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Avengers #34

Nov 2000

Kurt Busiek, George Perez

Story Name:

The Nefaria Protocols

Synopsis

Avengers #34 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

Crossover continues from THUNDERBOLTS #44.

The ionic-powered Count Nefaria can control anyone with even a hint of ionic energy, so Atlas of the Thunderbolts and sometimes-Avenger Wonder Man were easy targets. This drew the Avengers and TBolts separately into the picture. Meanwhile the Avengers were keeping Nefaria's daughter Madame Masque out of his clutches, and she provided them with a device called an ionic lock designed to shut down ionic energy. In TBolts#44 the 2 teams got together to attack the Count, leaving MM behind. The ionic lock depowered Atlas and Wonder Man but had no effect on Nefaria. And he unveiled his giant ionic bomb with which he intends to irradiate the population of the World.

Now everybody (except the unconscious ionic duo) desperately piles on Neffy. And he casually shrugs them all off and describes his plan in more detail. The ionic radiation will kill many and mutate many others, but the irradiated survivors will all be susceptible to his control. Avengers' leader Wasp tells everyone to get past the villain and shut the bomb down, but the Count forestalls them by separating the cliffside the heroes stand on from the rest of the mountain.

As they fall amid the rubble Wasp tells all the flyers to save the non-flyers. Warbird grabs She-Hulk while Iron Man saves Scarlet Witch and Triathlon, Songbird's solid sound can support Black Widow, Goliath and Hawkeye. Captain America hitches a ride on Mach-2 who picks up Charcoal (who protests he can survive a landslide but doesn't mention he can fly anyway).

But Vision warns them all that the avalanche will hit the town of Blaircrest, Alberta. So Songbird creates a solid-sound barrier to hold it back. However Nefaria isn't done delaying them from stopping his bomb launching. He throws an articulated truck into a crowd, and Iron Man has to save a young boy named Andrew Rasmussen (I think this kid won a competition for him and his town to appear here). Meanwhile the villain hurls more vehicles around for the heroes to deal with. Then he ignites a gas main. Most of the heroes daren't abandon their rescue attempts to go stop the bomb. But young Thunderbolt Charcoal decides it's worth it. So Nefaria blasts him to pieces. (But we know he can pull himself back together.)

Cap makes a mini-speech about how the bad guy won't succeed in ruling the World. There'll always be a resistance movement which will find a way to defeat him. But the Count says he doesn't *want* to rule the World. All he wants is the respect and deference he's due (and used to have as a hereditary European Maggia leader). People will be free to carry on with their lives as usual. But anyone who disses him will be dealt with severely.

Now Wanda Maximoff throws all her Chaos Magic at him. She seems to be having an effect but then his ionic energy proves too much for her. But Warbird has hatched a plan with She-Hulk and Triathlon. The 2 women pile into the villain, and Triathlon uses the distraction and his superspeed to race back to Neffy's castle. But Nefaria has spotted him and an ionic blast takes him out.

The other heroes still won't give up. Henry Pym has been monitoring the villain's energy use and brings the good news that he's using energy faster than he's generating it. The bad news is that it will take 3 weeks to wear him down.

Then a small flying disc lands in the woods nearby. On it is Madame Masque. It turns out the paranoid villainess gave the heroes an incomplete ionic lock weapon. *She* has another version with an added intensifier which will work against her father. She still suspects that the Avengers will turn on her, so she'll let the Count kill *them* and then she can destroy *him*.

Meanwhile Atlas and Wonder Man have recovered consciousness. Their ionic powers are back but Nefaria isn't controlling them. They see the bomb launching into the atmosphere and decide to fly after it. Nefertiti (as Hawkeye calls him) spots them but Clint Barton dazzles him with a flare arrow and Songbird surrounds him with solid sound. She screams herself hoarse to keep the barrier up, but eventually the villain breaks through and zooms up after the ionic pair. However Vision plunges down towards him and Nefaria braces for a strike from the super-dense synthezoid. But Vizh instead turns immaterial and merges his body with the Count's. Both men scream in pain. Iron Man and Mach-2 wait until Nefaria manages to force Vision out, and then they strike together. And others join in again.

Whitney Frost is still watching the battle and is surprised that the double-team are holding their own against her father. She considers stepping in now with the ionic lock and helping them win, but her paranoia won't let her take the risk. Suddenly she's joined by her bio-duplicate Masque who she thought destroyed with the others in the ruins of her Nevada base. (But that's who we saw rise from the ashes at the end of last issue.) Masque tries to persuade her creator to help the Avengers, but as far as Whitney is concerned this is the traitor who *joined* the enemy Avengers (ending in their #399 when MM had her kidnapped).

So Masque takes the weapon off her and comes out of the woods to fire it at Nefaria. But he spots her and disintegrates her (but not the weapon!). Iron Man calls Whitney's name but her father just grins. She realises he knows nothing about the duplicates and thought it was her! Now she knows who her real enemy is! And Madame Masque leaps out of hiding and grabs the gun. Nefaria is too surprised to dodge as she shoots him.

