WALLFLOWER

Publication Date: 7th Sep 2021
Written By: Daytripper and Peter Luzifer.
Image Work: Peter Luzifer.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Laurie Collins was raised by her single mother, Gail Collins, who never told her that her father was Dr. Sean Garrison, a famous psychiatrist and self-help guru. Garrison’s popularity was based on his pheromone based powers, enabling him to manipulate the emotions of the people around him. One such woman who fell prey to his power was Gail herself, whom Garrison coerced into having a romantic relationship with him. However, when Gail ended up pregnant with Laurie, she developed an immunity to Garrison’s pheromones and left him upon realizing that he had been controlling her.

Gail was tramatized after the incident with Sean and became very insular. With no other role models, Laurie too isolated herself believing that  allowing other people to get close would result in her getting hurt. At thirteen years old, Laurie was on vacation when her own powers of pheromone control manifested. All of a sudden, she was popular and felt happy. Gail, however, realized what was transpiring and explained to Laurie that using her power was unfair on others. Once more, Laurie retreated into herself, feeling that she could never trust how anyone felt about her ever again. [New Mutants (2nd series) #11]

While attending high school, Laurie Collins excelled academically but she continued to keep to herself. Still, when an attractive male student asked her for help with his algebra, Laurie’s pheromone ability accidentally caused the young man to ask her out to dinner, like a date. When the pheromones wafted away due to a sudden breeze, the boy and other students close by surmised she was a mutant, turning Laurie into even more of an outsider. Gail then decided to enroll her daughter at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Even there, in the presence of fellow mutants, Laurie remained withdrawn and kept to herself - but always near others, much like a wallflower. [New Mutants (2nd series) #2, 11]

One lunch period, Laurie was approached by Danielle Moonstar, a former student turned faculty member of the Xavier Institute, who tried to bond with Laurie and encourage her to join in with the others. Laurie was  adamant that other people would like her only because of her pheromones, and that they wouldn’t like her for real. Regardless, Moonstar found the perfect roommate for Laurie in new student Sofia Mantega, who could easily blow the pheromones away with her power to control the wind. When other students learned that Laurie was rooming with Sofia, they questioned Sofia about this, but Sofia stood up for Laurie and a friendship grew. [New Mutants (2nd series) #2-3]

Laurie soon found herself not only spending time with Sofia, but also a pair of other new students recruited by Moonstar. The four teenagers were  allowed to accompany Moonstar to New York when she was searching for another potential new mutant, Josh Foley. This led the young mutants into a trap, set by Donald Pierce and his new group of militant mutant haters, the Reavers, whom Foley had just joined as he was unaware of his status as a mutant. The young mutants were forced to use their powers to defend themselves, but Laurie had a hard time controlling her abilities, projecting the fear she felt onto friends and enemies alike. Eventually, she was stabbed in the back by Pierce himself and would have died if not for Josh Foley using his newly discovered healing ability to save her. Laurie and her friends returned to the school, with Josh joining them shortly thereafter, and they all picked Moonstar as their personal advisor. [New Mutants (2nd series) #5-6]

Laurie soon developed feelings for Josh and, some weeks later, she finally had the nerve to approach him and ask him to lunch. Josh agreed, and it seemed that Laurie was finally gaining her self confidence, as Josh seemed genuinely interested in her. However, when the de-powered Wolfsbane returned to the Xavier Institute, Josh became infatuated with her. Sofia could sense Laurie’s frustration and used her wind power to conceal Laurie’s jealous pheromones, which could have caused trouble.

