in a psychic battle, absorbing him completely and permanently imprisoning him within her soul, taking the name Karma afterwards.

Karma and the child live in the desert for months, using her powers to stun the wildlife for food, and scavenging weapons and shelter from travelers who have perished in the wasteland.

When Loki returns the New Mutants and X-Men to Earth, although he undoes most of their transformations — such as Moonstar having become a Valkyrie and thus inherited a winged steed — he ensures that Karma retains her new slimmer physique.

[22] After an encounter with — and temporary death at the hands of — the Beyonder, she and her fellow New Mutants are briefly transferred to the Massachusetts Academy and join the Hellions.

[26] General Cao strings Karma along for several months with promises of finding the children, but after he and some of his associates orchestrate the massacre of an entire village, she breaks her ties with him.

With the aid of Cannonball and Beast, Karma finally locates and frees Leong and Nga,[28] while learning that her brother's essence is still alive, though dormant, within her.

[29] Karma evidences expanded telepathic powers, specifically removing the memories of the older New Mutants from the minds of the younger ones by briefly possessing them.

[30] Karma later meets many New Mutants friends, in the form of X-Force, at a desert rave, where she drastically altered her appearance with dyed hair, body piercings, and revealing clothing; a surprising difference to the image held by many of her former teammates.

[34] Months afterwards, Danielle Moonstar, another ex-New Mutant, drops by the University of Chicago while trying to recruit Prodigy to the renamed Xavier Institute.

When Rahne Sinclair leaves the Xavier Institute due to a romance with a younger student, her position as advisor of the Paragons squad is left to Karma.

[40] She serves with the X-Men on several missions, including acting as bait to lure out the Hellfire Cult[41] and opposing the Sisterhood in its attempt restore Psylocke to her original body.

After they turn up missing, Cannonball obtains permission from Cyclops to track them down, teaming up with old New Mutants members Magma, Sunspot and Magik, who reappeared at the X-Men's base after teleporting off into the future after the events of "X-Infernus".

[volume & issue needed] Karma is seen during the riots in San Francisco with Armor, Match, Angel, and Bling trying to keep calm.

During the battle, she attempts to take psionic control of Hodge, but he proves immune to her powers and impales her through the leg with his metal pincer blades.

[54] Da'o eventually manifested low-level telepathic powers, changed her name and began building her weapons development company.

[55] In a later confrontation with the X-Men, Hatchi uses her nanotechnology to seize control of the team and orders them to takeover Madripoor or she will use her technology on New York and kill the population.

[59] Karma later appears as a member of the Utopians alongside Elixir, Madison Jeffries, Masque, Random, and Boom-Boom, seeking peace in the former X-Men's base at Utopia.

[64] After most of the X-Men were jaunted to the Age of X-Man due to the calamitous actions of Nate Grey, Karma had been pressed into the services of O*N*E while under the effects of Warlock's techno-organic infection.

[65] Karma still felt extreme guilt over her harmful actions from New Mutants: Dead Souls and ultimately resigned from the team after confiding in Mirage.

[66] Karma aided the X-Men when Mirage rallied forces to resist the incursions of Malekith, who had launched his final campaign against Earth during his inter-realm war.

[70] She projects a psionic energy surge that overwhelms the consciousness of another sentient mind; rendering the victim unconscious while placing her own anima in command.

[71] She is also an avid illusionist, able to combine powers with Moonstar in order to throw up a convincing mirage that could fool even Sabretooth's keen senses.

Trying to cope with her situation, Karma displays a dark sense of humor and has refined her powers to the point where she can perceive things through a person's eyes without really possessing him or her.