Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #43
War of the Marvels, Chapter Two: Tactical Dispositions
Karla Sofen has abducted a man from his apartment so she can talk about her feelings about being Ms. Marvel. When she was Moonstone she was a criminal who was feared and despised by society. While she strove to become a hero, it wasn’t until she became Norman Osborn’s Ms. Marvel and had her new role challenged did she realize how much she longed for the status this has given her.[1] She thought that by talking it out she would feel better about the supposed return of the real Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), but it does not and so she drops the man to his death.[2]
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is furious that another one of his old Green Goblin weapon caches has been destroyed, the third one in as many days. When he returns home, he cannot figure out who could have the skill to pull this off. Lily Hollister — who is carrying the his son’s baby — wonders if this is the work of Spider-Man, but Osborn doesn’t think so.[3] Lily decides that Norman needs a distraction to take his mind off things (ick).
The next day, Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is at the New Avengers hideout and asks Wolverine (Logan) how long the real Ms. Marvel is going to stand at the window grimly staring at Avengers Tower. Logan figures it is going to take as long as she needs, given her brush with death, and suggests that if Peter is concerned he should try talking to her. When he tries talking to Carol she insists that he refers to her only as Ms. Marvel. When he asks if anything is wrong, she grabs him by the throat and questions his abilities as a warrior. Deciding to stop waiting for her enemies to come to her, Carol flies off to face them head on and by herself.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, reporter Catherine Donovan (who is the spitting image of Carol Danvers) has been up all night working on a story that she hasn’t shown up for work. She is struggling with an identity crisis after seeing both Ms. Marvels fighting on the news the day before. She tries to reaffirm that she is Catherine Donovan, but a DB! headline about the brawl once again has her doubting her identity.[4] That’s when she hears a voice asking her if this life was not the one she wanted. That’s when Catherine decides to take a nap, but discovers that she can’t sleep. She impulsively heads to Los Angeles International Airport and gets on a flight to New York City. Even though its crazy, she feels that talking with Ms. Marvel will help straighten this out.
At that same time, the “Dark” Avengers — Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn), Spider-Man (Mac Gargan, aka Venom), Hawkeye (aka Bullseye), Wolverine (aka Daken) and Ms. Marvel (Sofen) — are busy rounding up some remaining Super-Skrulls left over from their recent failed invasion of Earth.[5] These criminals posing as heroes revel in the fact that they can cut loose on these failed invaders with impunity. In the middle of the battle, Iron Patriot becomes aware of a security alert back at his penthouse and abruptly leaves the battle. Unaware of what’s going on, Ms. Marvel follows after him and arrives just as Osborn is rocked back by an explosion.
After recovering from the blast, both enter the ruined penthouse and discover that Lily has knocked out Carol Danvers with a pumpkin bomb!
Recurring Characters
Ms. Marvel (Danvers & Sofen), “Catherine Donovan”, Dark Avengers (Iron Patriot, Spider-Man (Gargan), Hawkeye, Wolverine (Daken)), Lily Hollister, Spider-Man (Parker), Wolverine, HAMMER, Chewie, Skrulls
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, Norman Osborn had recently formed a team of Avengers that were mostly comprised of villains masquerading as previously established heroes. Karla usurped Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel identity in Dark Avengers #1.
Also around the time of this story, Carol Danvers seemingly perished when her powers flared out of control in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #37. In reality, she was fragmented into multiple energy forms and a human identity, most of whom were reconstituted last issue.
There is kind of a lot going on here with Norman and Lily Hollister. Let’s break it down:
Lily was the new girlfriend of Harry Osborn as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #545. TL;DR version, she ended up becoming a villain called Menace (Amazing Spider-Man #549) and getting arrested (issue #588 of that series). It was when Norman came around and romanced her in his son’s place. She later discovered she was pregnant with Harry’s baby (Amazing Spider-Man #599). She will give birth to a son, Stanley, in Amazing Spider-Man #642.
It bares mentioning that the man everyone thinks is Harry Osborn is actually a clone. It’s complicated, a revenge scheme from beyond the grave and all that. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #73-75.
Here, Lily makes a point to specify her suspicions that it was the “real” Spider-Man. This distinction is being made because Norman has Venom (Mac Gargan) pose as Spider-Man on his Avengers team. See Dark Avengers #1 (again).
There are news stories in the DB! newspaper that pertain to other events that were going on in the Marvel Universe at the time of this story:
“Spider-Man Escapes Mayor’s Hit Squad” is in reference Amazing Spider-Man #592-594, wherein J. Jonah Jameson becomes the Mayor of New York City and focuses a lot of resources on catching the wall-crawler. However, Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Amazing Spider-Man states that Spider-Man’s appearance in this story happens prior Amazing Spider-Man #590, which predates Jameson’s election win.
“Mutant Riots Burn in San Francisco” refers to the growing resistance to mutants moving to San Fran en masse as it was turning into a safe haven. This would lead to the X-Men forming Utopia Island. See Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1-3, Dark X-Men: The Confession #1, Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1, Uncanny X-Men #513-514, X-Men Legacy: #226-227, Dark Avengers #8, and Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1. Again, Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Uncanny X-Men cites that Wolverine’s appearance in this story predates the Utopia storyline (he appears here prior to Uncanny X-Men #509).
That said, I believe that these headlines are based on the publication dates (October, 2009) for Ms. Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men, which is when all of these events were in the middle of publication rather than in universe continuity. Since this was likely to entice readers to pick up other books, I think we can ignore these references since they have little bearing on the Ms. Marvel story other than where they are placed in Spider-Man and Wolverine’s chronologies.
Dark Reign follows immediately after a failed Skrull invasion of Earth, which they lost, and gave Osborn his new position of power. This tale was primarily told in Secret Invasion #1-8.