War of the Marvels, Chapter 3: Weak Points and Strong

Answering a security alert at his penthouse, the Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn) and Ms. Marvel (Karla Sofen) arrive to find that Lilly Holister has just taken out the original Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers).[1][2] They hear how Carol charged in without doing recon and was easily taken out with a pumpkin bomb. As HAMMER agents come to restrain Danvers and take her back to Avengers Tower, Karla has convinced herself that their prisoner was too sloppy to be the real Carol Danvers. She points out all the punishment Danvers took in their last clash and how she shouldn’t have been taken out so easily. Osborn doesn’t care about the details, only that they have Ms. Marvel in their custody.

Meanwhile, reporter Catherine Donovan — who is the spitting image of Carol Danvers — is a flight bound for New York City. The entire trip she has been fighting intrusive thoughts that she is Carol Danvers somehow, despite all the evidence to the contrary. After he plane lands she deletes all the frantic voice mails from her boss and gets into a taxi. When asked where she wants to go, Catherine asks to be taken to Avengers Tower.

By this point, Ms. Marvel has been shackled to a chair in preparation to have her transported to Thunderbolts Mountain in Colorado. However, the woman is starting to crack the Adamantium/Vibranium inhibitor chair, something that should be impossible. Dismissing this as some sort of impurity in their construction, Norman orders her to be sedated and is informed that they already pumped her full of all sorts of drugs, to no effect. Carol Danvers mocks Norman and promises him that she is getting stronger and once she is loose she is going to kill him. Getting annoyed with this situation, Osborn orders her taken away.

In the lobby below, Catherine Donovan shows up to the reception desk. However, before she can explain what she wants, HAMMER agents storm into the area and order her to surrender. Ms. Marvel simultaneously warns Osborn to run while also compelling Donovan — via a mental link — to do the same thing. As the HAMMER soldiers give her chase, one reports that they caught Carol Danvers in the lobby to Norman Osborn. Osborn finds that impossible given that they already have Carol in custody. He then goes to confront his prisoner and demands to know who she really is. Ms. Marvel only mocks him further, saying he knows who she is and refuses to accept it. Angrier than ever, Norman calls for his Avengers to assemble on the double.

Changing into the Iron Patriot, Osborn join his Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Daken. They catch up with Donovan on 23rd and Madison Avenue. When they confront her, she tries to explain that she is not Carol Danvers. However, when she tries to flee, Hawkeye wounds her by shooting an arrow into her thigh. That’s when Karla Sofen steps in, telling the others that Carol Danvers is hers to deal with. Before she can do anything, Norman orders her to stand down and she reluctantly complies.

They take Catherine Donovan back to Avengers Tower for medical treatment. Scans of both women reveal that they are somehow both Carol Danvers. As Osborn and Sofen try to make sense of this impossibility, the other Ms. Marvel breaks free from her restraints and begins fighting her way through the security detail. Osborn is about to charge in when Karla stops him for a moment after overhearing the Donovan woman say she is from Los Angeles. Sofen recounts how in her clash with Danvers in LA, she was impossibly strong, yet was significantly weaker when she arrived in New York. This suggests to her that there must be a link between the two women and that the key to defeating Ms. Marvel is to get Catherine Donovan as far away as possible.

Fighting Ms. Marvel as the Iron Patriot, Norman gives Karla time to get Donovan out of the infirmary. Osborn is quickly incapacitated by Ms. Marvel and demands to know why Karla’s is taking so long. While Karla has arrived in the infirmary, she has decided to kill Catherine Donovan and tells Norman that this will all be over in a moment!

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel (Danvers & Sofen), Storytellers, Dark Avengers (Iron Patriot, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Wolverine, Sentry), Lilly Hollister, HAMMER

Continuity Notes

1. The two Ms. Marvels thing is a bit complicated:

   • Karla Sofen usurped the Ms. Marvel name when Norman Osborn formed his own team of Avengers in Dark Avengers #1. She has been fighting with Danvers over the right to use that name since Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #42.

   • Carol is not at her fighting best because her body had been fragmented after her powers flared out of control in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #37. While she was mostly merged back together in issue #42, she is missing her humanity, which is trapsing around in the identity of Catherine Donovan.

2. Lilly Hollister is depicted as being very pregnant here. She is carrying the baby of a man everyone believes is Harry Osborn (He’s actually a clone, long story, see Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #73-75), she discovered she was pregnant in Amazing Spider-Man #599. She will give birth to a son, Stanley, in Amazing Spider-Man #642.

Topical References

• “Catherine Donovan” is depicted as having a “flip” style phone, which were still commonly used at the time this story was published in 2009. However, they soon fell out of popularity due to the advent of smart phones and as such, its depiction here should be considered topical.

• When the taxi driver asks “Catherine” where she wants to go, she jokes that in a perfect world she’d want to go to Yankee Stadium. This should be considered a topical reference as the Yankees are a real world baseball team.