In the days that followed, Josh even kissed Wolfsbane and, in doing so, re-activated her mutant power. As she transformed back into a wolf creature, Wolfsbane lashed out savagely, seriously wounding Josh in the process. Laurie overhead the commotion and mustered up the strength to finally control her power and managed to frighten Wolfsbane away. In the aftermath, Laurie even helped Josh to heal himself by using her pheromones on him. However, despite Josh’s gratefulness towards Laurie, he was pleased to see Wolfsbane when she returned to the Institute. [New Mutants (2nd series) #9-12]

With the influx of new students to the Xavier Institute, the staff split the students into squads of six, with an assigned mentor for each. Thankfully for Laurie, she and her friends were placed on the same squad, with Moonstar still as their mentor. In fact, the squad was even named after Moonstar’s old team - the New Mutants. The young mutants were given a team costume, each member allowed their own individualistic style incorporated, and they all received a codename. Laurie was appropriately dubbed Wallflower. [New X-Men (2nd series) #1-2]

Laurie and the New Mutants soon formed a rivalry with the school bully, Hellion, and his squad, named the Hellions, after the original students of their mentor, the White Queen. During a competition between the New Mutants and the Hellions, Wallflower proved that her control over her pheromones continued to grow, as she reduced her cocky opponent, Rockslide, to a sobbing mess in the matter of seconds. During an argument that ensued as to Sofia’s leadership capabilities, Wallflower stuck by her friend, and even stood up to Josh, who believed that someone else should lead the squad.

When Wolfsbane rejected Josh’s advances once more, Josh turned his attention back to Laurie, and asked her out for dinner - in front of Wolfsbane. Laurie and Josh went a video arcade in Salem Center, where  Josh told Laurie that she didn’t need her pheromones, that she was cute and ought to be dating. This caused the situation to become awkward and Laurie withdrew from Josh, until he realized that he was basically telling her to go hit on other guys while he was on a date with her. Laurie was happy to hear Josh call their evening a date, but trouble brewed when two locals confronted them. Josh’s golden skin made it obvious he was a mutant and the locals believed he was harassing Laurie. Before the situation got out of hand, though, Wolfsbane appeared and scared the locals away. [New X-Men (2nd series) #3-6]

For the lab component of her science class, Laurie was partnered with Kevin Ford, aka Wither, on whom she had briefly had a crush before she met Josh. Kevin harbored feelings for Laurie too, but could never act upon them, because of his involuntary ability to wither every organic material and living being upon physical contact. Regardless, Josh acted jealous upon seeing Laurie and Kevin establish a friendship, and Laurie tried to calm him down by inviting him to accompany her to her weekly dinner with her mother, who had moved to Salem Center to be close to her daughter. [New X-Men (2nd series) #7-8]

The dinner went well and Gail seemed to approve of her daughter’s choice of a boyfriend. As Josh walked Laurie back to her dorm, he kissed her. Laurie was overjoyed, but was unaware that Josh met with Wolfsbane right afterwards. However, Wolfsbane told the two-timing Josh that things between them were over. Kevin had overheard their conversation and, unbeknownst to Laurie, tried blackmailing Josh with this information - suggesting he break up with Laurie. [New X-Men (2nd series) #9, 11] As Josh continued seeing Laurie, Kevin eventually revealed the secret affair between teacher and student to the school’s headmistress, and it became public knowledge in no time.

Unfortunately, Laurie was one of the last to learn and she did so in the most unpleasant way. When another student congratulated Josh for “bagging” a teacher when he already had a girlfriend, Laurie ran away to a nearby pond, where she sometimes spent her time. Josh followed her and tried to argue that things were over with Wolfsbane by the time he and Laurie got serious, but she could tell that he was lying and used her pheromone power on him, forcing him to go away when he wouldn’t leave her alone. Devastated, Laurie returned home, where Gail tried to comfort her daughter. However, as she was worried that Laurie might turn out like her father, Gail also told Laurie that it was wrong to use her powers on Josh the way she did. This angered Laurie, who accused her mother of turning her into a wallflower by making her hide from her emotions. [New X-Men (2nd series) #12]

A bitter Laurie returned to Xavier’s school, where she thanked Kevin for exposing Josh. She also declared that she wasn’t weak anymore and would no longer be manipulated by others. While the Xavier Institute students were preparing for the upcoming school dance, Laurie pondered not attending it, given her recent troubles with Josh and Kevin. However, one  of her classmates, Prodigy, convinced her that she should celebrate nonetheless as she had finally mastered her powers, and Laurie accepted his invitation. Unfortunately, she had no idea that her mother was chaperoning the dance, which annoyed her to a great deal. Seeing Josh at the dance flirting with another woman further frustrated her, prompting Laurie to ask her date to kiss her in order to make Josh jealous. As Prodigy refused, Laurie used her pheromone power on him, ruining the evening for everyone involved, as naturally Laurie’s classmates and her mother realized what she had done. [New X-Men (2nd series) #13-14]

