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. 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 it's 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 he reject the stone. When Karla picked up the stone, it was absorbed into her body and she took on it's 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.
The Masters Of Evil broke Moonstone out of the vault to join the "heroic" Thunderbolts, where 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 they're 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 teams 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 worlds 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. When her plot against Baron Heinrich Zemo backfired she was left in a coma after he took her stones from her. 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 teams 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 Osbourne placebos rather than is 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 supervillains invade the Thunderbolds 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 is recovered, Moonstone is among the members of the team when they are 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 uses his power to easily shut down Moonstone's source of power after revealing its Kree origin. After a discussion with Osborn, Khn'nr leaves the area, allowing the team to recover before launching an attack on a Skrull airship. Karla, along with the Swordsman and his newly cloned sister, Andrea, move to the control center. However, Karla believes Andrea's recent arrival clearly marks her as a Skrull, so she attacks the Swordsman, knocking him unconscious in order to negotiate a deal with the Skrulls. Unfortunately for her, Andrea is not a Skrull and brutally attacks her. Andrea was prepared to unleash another attack that would have killed Moonstone, however, she is instead killed by Bullseye when he stabs her from behind. Bullseye then attempts to kill Moonstone, but she turns intangible just in time and begins threatening Bullseye just to keep him in line.
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 aide of the Swordsman. Karla then leaves, appearing to have given up on the team.
Karla is next seen meditating on Thunderbolt Mountain when Norman Osborn appears and tosses the original costume of Ms Marvel in her lap. He convinces her to join his new team of Avengers when he informs 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 appreciates that she is now officially an Avenger. Later, Karla, along with the rest of the "Dark" Avengers are revealed to the public, lead Norman Osborn as the Iron Patriot.
Current Version:
Moonstone
Former Versions:
Moonstone (Dual Moonstones)
Ms. Marvel
