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Quote1 I'm not like him. But you know what...? I won't be like you either. I can't keep hiding from what I can do. Hiding from my emotions. Quote2
Wallflower to her mother, Gail[src]

History

Origin[]

Laurie is a second-generation mutant. Her father, Sean Garrison, also had empathic pheromone powers and used it to manipulate people to get money, fame, and women. Laurie's mother, Gail Collins, was one of these women. They married and stayed together until Gail gained immunity to Sean's powers because she was pregnant with his child.[5]

Leaving him after learning what had happened, she raised Laurie alone. Laurie, following her mother's lead, became a quiet loner. One day, while on holiday, she suddenly became very popular because her power had emerged. Her mother, realizing this (and immune to her pheromones), tried to talk her down gently - but Laurie, who hadn't realized why she'd suddenly become popular, became scared of what she could do and ended up even more withdrawn than before.[5]

Xavier Institute[]

After the Xavier Institute went public, Gail decided to send her there, and moved to Salem Center to stay near her, so that she could have one person whose reactions she could trust. Although Gail insisted Laurie live at the school, to try and make her come out of her shell, it didn't work. Laurie went through several roommates very quickly including Angel Salvadore and Alani Ryan.[5] During the riot at Xavier's caused by the Omega Gang, Laurie stayed quietly hiding in her room, panicking, and hoping she wasn't the cause.[6][5]

When Sofia Mantega came to the school, she was paired with Laurie and, given her ability to blow Laurie's pheromones away, Sofia didn't have to worry about being accidentally manipulated by Laurie. Refusing to let her stay in their room, Sofia started hanging around with Laurie, as did David Alleyne and Kevin Ford. Laurie and Kevin quickly developed a mutual crush. Then, during a visit to meet Sofia's "dad" (not her real father, but his manservant who'd had more time for her than her real father ever had), they got into a fight with the Reavers, and Laurie was stabbed through the chest, mortally wounded. She was only saved when Josh Foley, one of the Reavers who had just discovered he was a mutant, healed her (and Laurie quickly developed a crush on him). Meanwhile Kevin, enraged, tried to kill Donald Pierce, the Reavers' leader, by withering him away with his power. Dani Moonstar was forced to make him confront his worst fear - killing Laurie - to make him stop, and he left the school shortly after.[7]

Laurie continued to stick around with her new friends and was happy when they were joined by Josh. However, she was less happy when he developed a big crush on Wolfsbane just as Sofia was urging her to ask him out.[8] When Josh was out late one night, breaking curfew, she thought she heard him approach and sneaked down to let him in, only to find him eviscerated by an out-of-control Wolfsbane, driven temporarily insane by the return of her powers. Controlling her power for the first time to scare Wolfsbane away, she nonetheless could do nothing for Josh's apparently mortal injuries. As he was rushed to the Institute's infirmary, she was depressed at the thought that she'd finally managed to control her powers properly too late to save him. But, when David and Surge managed to think up a way to get him conscious long enough to heal himself, she was needed to keep him calm long enough for him to do it. They succeeded, although she was hurt by the fact that he obviously still had a crush on Rahne.[9]

New Mutants Squad[]

After the mansion was destroyed and rebuilt, Laurie was officially placed on the New Mutants Squad with David (Prodigy), Sofia (Wind Dancer), Josh (Elixir), Nori (Surge), and Kevin (Wither) (who had reluctantly returned to the school because of the interventions of Dani Moonstar and Emma Frost). Now as a part of the New Mutants Squad, Laurie was given the codename Wallflower.[10]

When Sofia failed in her first Field Day as leader, Laurie found her crying in their room after some harsh criticism from Josh. Laurie offered to speak to Josh. Trying to pluck up the courage to talk to him, she came across him just after he'd been turned down by Rahne again, who felt a relationship with him was inappropriate now that she was on the faculty. After Laurie mentioned the "Sofia thing", he suggested they get some dinner in town together. This date made both Rahne and Kevin (who still had a crush on Laurie) very unhappy. Going to a video arcade, she confessed to Josh about what her father was like, and how she didn't want to be like him, and that that was why she "avoided everybody."[11] Halfway through their date they were interrupted by Rahne, who brought them back to the Institute because Agent Pierce and the FBI had caught up with Kevin about his accidental killing of his father.[11]

Laurie, upset by this information, went to the lake for some alone time. Icarus found her, and told her and the New Mutants that the Hellions and Wind Dancer had gone to break Kevin out. The New Mutants and Icarus fought with the Hellions to try to stop them from taking on the FBI. Laurie used her powers to keep Rockslide crying and out of the fight while the others fought around them, until the X-Men, alerted by Rahne, turned up and took them all back to the Institute. The charges against Kevin were dismissed, and Kevin swapped squads with Icarus.[12]

Josh continued to pursue Rahne despite casually dating Laurie. Eventually Rahne decided to totally break things off with Josh permanently, but unbeknownst to either of them, Kevin overheard their entire conversation. Eventually, Kevin used the information to break Josh and Laurie up. Laurie was left embittered by the experience, going so far as to use her pheromones to manipulate Prodigy into kissing her at the dance in a successful attempt to make Josh jealous. This event might have gone unnoticed but for Sofia realizing what was happening, and the event added to the fast disintegration of the squad.[13]

