Your Own Worst Enemy

Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) has encountered a version of herself from another reality (that still calls herself Warbird). After taking this variant to the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters to be examined, Carol learned how this version of herself allowed her past trauma to ignore a call from the Avengers that destroyed her world.[1] The two fought until their powers cancelled each other out.

Rushing out to help Carol are Rogue and Beast (Hank McCoy) of the X-Men. McCoy discovers that Carol’s heart had stopped and performs CPR. This saves Carol’s life, but her other self is still standing and rearing to fight. After her brush with death, Carol admits that she lost her temper and tries to reason with her other self. Unfortunately, Warbird isn’t interested in talking and the two come to blows for a second time.

As the two fight, Rogue and Beast attempt to break them up. However, the Beast is quickly blasted aside and Rogue’s flame powers can be negated by Warbird’s energy absorption powers. Ms. Marvel tells Rogue to stay out of it and kicks her hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Carol is furious that Rogue stepped in to interfere and admits to her other that she has only pretended to forgive Rogue for what she had done to her all those years ago. That’s when Warbird reveals that she since she has been bounced around the multiverse she has gone after each world’s Rogue and killing her to right the wrongs committed to each of her variants. She now encourages Ms. Marvel to do the same and kill this world’s version of Rogue.

However, Ms. Marvel refuses to kill Rogue and fights back against her doppelganger. As the two battle it out anew, Warbird reveals that she not only killed every alternate Rogue she found, but every alternate version of herself. This is how she ended up going from one world to the next. Realizing her other self is insane, and with their powers finally in synch, Carol decides to end the fight by blasting her variant with as powerful a blast as she can muster. However, she stops short of killing her other self because she is not a killer. With Warbird defeated, a SHIELD unit is called in to take her into custody. As Warbird is placed in a detention unit for transport, she wakes up and weakly demands the departing Ms. Marvel to come back and finish her off.[2]

Carol goes back to the X-Mansion to see how Rogue is recovering after the battle. She is still unconscious but Hank believes she’ll fully recover. However, after everything that happened, Hank suggests that Carol leave. Deeply upset by what happened, Carol contemplates running away to outer space, like she did many years ago.[3] However, as tempting as that is, she decides that she is never going to run away from anything ever again and returns to Earth.

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, Warbird, Rogue, Beast, SHIELD, Sentinel Squad ONE

Continuity Notes

1. So some things off the top as they relate to the similarities and differences between Ms. Marvel and Warbird in this story:

   • Warbird is from an parallel universe, as revealed last issue. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, her world has been designated Reality-7192.

   • Both women were traumatized when Rogue absorbed their memories and powers years earlier. In the Prime Marvel Universe (Reality-616) this happened in Avengers Annual #10/Marvel Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #12.

   • Both Carol’s struggled with alcoholism, our Carol began drinking to cope with losing her cosmic powers as seen in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. However, Carol-616 started going to AA to tread her addiction in Iron Man (vol. 3) #25.

   • Both women took on the name Warbird, which our Carol did in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. However, she decided to go back to calling herself Ms. Marvel in Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1.

2. As of this writing (May, 2024), the fate of this other Carol Danvers has yet to be revealed.

3. After her incident with Rogue, Carol decided to leave Earth in Uncanny X-Men #174. She would remain there until returning in Avengers (vol. 3) #1.