Ms. Marvel (the real one) fights Dark Ms. Marvel (aka Moonstone).
The fight lasts all of issue #42, until at the end of the issue we see Catherine Donovan (which is the identity that Carol Danvers took on when she went into hiding after faking her own death) watching the fight on TV.
That’s the set up. What follows is the exploration of the characters’ identities, and like most of the stories in Brian Reed’s run, it’s very good. I’m not going to go through the whole thing blow-by-blow (but I do recommend reading it).
Instead, let’s cut to the chase…
It turns out, the A.I.M.-created group of Baby MODOCs created the Catherine Donovan identity to restore to Carol Danvers the identity that was taken by Norman Osborn when he had Karla Sofen run around dressed as Ms. Marvel.
So that explains why there are three of them.
In the end, the MODOCs take on the form of the Cosmic Cube from which they were derived, and Danvers unites with her true form. She retakes her identity, and pulls the Kree stone (which empowers Sofen) out of Karla’s body.
As for Karla Sofen, we learn that she is dying without her moonstone–and in the end, Carol gives it to her–by leaving it on her gravestone. Of course she’s not dead–but the ending is a bit ambiguous.
English (US) · 