Count Nefaria

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Count Nefaria

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Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Avengers #13 (February 1965)
Created by Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
In story information
Alter ego Luchino Nefaria
Team affiliations Maggia
Legion of the Unliving
Death Squad
Lethal Legion
Ani-Men
Notable aliases The Dream Maker, The Dream Master
Abilities Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and durability
Optic blasts
Halted Aging Process
Flight
Accelerated healing factor

Count Luchino Nefaria is a Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. He first appeared in Avengers (vol.1) #13 (February 1965).

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

Luchino Nefaria, a wealthy aristocrat, was born in Rome, Italy. He is the father of Madame Masque and a frequent enemy of the Avengers. He has also fought Iron Man and the X-Men (playing an important part in the death of Thunderbird) on several occasions. Nefaria possesses vast superhuman physical capabilities including tremendous strength and resistance to physical injury. He is, however, vulnerable to weapons that use the type of ionic energy that gave him his powers; this same kind of energy also empowered Wonder Man and Atlas.

Count Luchino Nefaria was the descendant of a long line of Italian noblemen, and had inherited a vast fortune. Nefaria was also a man of unusual contradictions. He was conservative in many of his tastes and attitudes, and therefore dressed in the fashions Italian noblemen wore much earlier in the century. On the other hand, Nefaria was fascinated with technological advances, and throughout his life commissioned scientists to create inventions that were far in advance of contemporary science. Nefaria also greatly valued his family tradition of utter respectability, yet his lust for even greater wealth and power led him to become a powerful figure in the Maggia, the notorious international crime syndicate which has its origins in southern Europe, but included no noblemen. As a young man, Nefaria quickly made himself a powerful force in the Maggia through the offering of large sums of money to established Maggiosi, the financing of major criminal operations for the Maggia in return for shares of power, the advanced weaponry his scientists devised for him, and his own immense talent for criminal strategy. He became the head of his own Nefaria "family" of the Maggia in time.

The newly formed Avengers devoted much of their time in the early history of that group to the capturing of Maggia criminals and causing the shutdown of many profitable Maggia criminal operations. Count Nefaria decided to deal with the Avengers himself. Having planned to move to America anyway, Nefaria had his ancestral castle in Italy disassembled stone by stone and re-assembled atop the New Jersey Palisades. He announced that he was opening the castle to the public and that profits from admission fees would be donated to charity. He invited the Avengers to the opening day ceremonies.

Once the Avengers were inside the castle, however, Nefaria trapped them under so-called "time transcender beams" which, in effect, put them into suspended animation. Nefaria then created life-size hologram-like images of the Avengers which he could project over great distances, which he could cause to move like living humans, and through which he could project recreations of the real Avengers’ voices. Nefaria caused the images to publicly proclaim that the Avengers were going to seize control of the United States.

As a result, the real Avengers, once they were set free, found themselves in conflict with the United States Army. The Avengers finally defeated Nefaria, who confessed his guilt in framing them. The Avengers were cleared and Nefaria was publicly exposed as a criminal and deported to Italy. Many of Nefaria's criminal allies and employees deserted him and he was now no more than one among many Maggia "family" heads.[1]

As the Dream-Maker, Nefaria next attempted to destroy Iron Man through his dreams.[2]

By now, Nefaria was virtually destitute. He decided he would have himself given superhuman powers greater than those of virtually any other human being. Nefaria formed the second Lethal Legion, consisting of the Living Laser, the original, criminal Power Man, and the Whirlwind. Nefaria then had Profally Klaus Sturdy, former chief assistant to Baron Heinrich Zemo, increase these three criminals’ powers for roughly an hour, and sent them to battle their old enemies, the Avengers.

But Sturdy and his assistants had also analyzed the cellular and genetic structure of the three superhumanly powerful criminals, and used their findings to duplicate their powers in Count Nefaria, but magnified a hundredfold. Once empowered, Nefaria mortally wounded Sturdy so that he could never give equal powers to someone else. He then battled and defeated the Avengers. But the dying Sturdy returned and told Nefaria that his new powers were causing the count to age at incredible speed, so that Nefaria would be dead in two days. (Actually, Sturdy was lying, and Nefaria lived beyond the two day limit.) Sturdy said that only he himself could control the aging process, but now he could not because he himself would be dead. Crazed with fear and rage, Nefaria attempted to destroy New York City, engaging in an epic battle which raged across the city, going toe to toe with Thor himself. He was eventually stopped by the Vision, and the Avengers captured him.[3]

It was revealed the power gain that was causing rapid aging (which was only short-term) was actually reshaping his body and turning Nefaria immortal. This was unknown to everyone, including Nefaria. Treatments were found to restore him to normal, but Madame Masque distrusted the Avengers. She and the Ani-Men attacked them to free her father and gain revenge on Iron Man. In the process Nefaria's life-support system was severed and his weakened form was crushed by the Jupiter Landing Vehicle in a battle between Iron Man and Madame Masque, and he appeared to have died.[4] In his absence, his family of the Maggia was run by Madame Masque and the Masked Marauder.