At the annual prize-giving ceremony for the students of the Xavier Institute, Laurie ignored both Sofia and her mother, prompting Gail to leave partway through the ceremony. As such, Gail ran into the Blob, who had just arrived to attack the Xavier Institute, and was injured when the villain slammed the school’s front gate into her. Luckily, Josh was able to heal her during the resulting battle. Laurie’s pheromones were crucial to defeating the Blob but, in the process, Laurie was almost squashed when the obese villain fell in her direction. In the aftermath of the fight, Laurie realized the error of her ways and apologized to her mother. [New X-Men (2nd series) #15]

With the school year at an end, Laurie and her teammates had a sleepover by the lake where they friends argued for some time about each others’  recent actions. During the confrontation, Laurie received an apology from Josh, who admitted that he should have told her about Wolfsbane, and Laurie herself apologized to Josh and Prodigy for using her pheromones on them. Other members of the team sorted their issues out and the friends were on their way to a brighter future. Or so they thought. [New X-Men Yearbook Special]

Shortly thereafter, the tragedy known as “M-Day” struck, leaving the majority of the world’s mutant population de-powered. With a large number of the students suddenly powerless, chaos erupted at the Xavier Institute. Laurie was one of the few mutants to keep her powers; however she was clearly upset that her best friend Sofia did not. Falsely believing that he no longer had his death-touch, Wither grabbed Laurie’s arm, instantly draining it. As not even Josh’s healing power could restore her withered arm, Laurie was admitted to the infirmary. [New X-Men (2nd series) #20]

In the days that followed, arrangements were made for all of the de-powered students to be sent home - but tragedy struck again as the a mutant hating organization led by Reverend Stryker launched a missile attack on the transport, killing forty-two innocent children. Laurie attended the mass funeral that was held for the deceased students, during which she tried to assure Josh that it was not his fault that he couldn’t heal their killed friends. [New X-Men (2nd series) #23-24]

Josh was also beating himself up for not being able to heal Laurie’s arm. Laurie tried to console him but, in the midst of their discussion, she was shot in the back of the head by one of Stryker’s assassins. Earlier, Stryker’s men had used future technology to identify Laurie as a potential omega-level threat, who could defeat Striker’s army. [New X-Men (2nd series) #25]

Wallflower died never learning the identity of her father, Dr. Sean Garrison. Unbeknownst to her, Garrison was well aware of Laurie, though, and had been counseling her friend Kevin over the months prior her death. Dr. Garrison was even offered a position as guidance counselor at the Institute by Cyclops and Emma Frost, and he accepted upon realizing that Laurie was his own daughter as he saw a picture of her mother in Laurie’s file. Garrison was supposed to start his job with the new semester, but whatever plans he may have had for his daughter remain unknown. [New X-Men (2nd series) #12]

Gail Collins later arrived at the Institute to claim Laurie’s body and give her a proper burial. [New X-Men (2nd series) #28] Even in death, though, Laurie didn’t find peace, as her remains were taken from her grave and grafted onto a new breed of Sentinel designed to confuse the X-Men and catch them off-guard. Though briefly distracted, the mutant heroes overcame their attackers and managed to destroy the Sentinels. [Astonishing X-Men (3rd series) #31-32]

Luckily Laurie's story did not end in this tragic manner. Laurie was among the many resurrected mutants on the newly established mutant homeland of Krakoa using the new resurrection protocols of The Five. She was among her other Academy X alumni to greet her newly revived and repowered friend Wind Dancer. [X-Factor (4th Series) #5]

Time will tell where Laurie's story will go now that she has a new lease on life and a new home, but for the moment she at least has her friends back.