Laynia Petrovna is a mutant born to a nuclear physicist and his wife who were accidentally irradiated during an experiment. When her mother died in childbirth, Petrovna's father was told that she and her twin brother died in childbirth as well. The mutant infants were taken into state custody and when their powers manifested themselves in adolescence, they were turned over to Professor Piotr Phobos who had started an academy for the training of mutants. Given the code-name Darkstar, Petrovna studied at the academy alongside her brother Nicolai Krylenko (code named Vanguard) and trained to be a government agent. Soon after the academy was shut down, Darkstar was sent to the United States on a mission accompanying the fourth Crimson Dynamo. The mission aborted, she joined the Champions of Los Angeles for several months until the team disbanded. Returning to her homeland, she joined her brother and two others to form the Soviet Super-Soldiers.