In in the franchise's Mirror Universe, he is a ruthless warrior, so committed to the Empire and his own well-being that he murders anyone in his way - including his family and the woman he loves!
Since its first appearance in the Original Series episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Star Trek’s Mirror Universe has proved to be one of the franchise’s most enduring concepts, having appeared in not only the classic series, but in Deep Space Nine, Enterprise and Discovery as well. In the Mirror Universe, the evil Terran Empire dominates the galaxy. Instead of "seeking new life and civilizations," they seek to control them. Part of the Mirror Universe’s appeal is seeing dark and twisted images of beloved Star Trek characters: for instance, Ensign Chekov is smug and conniving and Spock sports a (now infamous) goatee. Since acquiring the rights to produce Star Trek comics, IDW has returned to the Mirror Universe, publishing a number of miniseries and one-shots that further explore this hellish reality. In Star Trek: The Mirror War: Geordi, fans were treated to a new vision of the Enterprise’s beloved engineer, one that recast him as a cold-blooded killer.
Ruthlessly bullied by his peers and neglected by his parents, young La Forge learns he is truly alone, and that he must "carve [his] own future." Young La Forge then murders his parents, setting their bedroom ablaze. Many years later, La Forge, now an officer in the Empire, befriends Gwen Liu, another officer working at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. The two have a whirlwind love affair, but La Forge sees her as competition and so betrays her in order to save himself. Liu is sentenced to hard labor in the dilithium mines, where she is eventually killed during a cave-in. The one-shot was written by J. Holtham, drawn by Carlos Rodriguez, colored by DC Alonso and lettered by Neil Uyetake.
Star Trek’s Mirror Universe is a cold and merciless place, one that can break even men like Khan Noonian Singh, and its version of Geordi La Forge is proof of this. In the Prime Universe, Geordi is kind and comionate, qualities sorely lacking from his Mirror Universe counterpart. Part of this is rooted in how Geordi’s blindness was viewed in the Mirror Universe: it was seen as a weakness and the bullying and neglect that arose as a result sent young Geordi down a dark path. The one-shot also revealed that Geordi’s teenage and young adult years were not much better, as he became a guinea pig for various experiments, ones that left him scarred and broken.
In showing how this twisted world has reshaped a hero into such a callous villain, the evil Geordi La Forge becomes an incredibly compelling villain - someone who still feels the instincts of his better self, but regards love and self-sacrifice as weaknesses and so rejects them at every turn. Geordi La Forge is one of the most popular characters in the Star Trek universe, thanks in part to his likability and inherently good nature, but his Mirror Universe redesign subverts all of this, creating a chilling vision of the beloved engineer.