Years later he resurfaced as an ionic being seeking revenge against the Avengers. It seems that he received enough treatment so that his subordinates could eventually revive him. He revealed to Iron Man that he was now pure ionic energy but needed to drain others of their energy to maintain himself.

Captain America and Ka-Zar managed to capture the Count in the Savage Land while he was conducting experiments to create a race of ionic beings. He was still in a weakened state and was prevented from using a ship with a special cybernetic link to escape. It is unclear how he escaped but he claimed they could never hold him and it is likely that the Maggia came to free him.

Nefaria's new master plan was to bombard the Earth with ionic energy using an ionic bomb; the survivors would become ionic beings that he could control and drain at his leisure, thus ensuring that he would at last receive the respect he felt was his right. He attacked and gained control of Wonder Man and Atlas to assist him. The combined efforts of the Avengers, Thunderbolts, and Madame Masque were barely able to stop him, and it was only thanks to the sacrifice of a clone of Masque that she was convinced to use a weapon she had developed against Nefaria to win the day; recent events had made her so paranoid that she had been uncertain which side to aid in the conflict, contemplating allowing her father to kill the heroes and then kill Nefaria, but Iron Man's horror at Masque's apparent death made her realize that he, at least, genuinely cared about her.

He again appeared to have been killed when the ionic bomb went off and only Wonder Man and Atlas remained, the two having risked their lives to contain the explosion. It seems that he was captured by SHIELD. However, he was recently revealed to be in 'The Raft' and subsequently freed along with a number of other super-powered criminals by Electro.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Nefaria used a bio-genetic process invented by Professor Kenneth Sturdy that siphoned off the superhuman powers of the Lethal Legion (Power Man I, Whirlwind, and the Living Laser) into himself and multiplied them a hundred fold. This entails that he possesses vast levels of superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. The limits to Count Nefaria's strength are unknown. However, Nefaria's strength is sufficient to easily stand toe to toe with the likes of Thor. When he first obtained his power, Count Nefaria could jump great distances greater than the Hulk, at least while the Hulk was in a functionally "calm" emotional state, which appeared to be flight.

Count Nefaria is highly resistant to physical injury. He can withstand high caliber bullets, temperature extremes, and powerful concussive forces without sustaining injury. However, Nefaria is particularly vulnerable to certain specific types of radiation or cosmic energies, particularly ionic based weaponry such as Madame Masque's Ionic Lock. He has the ability to emit destructive rays of energy from his eyes, which can cut through titanium armor easily. These powers are derived from the ionic energy housed in his corporeal form. To maintain his powers he must drain other ionic beings periodically.

The amount of ionic energy he can control is significant; when Nefaria fought the Avengers and the Thunderbolts together, Henry Pym calculated it would take three weeks of constant combat, not allowing Nefaria even time to draw breath, before he finally ran out of energy.

Nefaria has also shown a degree of control over beings suffused with ionic energy, and proven capable of forming and manipulating crude ionic energy constructs, such as an energy lasso.

The process by which Professor Sturdy gave Nefaria his superhuman powers caused him to age at a greater rate than normal. At the time of his apparent death, Nefaria had become a feeble old man who required special life support systems to keep him alive. In reality, Professor Sturdy stated before he died that this "aging effect" was only a temporary side-effect of his newly-found powers adjusting to his body. Since his "resurrection," Nefaria, like Wonder Man, is now effectively immortal.

Nefaria also used a number of devices provided to him by the resources of the Maggia. He had used a visio-projector (a device able to produce and broadcast realistic visual and aural illusions) and a miniaturized version of same; advanced force field technology; a "nightmare machine" by means of which he could project realistic illusions into his victims' minds as they slept; a specially designed personal airship equipped with a portable teleportation device; and additional teleportation devices.

[edit] Other media

[edit] Television

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Avengers #13
  2. ^ Tales of Suspense #67
  3. ^ Avengers #164-166
  4. ^ Iron Man #115-116

[edit] External links

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