Count Nefaria

Origin

Luchino Nefaria was a wealthy aristocrat who craved more power and joined the Maggia criminal organisation. This brought him into conflict with the Avengers. In an attempt to get rid of them, Count Nefaria framed them for treason against America using holograms, but this ultimately failed. He then decided to take out the Avengers members individually, focusing on Iron Man for a while. After trying to destroy Iron Man with a machine which could control Iron Man’s dreams, Nefaria tried discrediting Tony Stark’s reputation with the help of Tony’s cousin Morgan. This also failed. Around this time, Nefaria reunited with his long-lost adult daughter Whitney Frost, who had been raised in America by Byron Frost to protect her from Nefaria’s enemies. Whitney reluctantly became Nefaria’s second-in-command of the Maggia. Nefaria also stopped his attacks on Iron Man around this time, but Whitney would go on to face Iron Man as Madame Masque.

Nefaria would also go on to face the X-Men when he attempted to hold the city of Washington hostage using a team of super villains, but was stopped by the mutants. After this, Nefaria wasn’t seen for years until he took over the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) with the help of the Ani-Men in an attempt to hold the world hostage using America’s nuclear missiles. Nefaria’s scheme was stopped by a recent new team of X-Men, although in the process Thunderbird was killed whilst trying to stop Nefaria escaping.

Creation

Count Luchino Nefaria is a Marvel comics character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Nefaria first appears in The Avengers Vol.1 issue 13 (1965).

Major Story Arcs

Nefaria Powered Up

Nefaria next appeared forming a new Lethal Legion consisting of Whirlwind, Living Laser, and Power Man. With the help of a scientist named Kenneth Sturdy, Nefaria was able to boost their powers a hundredfold before taking them for himself. Regardless, Nefaria ended up defeated by the Avengers. The power boost had an unexpected side effect on Nefaria, and he started aging rapidly. Nefaria managed to escape custody with the help of Whitney Frost and the Ani-Men, but seemingly died in a fight with Iron Man when he tried to return him to jail. Nefaria was able to survive thanks to his ionic-powered physiology, but found out that he had to drain the ionic energy of other ionic-powered beings in order to survive, becoming something of an energy vampire.

In order to sate his energy needs, Nefaria began stalking ionic-powered beings, killing most of them and imprisoning others, but was found and stopped by Iron Man. Nefaria also tried experimenting on the Savage Land’s inhabitants to create an ionic race to feed on, but he was discovered by Captain America and Sharon Carter and defeated.

Versus the Avengers and Thunderbolt

Nefaria later discovered that he could control ionic powered beings mentally, and so used Atlas and Wonder Man as puppets whilst trying to join all of the Maggia families underneath him and get Whitney to join him once more. This was part of a larger scheme to mutate all of humanity with ionic energy and thus rule the world. Nefaria’s scheme was thwarted by the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, and Whitney, which seemed to result in Nefaria blowing to atoms. He once more survived, and was imprisoned in the Raft super-prison until he escaped during Electro‘s massive prison break-out.

Dark Reign

Nefaria later appeared in the New Avengers Finale. Whitney and her new boyfriend Parker Robbins approached him following Norman Osborn‘s Siege, worried that the Avengers would track them down. As the former Hood currently had no powers, Nefaria offered to give him the same powers as his own in return for all of Parker’s cash (noting that were he not a friend of Whitney’s, he would have just killed him). Unfortunately, with the help of Parker’s cousin John King, the New Avengers tracked Parker down. Whilst the New Avengers stopped the Hood and Whitney, Wolverine took down Nefaria.

Kingpin of L.A.

Nefaria, once more free, moved his operations to Los Angeles, hoping to work in an area with less superheroes than New York. He kept his identity a secret, and was referred to only as the Kingpin of L.A. Unfortunately for him, Moon Knight decided to move to L.A. not long after, and quickly became a thorn in Nefaria’s side. Echo also worked against him, infiltrating his organization through a strip club. Nefaria hires Mr. Hyde to deliver one of the Ultron’s bodies to him, but becomes enraged when Moon Knight makes off with the head of Ultron. Snapdragon works for him as one of his top officers, controlling the streets. She hires Night Shift to kill Moon Knight and Echo for Nefaria. However, they failed and an angry Nefaria killed them, warned Snapdragon that she should “aim higher”.

