Moonstone

Origin

Growing up in a California mansion, Karla watched as her father put others before himself while he worked as a butler. After her father's death, Karla's mother was forced to work three jobs just to put her through the best colleges. During this time, Karla vowed to always place herself first, so that she would never end up like her parents. She also vowed to only be around people that she could control. After she graduated from high school, Karla moved onto college and attended many lectures taught by Doctor Leonard Samson. She ultimately received an M.D. specializing in Psychiatry and built a successful practice for herself. However, Karla was still dissatisfied with having to depend on her clients for income, so she began to work with Dr. Faustus and other criminals to fulfill her lust for power and control. During this time, Doctor Faustus taught Karla some of his methods of psychology in an unofficial capacity, giving her extensive knowledge in this area. Karla was asked to help the prison board with the original Moonstone, Lloyd Bloch, due to the outlandish cost of the cell he was required to be contained in. After learning of its powers, she devised a way to make him reject the Moonstone, using a hallucinogenic gas which caused him to believe that he was a monster and then to reject the stone. When Karla picked up the stone, it was absorbed into her body and she took on its powers. A new Moonstone was born. Moonstone then joined the Corporation and briefly controlled the Hulk and caused General Thunderbolt Ross to have a nervous breakdown. Craving more power, she stole the Enervator from Dr. Curt Conners in order to go to the moon to attain more Moonstones. After being recruited by Egghead and Baron Heinrich Zemo she joined the Masters Of Evil until she was jailed for her crimes.

Creation

Moonstone was created by Marv Wolfman and Frank Robbins and first appeared in Captain America #192 in 1975 as Karla Sofen, but made her full appearance as Moonstone in Incredible Hulk #228 in 1978.

Major Story Arcs

Under Siege

Moonstone was part of the Masters of Evil at this time and contributed greatly by using her skill as a psychologist to stablize fellow member Blackout enough so he could control and use his powers to cut the Avengers mansion from the outside world. She tried to challenge Baron Zemo for leadership right before the main attack, ordering Blackout to kill him, but Zemo had already installed a device in his costume headband to mentally control Blackout for just this reason. She conceded that he's the leader and the group went on to invade the mansion.

Thunderbolts

The Masters Of Evil broke Moonstone out of the vault to join the "heroic" Thunderbolts, where she took on the identity of Meteorite. After meeting Jolt she persuaded Masters Of Evil to let the young woman join the team. The two soon grew close and Karla took on an almost motherly role in the young woman’s life. When the teams true nature was revealed by Baron Heinrich Zemo to the public, Moonstone, Jolt, Mach IV and Songbird rallied against him. Wanting to continue their lives as heroes, the group defeated the brainwashed Fantastic Four and Avengers with the help of Iron Man. When the battle was over, the group decided to pay their debt to society so they could start their new lives as heroes. Unfortunately, before they were able to do this, they were transported to an alternate dimension. Taking on leadership of the team, Karla defeated the Kosmosian Primotur Jekuakkekt which allowed them to return to Earth. Moonstone used her psychological powers to defeat Graviton, though her teammates felt that she neglected to consider the consequences of her actions. When Hawkeye promised the team pardons, Karla stepped aside allowing him to lead the team instead. Later, during the team's battle with the Masters Of Evil she considered turning on them, but quickly changed her mind.

Fighting against the Secret Empire, Karla became involved with Hawkeye but began to have nightmares about an alien woman. The team was attacked by Scourge and Jolt was unfortunately killed. Karla took her death the hardest and went in search of answers after a fight with the V-Battalion. After trying to get help from the Inhumans she went to the Kree and received the answers she was looking for. The alien woman in her dreams was the previous owner of the moonstone and was influencing Karla's desires to be a hero. The Thunderbolts and Captain Marvel found her and attempted to help her. After talk of removing the stone from her body was rejected, the group opted to leave it in place and instead wipe all the memories of the previous owner from it. This left all of Moonstones decisions and the consequences of them to her. Returning to Earth the team found Jolt alive and well. In spite of this good news Moonstone discovered that Hawkeye's promise of pardons were fake. She exposed him to the rest of the team and went after Scourge and the man controlling him, Henry Gyrich. Their defeat of the Redeemers lead to the revelation that Henry Gyrich was being controlled as well. The team eventually received a full pardon from Valerie Cooper once they gave up their dreams of becoming heroes.

