War of the Marvels, Conclusion

The war between Carol Danvers and Karla Sofen over the title of Ms. Marvel was weird enough when a third woman — Catherine Donovan, who is looks identical to Carol — appeared in the middle of it. Things have gone even more off the rails when the essence of Catherine is absorbed into the body of Karla.[1] While the physical struggle has come to a pause, a new battle is beginning in the mind of Karla Sofen.

Sofen and Catharine have been taken back to Karla’s old family apartment. As the two try to make sense of why they are trapped in this memory, Catherine notices on of the MODOC Storytellers on a bookshelf.

In the waking world, Ms. Marvel continues to pummel Karla, demanding that she fight back. All Karla can is speak aloud what is going on inside her mind.

Back in Karla’s mind, she is slowly being swallowed up in a chair as Catherine notes this apartment isn’t her own. As she starts thinking of her own place back in LA — with her cat Chewie — the room begins to change shape to match her memory. This causes Karla to be swallowed up by the chair, plunging her into a black void. She floats down to the ground where her mother accuses Karla of murdering her with her Moonstone.[2] She accuses her daughter of killing her to hide the shame she feels over being a criminal and that she is no Ms. Marvel. Karla agrees, and grabs at the gem on a pedestal reclaiming her identity of Moonstone in the process. She then fights her way into the mental apartment of Catherine Donovan and orders her to get out of her head.

In doing so, she forces the Storytellers out of her head and they enter the mind of Carol Danvers instead. This causes Carol to become whole for the first time since she died and savagely attacks Moonstone. However, rather than kill her for everything she has done, Ms. Marvel uses her powers to reach into Moonstone’s body and physically remove the source of her powers. Now powerless and at Carol’s mercy, Karla tells her to get it over with and kill her. However, Ms. Marvel refuses to grant this request, saying that without the Moonstone, she is already dead and simply walks away.

Later, back at Avengers Tower, Karla reports back to Norman Osborn. She has come to realize that Ms. Marvel was being literal when she said she already killed Karla. This is because without the Moonstone in her, she is becoming weaker and will eventually die. However, Osborn doesn’t think Danvers would have left with the Moonstone if that’s what she intended to do and suggests she go find it. Karla does just that, recalling a part of the battle she didn’t tell Norman: About Carol telling Karla that she knows her dark secrets and rather than kill her, she wants to see Karla redeem herself. She told Karla that she will leave the Moonstone where she can finally confront the moment she became a monster and rise up and redeem herself and stand up against people like Norman Osborn.

It doesn’t take long for Karla to figure out where the Moonstone was left and she heads to the gravesite of her mother. Seeing it for the first time, Karla cries as she recalls what Ms. Marvel told her. She then recovers the Moonstone and after a moment of consideration, smashes her mother’s gravestone and walks away.

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvels (Danvers & Sofen), Norman Osborn, Storytellers

Continuity Notes

1. Some minor convolution off the top, so lets make sense of it:

   • At the time of this story, Karla Sofen usurped the role of Ms. Marvel when Norman Osborn formed his team of Avengers in Dark Avengers #1.

   • Meanwhile, Carol was seemingly killed when her powers overloaded in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #37. In reality, her body was fragmented. Most of it was reformed in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #42, but one last piece manifested as Catherine Donovan in that same issue.

2. As we learned in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #38, Karla murdered her mother because she was ashamed of the criminal she had become after her mother slaved away to give her a proper education.

Topical References

• The Sofen apartment is depicted as having a CRT model television in the living room. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.