Deadpool (Wade Wilson) has been hired by Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) to recover a cache of MODOC storytellers that have been stolen. At Thunderbolts Mountain, he manages to recover 12 of them for Scientist Supreme, Monica Rappaccini. She is pleased that Wilson has gotten half of them back, but wonders who took the rest.

Meanwhile, an energy being that has been trying to claim the Storytellers for some reason has decided to get help facing resistance from the person who has them, Ms. Marvel (Karla Sofen). She has sought out Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and convinced him to follow her after burning the insignia of the original Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) onto the side of a building.[1]

It lures him to a shipyard in Queens and the wall-crawler recognizes it as the one where he helped Ms. Marvel in the recent past.[2] In a shipping container, Spidey finds Wolverine (Logan) with the other 12 Storytellers as well as three other women made of energy — one blue, one yellow, and one orange. Joined by their pink companion, they are all now able to speak in unison in English, but it is hard and painful for them to do so. They keep it brief, telling Peter and Logan to listen to the “babies” as they will lead them to what they need to unify the four energy beings and make them whole again. When Spider-Man asks who they are, they reveal that they are Ms. Marvel, which doesn’t make any sense to him.

Meanwhile, the usurper of the Ms. Marvel name (Karla Sofen) happens upon the large Ms. Marvel insignia burned into the side of a building that was used to convince Spider-Man to follow one of the energy women. Having been attacked by of these entities herself, seeing the logo of her predecessor suddenly starts making a whole lot more sense.[3]

Her boss, Norman Osborn, then calls Karla back to Avengers Tower. He is furious that Deadpool killed 107 of his men and tells her to clean-up this mess because she brought the Storytellers to them in the first place. She takes the opportunity to tell him her suspicions that Carol Danvers might still be alive. Osborn is annoyed by this because death used to mean something and tells her to tell him everything.

After explaining everything to Osborn, she goes to Thunderbolts Mountain to investigate. With the aid of HAMMER agents on sight, they are able to pinpoint Deadpool’s teleportation signature to downtown Los Angeles. When Ms. Marvel arrives there, she finds the Merc With a Mouth walking down the street and attacks him. After beating him around for a bit she hears the telepathic cries of the captured Storytellers who are in distress because there is a fire. She follows the smoke to a hole in the street. Going inside, she finds the New Avengers — Ronin (Clint Barton), Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), and Captain America (James Barnes) — clashing with Monica Rappaccini’s AIM faction.

Karla fights through both sides to try and catch Spider-Man who has 12 of the MODOCs. He takes them to the other 12 and, following their telepathic commands, hooks them all up to a machine. Karla arrives too late to stop him and the machine merges the four energy beings into the singular form of the original Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers).

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvels (Karla Sofen & Carol Danvers), Storytellers, Deadpool, AIM (Monica Rappaccini), HAMMER (Norman Osborn, Victoria Hand), New Avengers (Ronin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Captain America)

Continuity Notes

1. At the time of this story, Carol Danvers was seemingly killed when her powers flared out of control in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #37. She was split into different parts as we’ll learn over the course of issues #42-46.

2. This story incorrectly credits this incident to Ms. Marvel Annual #1, which did guest star Spider-Man, but was not the story in question. They should be referring to Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #34. The footnote is credited by Deadpool, so I guess we can blame the mistake on him because Deadpool is a crazy idiot.

3. Karla took over the Ms. Marvel identity as part of Norman Osborn’s Avengers in Dark Avengers #1. On her first solo mission (issues #39-40) she was following up a lead from one of the original Ms. Marvel’s missions which led her to the AIM facility where half of the Storytellers were kept. Carol Danvers previously encountered a Storyteller in Ms. Marvel Special #1 and Ms. Marvel: Storyteller #1.

Topical References

• Spider-Man makes a joke about teaming up with Lassie, who was the titular character of a story by author Eric Knight that was first published in 1938. The character and story have been adapted ad nauseum for since the 1940s. A television series that ran from 1954 to 1979 has particularly became captured in the cultural zeitgeist, usually making a punchline out of the fact that the overtly intelligent collie was always leading its owners to people in in distress, usually because someone was trapped in the bottom of a well. Since a footnote here specifically cites that this is an old TV dog from the 1950s — addressing how dated the reference is — this wouldn’t necessarily be a topical reference. However, you could easily slot in any other TV dog if you really wanted to and the joke would still work.

• One of the taxi cabs in Los Angeles as a Sleepy’s Mattress advertisement on it. At the time of publication, Sleepy’s apparently bought actual advertising space in Marvel Comics. That said, this should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world business.

• When Karla punches Deadpool hard enough to twist his head around backwards he says the line “Of course you realize, this means war.” This line was originally uttered by comedian Groucho Marx in the 1935 comedy A Night at the Opera. It was then lifted by Warner Brothers and used in various Looney Tunes cartoons, first uttered by Bugs Bunny in the 1948 short Long-Haired Hare. Deadpool making this joke is based on a misconception that it was a line uttered in by Daffy Duck in the 1951 short Rabbit Fire after taking a shotgun blast to the face that caused his beak to flip around to the back of his head. He never actually said that line. The only time that Daffy ever stated it was in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? If you disagree and thinks this is the Mandala Effect, you’re just wrong and stupid. The Mandala Effect is not real, you just have shit memory. That said, this line has been said so many times in so many different callbacks it should be considered a topical reference.

• Spider-Man experiences a reality distortion when the Storytellers show him how to hook up the machine. This leads to him joking that it was like being with Doctor Strange at a Grateful Dead concert. The Dead were a psychedelic rock group that performed between 1965 and 1995. They were well known for their use of the drug LSD. This could be a topical reference because I’m sure there is a more recent band who uses a lot of hallucinogenic drugs, Tool immediately comes to mind but who knows what you kids listen to these days.