This is interesting. Ms. Marvel was initially created as the female version of Captain Marvel, whose title has been used by several people since then. Most recently, Noh-Varr took the Captain Marvel identity to serve on Norman Osborn’s Avengers team. This story explores the “Marvel” identity in several ways, starting with Ms. Marvel confronting Noh-Varr about his identity, and he reveals to Carol that the hero of the Hala religion (a) is dead and (b) was a skrull. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of Hala–a religious group formed to worship the resurrected original Captain Marvel who, unbeknownst to all, was actually a skrull.
When the monks see that their hero’s identity has now been taken by Blue Marvel to serve Osborn, they commit mass suicide. Meanwhile, owing to Osborn taking the Marvel name for his evil team, goes into hiding under a new identity, reporter Catherine Donovan.
As Donovan, she investigates the mass suicide. The story (of course) leads back to Osborn, a big terrorist plot, and a super-powered being who nearly defeats Ms. Marvel. She survives, but is believed dead in the end. Hence, the title of this arc, “The Death of Ms. Marvel.”
Overall, this is a good story. The pacing is perfect, there are enough surprises and twists to keep the plot moving, and I really like how the various version of the “Marvel” identity weave together across the narrative. My only criticism is the same one I have of most of the Dark Reign era stories: Osborn is the “new Nick Fury” in the sense that he’s powerful and connected to just about everything. But unlike Fury, every single Dark Reign story shows how someone figures out what a bad dude Osborn is. How is it so easy to reveal his bad deeds and yet he never gets held responsible for them?
Hm.