Graviton soon emerged and hired Karla as his teacher. She taught him how to better control his powers and made him fall in love with her. He attacked and killed the Redeemers and held most of the world's heroes in place, relocating many major cities to the sky. The Thunderbolts reformed, only to find Karla at Graviton's side. In her hesitation to fight them, Graviton's powers imploded and sent the team to Counter-Earth. While there the Thunderbolts had their chance to be true heroes. They helped to save many people and Karla even reshaped the minds of the political leaders in order to give them a new way of thinking. While there, Moonstone took another moonstone from the Phantom Eagle which greatly augmented her powers. The team returned to Earth shortly after leaving the younger members there to continue their work.

Shortly after Baron Heinrich Zemo and the Thunderbolts designed a machine called the liberator in attempt to drain the world of potentially harmful energies to make way for true peace in the world; However none of the Thunderbolts trusted Zemo yet. Iron Man had infiltrated the group disguised as the Cobalt Man to make sure Zemo was not attempting to control the world's energy for himself. When Iron Man did not report back to the Avengers, the Avengers arrived just after the machine was activated, believing the machine was built to harm the world. When Captain America attempted to destroy the machine, the energy seemingly disappeared leading to the teams fighting about the teams' distrust of each other. Moonstone soon began to writhe in pain but quickly recovered considerably more powerful than ever. Moonstone then revealed she had put a backdoor program into the liberator that would divert the energy into her just in case Zemo betrayed the Thunderbolts and the world. Captain America's attempt to destroy the liberator caused caused Moonstone’s backdoor program to kick into effect and direct the energy towards her. Moonstone quickly became emotionally unstable. Angered by the Avengers interference and lack of trust, Moonstone quickly lashed out at all of the heroes in anger. Moonstone continued to become more unstable as Captain America and Zemo continued to argue over who was to blame for the situation and a new fight arose every time someone began to reason with Moonstone. Moonstone’s emotions and anger began to deteriorate until her new power, combined with Scarlet Witch’s chaos magic, began to rip the fabric of space and time. Ultimately, after repeated attempts to reach out and save the world and Moonstone from herself, Hawkeye had no choice but to release an arrow that would allow the Avengers to separate Karla and her moonstones. With the moonstones removed from her body Karla Sofen fell into a coma. After some time she was taken by the Commission on Superhuman Activities who used their resources to link her mind with Songbird. The stones were returned to her and she awoke from her coma.

During the Civil War, Moonstone was blackmailed into becoming the leader of the team by Norman Osborn ( Green Goblin). Well aware of how important the team's public image was, she was very careful to hide the more ruthless side of the team, but was still a less-than-capable leader. Moonstone often clashed with Songbird and even convinced SHIELD agents to give Norman Osborn placebos rather than his prescribed medication. In a recent battle with American Eagle she was shot through the wrist by a crossbow and ordered Bullseye to cripple him. When four psychic super villains invade the Thunderbolts mountain, they manipulate Karla into attacking Doc Samson, who she had professed a deep seated hatred for. Moonstone managed decently against Sampson, however, when she attempted to attack Penance, he deflected her beam and knocked her through several walls. Although she did manage to survive, it was noted that Moonstone would still require nanosurgery although it would be about two weeks before her body was healthy enough to under go the operation.

Once she recovered, Moonstone was among the members of the team that were attacked by the sleeper Skrull agent known as Khn'nr, who had taken the form of Captain Marvel and rejected his original programming, choosing instead to defend the human race. Khn'nr used his power to easily shut down Moonstone's source of power after revealing its Kree origin. After a discussion with Osborn, Khn'nr left the area and allowed the team to recover before launching an attack on a Skrull airship. Karla, along with the Swordsman and his newly cloned sister, Andrea, moved to the control center. However, Karla believed Andrea's recent arrival clearly marked her as a Skrull, so she attacked the Swordsman, knocking him unconscious in order to negotiate a deal with the Skrulls. Unfortunately for her, Andrea was not a Skrull and brutally attacked her. Andrea was prepared to unleash another attack that would have killed Moonstone, however, she was instead killed by Bullseye when he stabbed her from behind. Bullseye then attempted to kill Moonstone, but she turned intangible before she began threatening Bullseye just to keep him in line.