Thereafter, Sofia pushed all the New Mutants into a camp out for one night on the Xavier Institute grounds. While the initial attempts by Sofia at forcing a resolution came to disaster when a fist-fight between Josh and David led Laurie to confess to Josh what had happened at the dance, later she and the other New Mutants overheard him pouring his heart out to Icarus. Laurie forgave Josh enough to be friends and told David she didn't know how to apologize to him for her behavior at the dance, saying she just didn't want to be the weak one any more, and he forgave her.[14]

Kevin Ford (Earth-616) and Laurie Collins (Earth-616) from New X-Men Vol 2 20 0001

Kevin permanently injures Laurie's arm

Joshua Foley (Earth-616) and Laurie Collins (Earth-616) from New X-Men Vol 2 25 0001

Laurie's death

Decimation & Death[]

After M-Day, where almost the entire mutant population lost their powers, Laurie was one of the few who retained the active X-Gene. Unfortunately for her, Wither believed he had lost his powers and reached out to Laurie, withering away her arm. Elixir tried to reverse the damages, without success.[15] Seemingly because of that injury, Laurie wasn't part of the battle royale to determine the future X-Men in-training.[16]

Shortly after this trauma, Laurie was shot in the back of the head by Matthew Risman, a sniper of Reverend William Stryker's Purifiers, while she was talking with Elixir.[1]

Legacy[]

Laurie Collins (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 31 0002

Bio-Sentinel revealing itself

Laurie Collins (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 31 0003

Wallflower as a Bio-Sentinel

eXogenetic[]

Laurie was turned into a Bio-Sentinel by Kaga in an effort to kill the X-Men. After being changed into a bio-Sentinel, she was released into a crowd of people at a San Francisco fair, and spotted by Emma Frost, who claimed she never forgets the face of one of her students. Trying to reach her deceased student, Emma Frost made contact with her, activating the Sentinel hidden in her and shattering her body to reveal her true nature: a massive flesh-made Sentinel.[2]

Krakoa (Brood Clone) (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 33 0007

Destroyed by Krakoa

After it fired a full pack of Brood-missiles amongst the crowd, the Sentinel was removed from the fair where she was attacked by Beast using the X2 ship and destroyed by it. Its remains were sent to Graymalkin, in order to be examined by Mutantes Sans Frontieres scientists.[17]

Kaga then sent a Krakoa-Brood hybrid to destroy the Sentinel, in order to prevent the X-Men from finding more clues on the corpse, and that monster was half-blown up by Scott Summers.[17]

Wither[]

Kevin was gravely affected by the harm he did to Laurie, quitting the Xavier Institute[18][19] only to fall into the hands of Selene, former Black Queen of Hellfire Club.[19][20] Later, when she came to attack Utopia, Wither and Elixir fought over Laurie's memory, and Wither was killed.[21]

Krakoa[]

As a victim of anti-mutant violence whom the X-Men regretted being unable to save, Laurie was considered a high-priority mutant for resurrection on Krakoa. After her revival, she apparently met Broo,[22] and became one of the many attractive female classmates he developed a crush on.[23]

Laurie was there to greet her old friend Sofia on Krakoa after her own resurrection and repowering, at last fully reuniting their generation of Xavier Institute students.[4]

Attributes

Power Grid[30]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Learned

Powers

Laurie Collins (Earth-616) from New X-Men Vol 2 1 0001

Wallflower using her power

Laurie is a second generation mutant with powers similar to her father Sean's, including:

  • Empathic Pherokinesis: Wallflower generated highly-potent airborne scent-based pheromones, which affected the chemical balance in other people altering the moods of those around her. Initially, she had no control over this at all, and she would cause everyone within range to match her moods. Recently, she could control it to an extent, but still had lapses when her emotions were particularly strong.

She was stated by the Purifiers using Nimrod's technology to be an Omega Threat.[24]

Weaknesses

Wallflower has only been shown to exert limited control over her powers. It is common for her to release pheromones that mirror her extreme emotions such as fear or anxiety.

Notes

  • The story of "Shy Girls" focuses on the origins of Wallflower and Wolfsbane.[5]
  • Laurie Garrison, Laurie Collins' House of M counterpart, was raised by her father. Unlike the Earth-616 Wallflower, she was very diabolical and devious.
  • Wallflower was the center of a love triangle between herself, Wither, and Elixir. This situation created a bitter rivalry between Wither and Elixir which was maintained until Wither's death at the hand of Elixir.[21]
  • Wallflower's power first manifested in vitro enabling her mother to gain a temporary immunity to her father's pheromone powers. The latter resurfaced during puberty when Laurie was 13.[5]
  • Wallflower's origins are similar to that of Persuasion.
    • They both have both powers related to pheromones that are capable of influencing the minds of others, which they inherited from their fathers.[5][25]
    • They both have fathers that use their pheromone powers for personal selfish gain.[5][25]
    • Both of their fathers used their power to make their mothers believe they were in love with them, forcing them to consummate with them.[5][25]
    • Both of their mothers successfully raised and told their daughters time-and-time again to use their powers not for personal gain like their fathers but to help people; thus they both joined superhero teams.[10][26]
    • They both once used their powers for their own benefit.[27][28]
  • As of New X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 Laurie was 15 years old.

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

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