Moon Knight’s assistant, Buck Lime, managed to draw Nefaria out of hiding by bluffing him with a fake copy of the Ultron head. It was filled with a drug that weakened Nefaria enough for Moon Knight to hold his own, and Nefaria fled. Echo recorded the fight, and so Nefaria’s place as Kingpin of L.A. was no longer secret. Later, a recovered Nefaria ambushes Moon Knight, and he kills Echo. An enraged Moon Knight, believing himself to be Wolverine, attacked Nefaria in a fit of berserker rage and actually managed to wound him seriously.

While he recovered, he had his daughter Madame Masque go after Moon Knight, and she nearly succeeded in taking the Ultron head. The police, faced with the proof that Moon Knight had provided, had to attempt an arrest on Nefaria despite the fact that he had paid off their captain. Enraged, Nefaria attacked the police station and faced Moon Knight again, and defeated him. However, the Avengers had been called in and they defeated Nefaria

Powers and Abilities

Count Nefaria was a normal human until he was subjected to a process developed and perfected by one of Baron Heinrich Zemo‘s top scientists Dr. Kenneth Sturdy who after he and his assistants had analyzed the cellular and genetic structure of the three super villains of the of the group called the Lethal Legion. Dr. Sturdy granted Count Nefaria the combined powers of the Living Laser (energy projection), Power Man (superhuman strength, superhuman endurance and superhuman durability), and Whirlwind (superhuman speed), all amplified at over hundredfold. Because of this, When his body is fully charged with ionic energy, not only is Count Nefaria one of the most powerful beings who have ever walked the face of the Earth, but with his near limitless superhuman strength, Count Nefaria is also one of the physically strongest known humans in the Marvel Universe with his speed, and endurance amplified to the similar proportions. Count Nefaria has combated the Avengers multiple times, having come close to being able to defeat them, has fought Thor to a standstill, and once having combated multiple teams of superheroes such as once fighting the Avengers and the Thunderbolts teams together, when having been made up of superheroes such as Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Iron Man, Vision, post House of M Scarlet Witch, Songbird, Charcoal, 3-D Man, and Mach 4 along with Madame Masque all at the same time by himself through which Count Nefaria was barely beaten. At full power, Count Nefaria has shown to be, far, far more powerful than even powerful superhumans such as Wonder Man or Atlas and was even said to be easily as powerful as Thor. Even Hank Pym has stated that Thor might not stand a chance when Count Nefaria is at full power.

Count Nefaria possesses a vast degree of tremendous, nearly immeasurable physical superhuman strength, the full limits of which are unknown and have never been measured. Not only can Count Nefaria easily decimate full sized buildings and other large structures with his own physical might and even crush entire mountain ranges with pure physical brute force, but Count Nefaria can also create tremendous tremors by slamming his hands into the ground. Count Nefaria has been able to shatter the sonic construct made from Songbird, has grabbed Captain America’s shield and has thrown it with so much force that the Black Panther wasn’t able to dodged it, has physical lifted and thrown forty story skyscraper like buildings with little to no effort (weighing roughly around 150,000 tons of weight). Count Nefaria has shown to be strong enough to physical pick up a large ocean liners and throw them and Count Nefaria has been able to send Iron Man flying for well over a mile with just one single punch. In his very first fight with Wonder Man (who had shown around the time of being strong enough to physical hold up 50,000 tons of weight with extreme effort), Count Nefaria was able to easily defeat him. Count Nefaria had also fought and overpowered Iron Man (When Iron Man’s armor was charged to full power in his Override mode) which has been shown of being capable of physical lifting 16,000 tons of weight with ease and according to Count Nefaria, outside Thor, Iron Man was the most dangerous of the Avengers suggesting Iron Man is stronger than Wonder Man while using his override mode. Count Nefaria has also fought an enraged Thor to a standstill going so far as to even stop an attack from Thor’s own hammer with his bare hand. It has even been stated by Yellowjacket that Count Nefaria’s physical strength is greater than a standard enraged Hulk. Count Nefaria’s physical superhuman strength is capable of rivalling even the likes of Thor and an very enraged Hulk. Thor has gone so far as to once having even compared Count Neferia to being as strong as the Destroyer armor itself. Count Nefaria is physically one of the strongest known humans in the Marvel Universe.