Dark Reign

After the Secret Invasion ends, Osborn leaves for Washington, allowing Moonstone and Bullseye to finally eliminate the other members of the team. Moonstone first has a therapy session with Robbie, where she makes him feel worse about himself before drugging him and stating that she has already made plans to place him in a maximum security mental institution. She then unleashes Bullseye and Venom onto Songbird after they manipulate her into sending her only true ally, the Radioactive Man, back to China. Songbird manages to evade her killers long enough to blow up a section of the Thunderbolts mountain with the Zeus, before faking her death with the aid of the Swordsman. Karla then leaves, appearing to have given up on the team.

Karla was next seen meditating on Thunderbolt Mountain when Norman Osborn appeared and tossed the original costume of Ms Marvel in her lap. He then convinced her to join his new team of Avengers after he informed Karla that as "Ms Marvel" she would live in a penthouse in New York City, rather than being forced to remain in the Mountain under house arrest. Though curious as to whether she would retain her position as field leader of the team, Karla took the time to appreciate the fact that she was now officially an Avenger. Later, Karla, along with the rest of the "Dark" Avengers were revealed to the public, led by Norman Osborn as the Iron Patriot. As Ms. Marvel, Karla helped to assist Osborn in providing aid to Doctor Doom when he battled with Morgan le Fay. Karla also faced the X-Men in San Francisco, where she and the rest of the Dark Avengers attempted to deal with the rebelling mutants before they were ultimately defeated on the resurfaced Asteroid M.

War of the Marvels

While Karla is a skilled psychiatrist herself, Norman eventually insisted she have a psychiatric evaluation just like every other member of the Dark Avengers. The psychiatrist Dr. Gerald Wright knew of Ms. Marvel's real identity and informed Karla that he was aware that she was not Carol Danvers. Dr. Wright then assaulted Karla's mind with telepathy since he knew that the Dark Avengers were evil and wanted to kill them all himself. Karla, however, was not without tricks of her own. When Dr. Wright attempted to learn about her past, Karla showed him everything, including when she murdered her own mother to prevent her from learning about the villain she had become as Moonstone. This terrifying image caused the doctor to lose control of his telepathy and gave Moonstone the chance to cut off his arm which he had been using to maintain his telepathic contact. When Karla left the room, she was covered in blood stains and refused to speak with Osborn, who had been waiting for her in the hallway.

When Karla later infiltrated an AIM facility in an effort to serve as a liaison for Osborn, she was surprised when their new Storyteller system of genetically-modified MODOC fetuses telepathically asked her for help. After she destroyed the AIM splinter group by redirecting a meteor onto their building, she retrieved the "babies" and stored them at HAMMER HQ. She was later attacked by a mysterious energy being, who also seemed to seek the babies for itself. The conflict over possession of the reality-altering Storyteller fetuses grew and eventually included Deadpool, Wolverine and Spider-Man.

After Karla pursued Deadpool to the Hollywood area of LA, she encountered the New Avengers and the energy beings working together in storming yet another AIM facility, so that they could retrieve the remaining Storytellers. Although she attempted to fight off the New Avengers, Karla was unable to stop them from networking the Storytellers. This resulted in what Karla had been fearing: The Storytellers fused the energy beings back into a single entity, that of the original Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, who everyone had believed to be deceased after she overloaded in an earlier incident. Afterward, Karla and Carol battled across the city until the two were stopped by an intervening Sentry. After a brief meeting with Norman Osborn, the War of Marvels continued after Carol confronted the two Dark Avengers in their base. During the fight, the MODOC babies attempt to assist Carol again by placing the personality of Catherine Donovan inside Moonstone. As Catherine's personality became dominant, Karla reaffirmed her strength when she returned to her former Moonstone persona. She then continued her duel with the original Ms. Marvel until Carol ripped the moonstone from her body and instead of killing her, placed her item of power where Karla initially lost her humanity. Since Carol had intended to make this an opportunity for redemption, she placed the moonstone at the grave site of Karla's mother. While Karla initially looked remorseful, she simply took the moonstone and destroyed her mothers headstone before walking away.

