Karla Sofen

Moonstone in Giant-Man v1 #3.

Karla Sofen is a female comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Early life

Karla Sofen

Thunderbolts

After the Superhuman Registration Act, all superpowered beings had to be registered and the Commission on Superhuman Activities re-organised the Thunderbolts as a special marshal unit tasked with apprehending those in breach of the law. Norman Osborn came to be assigned as the head of this initiative where he had a meeting with Sofen who had left the team and thought she was being offered a place as a psychiatrist in the CSA. However, Osborn instead wanted her to lead the Thunderbolts in the field as he believed her expertise would allow her to control a unit consisting largely of supervillains whose compliance was being forced via nano-chains. At first, Sofen refused as Songbird was the Thunderbolts leader but Osborn had demoted Melissa and offered further incentives to Karla who was given her Moonstone once again with her accepting the position. (Thunderbolts v1 #110) Their first assignment was to capture Jack Flag who refused to surrender to the authorities and had initiated a public fight to force the Thunderbolts to use non-lethal means against him. Despite their numbers, Flag used his skills to outwit the Thunderbolts and nearly escaped but whilst going through a building he was ambushed by Bullseye who paralysed him and left him for the team to capture with them taking him back to headquarters. (Thunderbolts v1 #111)

She later fell under the telepathic influence of the Caged Angels that were a group of psionics who had allowed themselves to be captured in order to manipulate the Thunderbolts into destroying one another. Karla was among those that fell under their control where they amplified her feelings of hatred of Doc Samson with her attacking him during his therapy session with his patient Robbie Baldwin. Unleashing a blast from her Moonstone, it came to be reflected back at her by Penance's power which injured her but Baldwin used his powers to cushion her fall. After the telepaths were eliminated by Bullseye, the threat ended and the staff of Thunderbolts Mountain looked to aid in Moonstone's recovery to allow her to undergo nanosurgery. (Thunderbolts v1 #121)

Karla attempted to make a deal with the Skrulls where she offered to help them in exchange for being made a governor. The alien attackers revealed but stated that Andrea von Strucker was not one of their sleeper agents. This led to Moonstone being attacked by her but the female Fenris member was then fatally stabbed by Bullseye who proceeded to murder the Skrulls. He would have killed Karla as well had she not changed her density to make his blades pass right through her. The two then rendezvoused with Norman who wanted Moonstone to take Radioactive Man into orbit as a Skrull energy weapon had created an unstable reaction in him that he could not contain. Within orbit, Chen exploded but was unharmed with the blast destroying the ship though Moonstone survived due to he powers. She then took Radioactive Man with her to the surface to help the Thunderbolts in fighting the Skrull invaders. (Thunderbolts v1 #125)

Dark Reign

With the defeat of the Skrulls, Norman Osborn came to be hailed as a hero for slaying the alien queen Veranke thus helping stop the invasion. He came to replace Tony Stark with S.H.I.E.L.D. being disbanded leading to Director Osborn heading its replacement that he named H.A.M.M.E.R. where he began assembling a replacement team of Avengers. Among the recruits was Carol Danvers who refused to serve under Osborn and resigned from the team leading to Norman offering the spot to Karla Sofen. She was given a version of the Ms. Marvel costume and told to take over the identity. Initially, she wanted to keep her identity though Osborn said that as Moonstone she would remain at Thunderbolts Mountain but as Ms. Marvel she was free to do what she wanted along with having multiple perks leading to Karla accepting this role on the Dark Avengers. (Dark Avengers v1 #1)

After the completion of their mission, they headed back to Avengers Tower where Moonstone complimented Noh-Varr's performance in the field and said that her powers were Kree in origin. Upon arrival, they witnessed that the seemingly slain Sentry had come back to life and was back at his Watchtower with this shocking the Dark Avengers. (Dark Avengers v1 #4) She later saw Osborn speak to the Sentry and retain control over his mind. Later on, Moonstone invited Noh-Varr into her room at night with the pair sleeping together. Afterwards, she watched the live interview with Osborn who was looking to deflect some of the negativity publicity given to him by Clint Barton when Hawkeye had gone on tv stating that Norman along with the Dark Avengers were all criminals. Moonstone enjoyed watching Osborn lie to hide the truth and confessed to Noh-Varr that the Dark Avengers were indeed largely supervillains and psychopaths which was a revelation that shocked him. (Dark Avengers v1 #5)