Count Nefaria’s superhumanly strong legs allow him to run and move at speeds that are far greater and superior to that of the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. Although it’s unknown what Count Nefaria’s top speed is when it comes to running or moving, Count Nefaria is capable of running, and leaping at tremendous high-levels of superhuman speeds allowing him to run or move hundreds if not thousands of miles per hour. Count Nefaria has shown of being much faster than speedsters like the Whizzer, even stating that with the speed of Whirlwind multiplied by 100 fold that from his point of view someone like the Whizzer is just standing still. Count Neferia has shown being able to strike Scarlet Witch, Yellow Jacket, and Captain America in the blink of an eye, throw cars at super speed, move too fast for Iron Man to catch him and hit Iron Man before he can react, and at one point,

Count Nefaria’s ionic body allows him to have a very advanced musculature that is much more efficient than that of the musculature of normal humans as Count Nefaria’s body produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than that of the musculature of a normal human being giving Count Nefaria superhuman endurance and stamina. As a result of that; Count Nefaria can fight, run, and perform other physical activities that will allow him to physically exert himself at peak capacity for several days without tiring. Although it is possible to deplete Count Nefaria’s ionic energy in combat, Hank Pym has calculated that it would take three whole weeks of constant combat without even giving Count Nefaria time to pause for breath – for the Avengers and the Thunderbolts to deplete Count Nefaria’s ionic energy reserves and have the build up of fatigue toxins in his bloodstream begin to impair him

Count Nefaria’s reflexes and reaction time are enhanced to a level that is far beyond and far superior to that of the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. Count Nefaria has shown that his reflexes are greater than Wonder Man’s, has caught Captain America’s shield when it was thrown at him from Beast and Captain America at the same time, and has shown to react fast enough to catch Yellowjacket when he shrunk himself and was flying while shooting at him. Count Nefaria has stated that from his own point of view, someone as fast as the Whizzer who can run over 100 miles per hour (160.934 kilometres per hour) is just standing still.

In addition to his superhuman strength, Count Nefaria’s bodily tissue is far harder, tougher and much more resistant to all forms of physical injury than that of the bodily tissues of a normal human being as his bones, muscles, and skin tissue are considerably much harder and denser in comparison with that of the bodies of normal humans. As a result of that, Count Nefaria possesses a much higher degree of resistance to pain and physical injury than that of normal humans making him almost impervious to physical harm with nearly immeasurable superhuman durability. Count Nefaria’s body is impervious to high caliber bullets and his body is also capable of withstanding powerful explosives, energy attacks, and falls from long tremendous heights such as low Earth orbit while sustaining little to no pain or physical injury as well as also withstanding powerful impact forces and blunt force trauma from direct physical blows from superhumans as strong as Wonder Man, Ironman or even Thor with far less physical injury than that of what would instantly kill normal humans or what lower level super humans would receive as all of whom are strong enough to easily kill a normal human being from the simple impact of their physical blows once withstanding a punch from Wonder Man to the gut without flinching of pain when he was barsing for it, blows from Iron Man in his override mode, has fought an enraged Thor to a standstill with no apparent damage even from strikes of his hammer. Count Nefaria is also capable of withstanding exposure from extreme pressures and extreme temperatures ranging between the extreme cold and pressure of being in the void and vacuum of outer space to the extreme heat of Vision’s heat beam at full power which is over 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit (16,648.889 degrees Celsius) without sustaining any kind of physical injury proving Count Nefaria is capable of withstanding extreme heat well over 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit (16,648.889 degrees Celsius) which is triple the surface heat of the sun while not being in any kind of severe discomforts such as severe blistering, freezing, or crushing conditions. Count Nefaria can withstand powerful energy attacks from beings like Iron Man, and once has even withstood an energy strike from Ms. Marvel and Vision at the same time while being completely unphased. Count Nefaria was also capable of withstanding Madame Masque‘s Beta-cannons which blasted Count Nefaria for more than ten seconds with enough power to level a mountain and even had its power doubled by Madame Masque, and yet Count Nefaria withstood it without any physical harm and Count Nefaria is most likely able to withstand the detonation of a nuclear warhead explosion at close range with little physical harm. Count Nefaria was also able to withstand a blast from an Ionic Lock weapon that Madame Masque designed for the use against ionic energy beings which was so powerful enough it knocked out superhumans like Wonder Man and Atlas with one shot each, yet had no effect on Count Nefaria and it wasn’t until it was used again with a intensifier to increase its power did it finally have negative effects on Count Nefaria. Count Nefaria once withstood Vision falling at his maximum mass of 90 tons at one mile directly over him while he was in a weaken state from fighting Captain America, Beast, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Yellowjacket, Vision, Wonder Man, Iron Man, and Thor allowing them to only knock out Count Nefaria in his first fight with his powers. Count Nefaria once even withstood simultaneous attacks by multiple teams of Avengers and the Thunderbolts at once only to laugh it off.

Count Nefaria’s sense of hearing has been enhanced and heightened to a higher and greater degree than that of what normal humans are capable of allowing Count Nefaria to hear sounds that normal humans wouldn’t hear very well at a much greater distances.