Siege

Soon Norman Osborn begins to unravel and he decides to attack Asgard with his Avengers and Initiative. Moonstone joined him along with the Avengers with the knowledge that their slates would be wiped clean. She personally attack Thor with Norman and the U-Foes. But when the Captain America's Avengers showed up she and Bullseye choose to leave, as they felt it was over for them. Like most members of the team she was eventually arrested and placed in the Raft.

Heroic Age

Luke Cage was put in charge of the new Thunderbolts and gave her the chance to join his new team, along with new and old members alike. Though Karla does not appear to take the team seriously at first, which she makes clear when commenting that she wants her suit pressed and later, that she's allergic to peanuts. Cage snaps her out of it by saying he would never have put her on the team in the first place if it weren't for the government officials requirement. Afterward, Moonstone attempts to be one of the more loyal members of the team, constantly trying to be helpful and finish the missions. It is unknown if her intentions to reform are true or not; she might simply be trying to get out of the Raft, rather than waiting around in a cell. Recently, she called Luke Cage a "true hero", indicating that she may be showing signs of true of inner growth for her.

Due to extra nanomachines placed on her spine, Moonstone has lost her ability to phase through objects. Though she claims she can't work well without her phasing abilities, the other members believe she has enough power and skill to last on her own.

Powers

Karla is able to access a variety of powers after a Kree gravity stone found on the Earth's moon was bonded to her central nervous system. Kree gravity stones are shards of a Lifestone derived from the Kree Tree of Life. Her powers include; self propelled flight, intangibility, the ability to focus gravity in a variety of ways such as force blasts, superhuman strength, speed, stamina, reflexes and the ability to discharge a blinding flash of light from her body. She is also capable of using the gravitational forces at her disposal to manipulate and move matter, create force fields, increase gravity around a target, generate miniature black holes, and transport objects through dimensional rifts. Karla's costume is also an extension of the stone and can be altered at will.

Karla possesses an M.D. in Psychiatry, however, she also holds extensive knowledge in the area of psychoanalysis due to her time studying under Dr. Faustus. This has helped to make her an expert manipulator.

Karla also has perfect control over her voice. She can alter her pitch and modulation to varying degrees to literally drive a man crazy, as shown with what she did to General Thaddeus Ross.

Characteristics

Gender: Female Height: 5' 11"

Weight: 130 lbs.

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde

Status

Known Relatives: Karl August Sofen (father, deceased), Marion (mother)

Citizenship: U.S.A.

Place of Birth: Van Nuys, California

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: Former criminal, Psychologist

Education: M.D. in Psychiatry

Alternate Versions

Marvel Zombies

Moonstone appears alongside the Thunderbolts in the Dead Days one-shot of the Marvel Zombies mini-series using her alias of Meteorite. She attacks Thor, pouncing on him but is stunned with a blast of lightning and then destroyed when Thor smashes her head.

Earth X

Through unknown circumstances, Moonstone died and her soul inhabited the Realm of the Dead, created by the Elders of the Universe. She is seen among many other superheroes who were continually in battle in the Realm.

Other Media

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Moonstone appears as a villain and boss enemy in the video game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Voiced by Tessa Auberjonois, she is encountered by the heroes first with Bullseye, standing guard of Firestar, who is being subjected to nanites in an attempt to make her part of the Fold. After this she appears, again in Prison 42, at the portal, when Whirlwind attacks and the nanite infected revive themselves in order to aid him.

The Avengers: United They Stand

Moonstone appears as a member of the Masters of Evil in the 6th episode of the animated series. the episode was titled Command Decision, in it the Avengers were torn between two leaders, Hank Pym and Captain America. Moonstone along with Absorbing Man and a few other villains worked for Baron Zemo in the animated series episode.