She later slept with Bullseye after noting that he was attracted to her with Karla stating that she liked him being Hawkeye. They were later deployed to Dinosaur, Colorado with the Dark Avengers investigating the disappearance of numerous people in the town. (Dark Avengers v1 #10)

As part of her continued defiance at Osborn, she openly had sex with Bullseye in the Avengers Tower meeting room with H.A.M.M.E.R. agents present. This led to Norman sending Victoria Hand to deal with the matter where she ordered the pair to return to their rooms. Karla grew angered at being ordered by Victoria who then proceeded with shooting her with an energy weapon that left Sofen in incredible pain and unconscious on the floor where she was escorted back to her room. (Dark Avengers v1 #14)

Aftermath

During the War of the Realms, Earth came to be invaded by the forces of the Dark Council with the Frost Giants laying claim to North America. This saw them establishing a base of operations in Florida where they kept their godly progenitor Ymir captive as they harvested his body to create primal Ice Giants for their army. Karla in a bid to survive the conquest of the planet forged an alliance with King Laufey where she offered to oversee the mining operation of Ymir by female human captives and in exchange she along with them would be allowed to live. He agreed to the terms and Karla kept watch over their operations as Ymir's flesh was harvested every time after his body had regenerated. During this time, four size-changing superheroes had infiltrated the site as they had been charged by Freyja with the elimination of Ymir and Karla was unaware that her handmaiden was actually a disguised Cassandra Lang. She came to battle the heroes but was convinced by her former comrade Erik Josten to side with them allowing them to free Ymir who departed Midgard. (Giant-Man v1 #3)

Overview

Personality and attributes

After taking on the identity of Ms. Marvel on the Dark Avengers, Karla felt that she had taken on that persona of a superhero. This made her act aggressively against Carol Danvers when she returned to life and attacked her stating that she was supposed to be dead. [Ms. Marvel 42, 43, 44] In fact, she even pleaded to stop the recreation of the original Ms. Marvel as Karla had gotten much from her new carreer. [Ms. Marvel #41] She became so possessive of the title that she told Danvers that she was not going to take that title away from her and that she was Ms. Marvel now. This was because she knew that a time she was the "bad guy" due to her previous reputation of being Moonstone and thus she was hated as well as feared. However, when taking on the identity of Ms. Marvel on the Dark Avengers, that had changed and thus her fortune had as well. Even though she knew it was a scam, she felt that the people loved her new identity and initially she had accepted as it meant leaving the Thunderbolts mountain. With her new persona, Karla felt that instead of living in that mountain, she could now live on top of the world. Thus, when the real Ms. Marvel was resurrected, Moonstone came to realize how attached she came to her new life until it was about to be taken away from her. [Ms. Marvel 42, 43, 44]

Her expert skills in psychology had also made her an expert manipulator which she tended to use against enemies and even allies. Its been noted that Moonstone tended to use sex as a weapon which she had employed her own team in order to secure an advantage for herself. [1] She cared little for the lives of others and in fact did not worry about collateral damage or putting innocents at risk of danger such as children. [Ms. Marvel #42] At times, however, she tended to grab innocents and tell them of her life feeling that her career as a psychologist taught her that talking to others helped. Despite the training, she felt that it never helped and with such unwilling captives she tended to dispose of once she had confessed her thoughts. [Ms. Marvel #42, 43, 44]

For a short time, she had a relationship with Clint Barton when he commanded the Thunderbolts. (Thunderbolts v1 #30) When Barton attempted to kill Norman Osborn, she asked if Karla wanted to help him and though she said it was tempting, she decided that it was too risky as cameras were on the scene which would have seen her commit the act. She quite ruthlessly attempted to attack him with a force blast but was blocked by the buildings force fields when a lockdown came into effect. (Dark Reign: The List - Avengers v1 #1‎) She found Bullseye to be a creep but slept with him when he operated as Hawkeye on the Dark Avengers as she noted that he was attracted to her. (Dark Avengers v1 #10)

