Karla Sofen (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Moonstone

Gallery

Real Name

Karla Sofen

Current Alias

Moonstone

Aliases

Meteorite, Kate Sorenson

Identity

Public

Affiliation

Thunderbolts; Femizons; Masters of Evil; Doctor Faustus; the Corporation; former partner of Blackout (Marcus Daniels)

Relatives

Karl August Sofen (father), Marion Sofen (mother), unnamed maternal grandparents (mentioned only)

Universe

Earth-616

Base Of Operations

Mount Charteris; Four Freedoms Plaza

Characteristics

Gender

Female

Height

5' 11"

Weight

130 lbs (59 kg)

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Blonde

Status

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Adventurer, Psychiatrist

Education

Doctorate

Origin

Origin

Dr. Karla Sofen was a renowned psychiatrist, with a nasty craving for power and control. When asked to cure Byron Becton, the original Moonstone, she instead used hallucinogens to persuade him to give her his moonstone.

Place of Birth

Van Nuys, California

Creators

Marv Wolfman, Frank Robbins

First appearance

Captain America Vol 1 #192 (cameo); Incredible Hulk #228 (full)

History

Karla as Meteorite

Karla Sofen was once a respected psychiatrist who trained under the tutelage of the criminal Doctor Faustus. She even assisted Doctor Faustus in his grandiose attempt to take control of Manhattan Island. Faustus' plans never came to fruition however, due to the efforts of Captain America. ^[1] As Cap rounded up Faustus' men, Sofen hid herself inside the baggage compartment of the doctor’s private 747, thus evading capture.

She later used her psychiatric credentials to gain access to the prison cell of Byron Becton – the original Moonstone. Using hypnosis, she convinced Becton that he was in fact, a hideous, loathsome monster. The psychological trauma was so severe that it caused his body to reject the moonstone within him. Energized by the emotional rush, Karla was able to absorb the essence of the moonstone through a sheer act of will. The intensity of the transfer was so great that it even granted Karla the ability to absorb Becton's Moonstone armor into her own bodily tissue. With Becton now powerless, Karla Sofen became the new Moonstone. ^[2]

A short time later, Moonstone decided to hire herself out to the subversive organization known as the Corporation. The Corporation sent Moonstone on a mission to Gamma Base in New Mexico to purloin a top-secret piece of military hardware known as a Gammavator. This incident brought her into conflict with the gamma-spawned monster, the incredible Hulk. At first, Moonstone was able to provoke the Hulk into a savage frenzy thereby earning her the sympathy of psychiatric colleague Doc Samson, but before long, the Hulk overpowered Moonstone, exposing her identity of Dr. Karla Sofen. ^[3]

Sometime later she was held at Project: Pegasus for study and once during a diversion elsewhere in Pegasus, another prisoner Blackout managed to escape his containment cell and free several of his fellow superhuman criminals, including Moonstone, who were also there to be studied. Blackout and his new ally Moonstone escaped the confines of Pegasus, but were later tracked down by the Avengers. Attempting to escape from them, Blackout opened up another aperture into the "dark dimension," and he and Moonstone wore sucked into that dimension. (Note: the so-called "dark dimension" from which Blackout drew Darkforce is not to be confused with the Dark Dimension previously ruled by Dormammu and now ruled by Clea.

Moonstone used her energy powers to ascertain where they were and helped Blackout navigate them out of the Darkforce dimension to the Earth's moon. Moonstone hoped to augment her superhuman powers on the moon's surface, but before she could do so, members of the moon's resident race, the Inhumans, aided by the mutant Dazzler, overpowered the two escaped criminals. Blackout and Moonstone were taken back to Earth and were returned to captivity at Project: Pegasus.^[4] Years later, Dr. Sofen was a member of the Masters of Evil during their siege on Avengers Mansion.

When most of the worlds heroes disappeared after the Onslaught crisis, Sofen again teamed with Baron Zemo. Under the guise of Meteorite she was a founding member of the Thunderbolts, a team of supervillains masquerading as heroes to gain the trust of the people long enough for Zemo to steal sensitive SHIELD files. Eventually their cover was broken, but Karla joined most of her teammates in sustaining the Thunderbolts as a true superhero team.

With the aid of Hawkeye, the Thunderbolts came to be viewed as true heroes. Karla was pardoned for her past crimes, but was soon drawn backing into the heroic life. On Counter-Earth, she obtained another Moonstone through deception. She also became romantically involved with Hawkeye.

Her increased powers and instability began to worry the other members. Graviton also began confronting her. While the two demonstrated their power, Graviton secretly levitated a pebble and used it to murder one of Karla's childhood friends. Karla's discovery of this seemed to drive her mad. During a battle between the Avengers and Thunderbolts, Hawkeye was forced to use a special arrow to inhibit her intangibility long enough for Vision to remove her moonstones.

Sofen was left comatose while Baron Zemo (Helmut Zemo) gained control of the moonstones. She recovered, seemingly under Zemo's control.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

The Moonstones Karla used are gravity-based. Acquiring the second moonstone increased her powers significantly. While not as powerful as Graviton, she is a very formidable opponent.

• Superhuman strength, endurance, and durability
• Flight
• Instantaneously change into/alter her costume
• Reducing or increasing gravity's pull on an object
• Intangibility by reducing her body's specific gravity.
• Light generation (varies from a blinding luminescence to a powerful, focused blast of concentrated photons)
• She could also allow the Earth's gravitational pull to propel her. To the casual viewer this would make her appear to disappear or teleport.
• Gravity well usage also produces an effect similar to teleportation.

Moonstone

Abilities

Dr. Sofen is a trained psychiatrist and is particularly skilled in using hypnosis. Like her predecessor, Doctor Faustus, Moonstone has perfect pitch and modulation in her voice, and was even able to use these talents to cause General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross to suffer a complete nervous breakdown.

Strength level

Without the moonstones, Karla has the strength of a normal human female with little regular exercise. While she had one moonstone, Karla could lift 10 tons. It is unknown how much she could lift with both moonstones; Sofen herself claimed the boost was exponential.

Weaknesses

None known.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• The exact nature of how Karla Sofen acquired the moonstone gem was explained in greater detail in the letters column from Incredible Hulk (Volume 1) #235.
  

Trivia

The 1st appearance of Karla Sofen from Captain America #192

Appearances in Other Media

Moonstone appears as a member of the Masters of Evil in the 6th episode of the animated series Avengers: United They Stand, voiced by Susan Roman.

See Also

• Appearances of Karla Sofen (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Karla Sofen (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Karla Sofen (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Karla Sofen (Earth-616)

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Links and References

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