After developing his superpowers further, Count Nefaria found that he was able to defy gravity at will allowing him to fly. Count Nefaria can enable himself to fly through the air at tremendous speeds. Although, Count Nefaria’s top flight speed is unknown and has never been measured or timed, Count Nefaria has been clocked at being able to casually fly at supersonic speeds of over Mach 6.57 which is over 5,000 miles per hour (8,046.72 kilometres per hour). In the early 2000, Iron Man once said that Count Nefaria has flown too far, too fast for him to follow. Count Nefaria can also use his powers of flight to levitate himself in mid air through his own force of will allowing him to hover and stay suspended in mid air at will.

Count Nefaria is able to fire and project powerful lasers from both of his eyes which he can use to easily kill normal humans by either going right through them creating large puncture holes in them or by burning them down to a skeleton and Count Nefaria has been able to can cause large explosion with them as well as melting through objects at a very fast rate. Count Nefaria can also ignite certain sustenances such as oil with the powerful lasers coming from his eyes, once setting Iron Man on fire by igniting the oil he was covered with after dropping an entire ocean liner on him and has also shown being able to ignite a gas main as well. Count Nefaria has even shown enough power and percussion to being able to reduce failing building debris into nothing, but dust in seconds.

Ionic Energy Form: Count Nefaria’s body aged until his body evolved, and eventually shifted into an ionic form. Count Nefaria is currently a being of Ionic energy composed of organic matter that is permeated with that said form of energy in a similar manner to Wonder Man and Atlas, but to a greater degree. Due to his Ionic body, Count Nefaria has shown of being able to hit superheroes like Vision even in his intangible form as Vision cannot properly phase through Count Nefaria, because of the super charged excessive ionic energy within his own body and once received extreme pain phasing into Count Nefaria. Because of his altered body, Count Nefaria also possesses other powers as well including, but not limited to:

Despite his body’s extraordinary durability and his high resistance to physical injury, it is still possible to injure Count Nefaria. However; if injured, Count Nefaria’s metabolism enables him to rapidly regenerate and heal with much greater speed and efficiency than that of what normal humans are capable and like other ionic based superhumans such as Atlas or Wonder Man this can allow Count Nefaria to regenerate and heal from large amounts of damaged or even destroyed bodily tissue to the point where Count Nefaria has apparently developed an astounding degree of regenerative capabilities, enabling him to even heal himself from gunshot wounds and even severed limbs. This has even allowed Count Nefaria to survive a seemingly deceased state when he appears to be dead or even reintegrating his bodily matter after exploding as he was able to survive apparently being blown up to atoms. This may be so because Count Nefaria has no bones, blood, or organs, since he is a being of pure ionic energy, allowing him to reform after any injury. As such Count Nefaria is now virtually almost unkillable. Because of Count Nefaria’s body being composed of Ionic energy giving him his regenerative healing factor it also extends into his immune system as well rendering Count Nefaria to be immune to the effects of all known Earthly diseases, infections, and corrosives or alien otherwise. It would also take a much larger and more massive dosage of drugs to have its full effects work on Count Nefaria than it would on the bodies of normal humans.

In recent times, since his resurrection, Count Nefaria has shown the ability of being capable of using the ionic energy his body is composed of by forming and manipulating simple, but crude solid ionic energy constructs based ion energy, such as one time being able to create an energy strand or thread and use it as a lasso from his own body against an opponent with which he can capture his enemies. Count Nefaria can surround objects with energy allowing him to move them at will. Once after being freed along with a large number of other super-powered criminals from the Raft, Count Nefaria surrounded Spider-Man with energy and had thrown him into the mob of super criminals.

Due to Count Nefaria’s body being that of Ionic energy it sustains his physical vitality far more efficiently than the biochemical process that sustains ordinary human life. Count Nefaria’s body has no need nor requires any kind of sustenance such as food, water or even air in order to sustain both Count Nefaria’s physical and mental health in order to stay alive and function normally. Count Nefaria is also capable of staying in and surviving unaided in the void and vacuum of outer space indefinitely without the use or presence of any type of equipment as well.

Count Nefaria is somewhat resistant to the attempts from others that can fundamentally change the nature of reality as the Scarlet Witch tried using her hex powers on Count Nefaria in order to shut down his power, but it didn’t work as she says that the ionic energy is too unnatural and alien. This was however before the House of M.