She was known to have little compassion for other beings and tended to use innocents as part of her plans. In order to delay a superhero, she was not above taking innocent civilians and throwing them in the air in order to cause the hero to rush and save them. (Ms. Marvel v2 #45)

Powers and abiliies

Karla's superpowers come from a variety of abiliies she acquired through the Kree gravity stone which she found on Earth's moon. This item later bonded to her cenral nervous system and taken their power from the many shards of the Lifestone from the Kree Tree of Life. These gravitic abiliies allowed her to fly, turn intangible, focus gravity into force blasts, gain superhuman strength, increased speed, enhanced stamina, better reflexes and also gained he power to discharge a blinding flash from her body. In addition to these powers, she also had he power to manipulate as well as move matter, create force fields, increase he gravity surrounding a targe, generate miniature black holes and even transport objects through dimensional rifts. Furthermore, her costume was an extension of the gravity stone which allowed her to alter it at will.

It was considered to be a Kree Lifestone. (Thunderbolts v1 #122) They were biosynaptic processors whereby the wearers memories were archived within the gems allowing one to call forth the knowledge of a previous bearer of the stone. (Thunderbolts v1 #46) Though called a stone, in reality it was pure energy that resided within the users body. (Ms. Marvel v2 #46)

One of her weaknesses was that she was vulnerable to astrally projected beings and energy forms even when she was in her intangible state. (X-Men: Legacy v1 #227) Furthermore, the Kree graviy stone was also connected to her very life force which meant if she was separated for more than 72 hours than she would die without its support. (Ms. Marvel v2 #46)

Notes

• Karla Sofen was created by Marv Wolfman and Frank Robbins where she made her first appearance in Captain America v1 #192 (December, 1975).
• She later adopted the name Moonstone in Incredible Hulk v1 #228 (October, 1978).
• For a time, she took the name of Meteorite in Incredible Hulk v1 #449 (January, 1997).
• Sofen later took on the name Ms. Marvel in Dark Avengers v1 #1 (March, 2009).
• Writer Bendis of the Dark Reign storyline commented that Karla tended to use sex as a weapon. [2]

Alternate Versions

• In Old Man Hawkeye v1 (2018), an alternate version of Moonstone appeared in the world designated as Earth-807128 that was home to Old Man Logan. This version participated in the villain takeover of the world that was enacted by the Red Skull which saw many of the planets superheroes being killed. She was promised territory by Baron Zemo but she received nothing leading to Karla Sofen attempting to betray him but she failed. This caused her to flee and set up in an abandoned town where she sought to build up an army to send against Zemo. During this time, the radiation from her Moonstone began to slowly kill her body along with led to deformities among her followers. Around 45 years later, Old Man Hawkeye had arrived alongside Kate Bishop as she sought to get revenge against the Thunderbolts for their part in the betrayal. Moonstone intended to hand them over to the Red Skull thinking she would get rewarded for something that Baron Zemo had failed to accomplish but she was ultimately killed by Kate Bishop who shot an arrow in Karla's chest thus killing her alongside her followers as her Moonstone overloaded.

In other media

Television

• In The Avengers: United They Stand, Moonstone appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Command Decision" where she was voiced by actor Susan Roman.
• In Avengers Assemble, Moonstone appeared in the animated television series Ultron Revolution season where she was voiced by actor Elizabeth Daily.

Video games

• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, the character made an appearance as a villain boss in the video game where she fell under the control of the Fold.

Appearances

• Captain America v1:
• Incredible Hulk v1:
• Thunderbolts v1:
• Dark Avengers v1:
• New Avengers v1:
• Ms. Marvel v2:
• Thunderbolts v3:
• Old Man Hawkeye v1:
• Giant-Man v1:
• Strikeforce v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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