Origin
Lena was a seemingly normal girl living in a village in Russia. One day, while playing outside with her dog, the dog got hit by a passing car, mortaly wounding the dog. Lena ran up to her dog and watched it die. She held him in her hands and suddenly, the dog returned to live. Many villagers had been witness to the car accident and the events that followed. What had happened was that Lena’s mutant powers had activated, though the villagers saw it as an act from God. Lena was soon duped “Magdalena” and gained great fame all over the region.
Creation
Magdalena was created by Darko Macan and Igor Kordey and first appeared in Soldier X issue 3 (2002).
Major Story Arcs
Meeting Cable
The X-man Cable came to the attention of Lena when his former mentor Blaquesmith instructed him to find her for him. Cable traveled to Russia and soon met Lena’s father, Oleg. Together they tracked Lena to a village called Krasnaya Polyana. There she was held against her will, and was forced to use her healing powers on the townspeople by her mother Vera. This all hapened in the church of her uncle Dimitri, a priest. Lena soon became known as “Magdalena”. Unfortunately for Lena, each healing she performed donated a portion of her life to the recipient, and by the time Cable reached her, her heart had stopped beating. When Cable picked up her body, what little strength she had left unconsciously fed off of Cable’s own mutant abilities, and she reawakened with a new power: a death touch.
Dimitri drove Cable, Lena, Oleg, and the tagalong wannabe superhero and parttime terrorist Geo to a place known as “Saint Lenin,” fleeing the mobsters and the villagers, now whipped into a frenzy with the belief that Cable was an angel. The mob and villagers laid siege to “Saint Lenin”. Geo heroically sacrificed himself, being ripped to pieces by the mob, to allow Cable’s party time to escape.
Vera had been tortured by the mobsters as a hostage, and begged for Lena to heal her. Lena refused, on the grounds that her touch could now only kill. When Vera said she did not care, Lena reluctantly kissed her mother, putting an end to her suffering. She resolved to turn even these powers into a gift, and Cable left her and her father in peace.
Powers
Healing touch: Magdalena could heal others with a touch (usually achieved by kissing them), though use of this power actually poured some of Magdalena’s life into the patient, which could leave her drained and near death.
Death touch: After absorbing Cable’s power, Magdalena lost her healing powers and gained the ability to drain life with a touch.