Due to Count Nefaria’s body being composed of the Ionic energy that empowers him. For all intents and purposes, Count Nefaria is literally a functionally immortal in the sense that Count Nefaria is completely immune to the effects of aging and will never die by old age while remaining in his physical prime. Yellowjacket has stated that the super energy in Count Nefaria’s cells has extended his lifespan indefinitely, thus in effect making Count Nefaria immortal. This does not mean, however, that Count Nefaria can’t be killed, although with his powers it would be very difficult to do so.

Count Nefaria can tap into and drain ionic energy from other ionic beings in order to help maintain his overall power. If Count Nefaria drains too much energy too quickly, his victims would die. Upon doing so, if his victims are still alive, Count Nefaria is also able to influence those he has drained and impose his will on to them which he has done to superhumans like Wonder Man and Altas allowing Count Nefaria to gain total control over them. In some sense, Count Nefaria has become an ionic vampire. Dr. Karl Malus and Iron Man have stated that Count Nefaria could control the mind and body of anyone that has been affected by any amount of ionic energy and that anyone altered by ionic energy could become his slave. In theory, Count Nefaria could also drain energy and control beings infused with Gamma radiation as well such as the Hulk or the Abomination.

Count Nefaria is a brilliant criminal mastermind, scientist, and organized crime leader with considerable scientific expertise even before he gained his super powers as once he almost managed to turn the entire nation of America against the Avengers. Count Nefaria is also a charismatic natural leader and a capable criminal strategist, well-versed in the use of various exotic technologies and high-tech weapons as originally, Count Nefaria had no powers, and was simply a good planner with a vast fortune to help him with his schemes, which usually involved him gaining more money or power. Count Nefaria is able to speak fluently in English, Italian, and possible other languages. Since Count Nefaria was born into a wealthy and powerful Italian family, he has inherited a vast fortune of tens of millions to maybe hundreds of millions of dollars, which he has used to hire super villains, hire scientists to create inventions that were far in advances in technological science, or give himself super powers. Count Nefaria even had his own ancestral castle in Italy disassembled stone by stone and re-assembled atop of the New Jersey Palisades.

Count Nefaria is also a formidable hand to hand combatant with some degree of formal hand to hand combat training with a good deal of experience in using his powers in combat situations.

Although, Count Nefaria’s Ionic nature provides him with protection from most forms of physical damage and energy attacks he still wears body armor.

Thanks to the Nefaria family fortune and the resources of the Maggia criminal organization funds, Count Nefaria has maintained an arsenal of specialized high tech equipment that was far in advance of contemporary science over the years, notably assorted elaborate death traps, force-field technology, teleportation devices and illusion projectors along with others. Since becoming superhuman, Count Nefaria has relied somewhat less on technology in recent years.

Electro-disc: Electro-disc was one of those devices which Count Nefaria’s interest in advanced sciences produced. Count Nefaria had ordered his scientists to construct a device which allowed him to communicate instantly and easily with his American family members. The disc allowed a three-dimensional image of whoever was in contact with the disc to be projected into his presence, thousands of miles away in his castle in Sicily.

Time Transcender Ray: These Time Transcender Ray bath their target in a soothing, hypnotic light that effectively places them in a state of suspended animation until the ray is deactivated.

Visio-Projector: The Visio-Projector was a variation on the electro-image technology with which Count Nefaria had previously created duplicates of the Avengers. It was designed to generate complex three-dimensional images.

World-wide Electro-scanner:

Dream Machine or Nightmare Machine: A group of scientists in Norway who Count Nefaria funded had invented a machine, which could be used to psychically manipulate the dreams of a chosen target or project realistic images into the minds of others, even across vast distances. So powerful was this manipulation that if the machine’s target died in their dream, they would die in real life.

Weakness

If Count Nefaria’s bodily ionic energy reserves dwindle too low and become too weak, his powers will start to fade and his physical body will begin to age and wither in an accelerated manner. Count Nefaria must periodically replenish and renew his ionic energy reserves by draining power from outside sources of ionic energy. While he can use ion energy from artificial sources to recharge, Count Nefaria can also drain ionic energy from other ionic-powered super-beings like himself such as Wonder Man and Atlas in order to maintain himself, his immortality, and his overall power.

Physical Characteristics

• Height: 6’2″
• Weight: 230 lbs
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Blue

Other Media

Count Nefaria, who has apparently become a vampire, is a frequent “guest” on the popular X-Men podcast The Uncanny X-Cast. Co-host Brian Perillo consistently insults The Count and refuses to acknowledge his value to the show, much to the chagrin of Count Nefaria and co-host Rob Briscoe.

Count Nefaria also appears in the animated episodes of The Marvel Super Heroes