Episode 039: Xuân Cao Manh (feat. Sara Century)

Episode description

In Episode 39 of CEREBRO, Connor and writer and critic Sara Century (Bitches on Comics) are possessed by the power of Xi'an Coy Manh*, the courageous Karma! The first confirmed lesbian character in the X-Men franchise, Xi'an was the original leader of the New Mutants, but has never received as much care and attention on the page as her classmates. She is a protagonist of the new run of New Mutants by Vita Ayala and Rod Reis.

The CEREBRO character file on Karma begins at 1:56:11.

(Content Advisory: Xi'an's story includes rape, disordered eating, fatphobia, ableism, homophobia, suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, brainwashing, human trafficking, slavery, and limb amputation. Her origin is closely tied to the real world Vietnamese boat refugee crisis.)

* NOTE: At the time this episode was recorded and published, Karma’s civilian name had been rendered since her first appearance as “Xi’an Coy Manh”, which is not proper Vietnamese. In 2023, writer/artist Trung Le Nguyen adjusted Karma’s name in the story “Karma in Love”, and established “Xi’an” as a mispronunciation. This episode discusses the controversy around Xuân’s name, but refers to her as Xi’an throughout. I have opted to retitle the episode to acknowledge this exciting change in the time since.