Karla Sofen was born in Van Nuys, California. She grew up in the mansion of Hollywood producer Charles Stockbridge, as the child of the butler Karl Sofen. After her father's death, her mother Marion Sofen worked three jobs to put her daughter through college, and Karla vowed never to end up like her mother and that she would never put another's needs before her own. Despite building a successful practice as a psychologist and psychiatrist, Karla so disliked being dependent on her patients for income that she entered the super-criminal world as an aide to Doctor Faustus. Learning of Lloyd Bloch (a.k.a. the original Moonstone), she became the super-villain's psychologist and manipulated him into rejecting the source of his powers, an extraterrestrial gem of considerable power, which she then acquired and absorbed to gain the powers of Moonstone. She then battled the Hulk.