Whitney isn't really sure what will happen. The weaker gun temporarily shut down Atlas and Wonder Man's ionic energy last issue. With the intensifier this gun should totally remove her father's ionic energy, but she's never had anyone to test it on.

When the blaze of energy clears her father is still standing, claiming it only tickled. But Hank Pym detects that he's leaking energy faster than before. So it's pile-on time again. If only to give Atlas and WM time to defuse the bomb.

The ionic duo have reached their target on the edge of space. Simon Williams tells his companion that he was faced with a similar situation before (Force Works #1). Erik Josten asks him what happened. Simon says he destroyed the bomb but died.

Count Nefaria blasts his way out of the mound of heroes and flies to a large water tower which he smashes open, half-drowning them. Then as he feels his power slowly slipping away he rants about what he'll do to them and their loved ones, and demands them to bow down before him. Of course our heroes do the opposite.

Up above WM can't figure out how to defuse the bomb. Atlas says they have only 1 solution. Down below the crowd see a giant explosion in the sky, and the fireball keeps expanding. But then it pauses, and starts to shrink. Nefaria's shout of triumph turns to disbelief as it shrinks down until 2 forms can be seen within it. The villain flies up determined to somehow restart the expansion, but he's leaking ionic energy faster and faster. He merges with the dwindling fireball and there's another explosion ...

... but then it all fades away. And Iron Man detects 2 bodies falling out of the sky. He and Songbird go save the unconscious Simon and Erik, their human bodies glowing with all the ionic energy they've absorbed.

Whitney Frost watches the teams' concern over their teammates. She wishes she could be like them, but knows she's been bad too long, so she turns to slink away. She's not going back to her role as Maggia capo but she doesn't know what she *will* do. Then Mach-2 catches up with her. He says he's going to let her go because she helped save the World. But he gives her a way of contacting the Thunderbolts - they have a psychiatrist, if they can find her, who may be able to help. She turns him down, but is grateful for the friendly offer. And as she leaves she asks him to thank Iron Man for believing in her.

Wasp calls in a SHIELD medevac unit for the fallen duo. Songbird leans close to Erik to hear him say he's ready to die having finally done something right. Similarly Wanda hears Simon remind her she brought him back from the dead (#11), so he had to live up to her faith in him. Clint asks Wanda if the Avengers could help him find the missing Moonstone. Jasper Sitwell replying from SHIELD asks Iron Man if it was the *real* Madame Masque this time (after all the bio-duplicates lately).

And in an epilogue we return to the bar from #32 where the other Henry Pym sees a news report on the Nefaria affair, with Avengers spokesperson Wasp his ex-wife.

Review / Commentaries

Avengers #34 Review by Rob Johnson (June 12, 2020)

This double-size issue is the last for penciller George Perez.

The Thunderbolts will return to their own series in a flashback in #45 (the main part of the issue is later within the Maximum Security event). The Avengers don't seem to follow up on Scarlet Witch's promise to help find Moonstone. And Atlas will be in intensive care.

Wonder Man will also undergo healing as seen in MaxSec#1, but he's up and about for our #35 which is also part of that event.

The rest of the Avengers have some guest-apps before MaxSec#1. They all show up along with Captain America for the return of K'un Lun in Iron Fist/Wolverine #2, with Cap and Iron Man continuing into #3-4. Then Cap works with Sharon Carter in the framing tale of CA: Sentinel Of Liberty #1, and she's there in his own #33-35 and Annual 2000 containing his 1st brush with Protocide. Meanwhile IM has his #33-34 where he tangles with Max Poer who gives people super-powers.
Cap has his own bit of the MaxSec event in his #36, and then he will be with the team in MaxSec #1 and their cameo in their own #35 which will be headlined by a team of reserve Avengers who have just returned from a cosmic adventure in the Av:Infinity mini-series.
Jasper Sitwell will also show up next in CA#35.

Guest She-Hulk has a cameo as Nova's lawyer in New Warriors (1999) #10 before joining in MaxSec in #3.

Guest Black Widow ignores MaxSec in favour of joining Daredevil's ad-hoc team hunting Punisher in the Marvel Knights (2000) limited series.

Nefaria appears to have been disintegrated here NAv#2. However he turns up alive and still empowered in the Raft prison where he takes part in the mass jailbreak in New Avengers (2005) #2.

Madame Masque waits even longer before starting a long association with the villainous gang-leader Hood in NAv#33.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Kurt Busiek

George Perez

Al Vey

Tom Scioli

George Perez (Cover Penciler)
Al Vey (Cover Inker)
Tom Smith (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Atlas
(Erik Stephen Josten)

Avengers

Black Widow
(Natasha Romanoff)

Captain America
(Steven Rogers)

Count Nefaria
(Luchino Nefaria)

Hawkeye
(Clinton Barton)

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Jasper Sitwell

Madame Masque
(Giulietta Nefaria)

Scarlet Witch
(Wanda Maximoff)

She-Hulk
(Jennifer Walters)

Songbird
(Melissa Joan Gold)

Thunderbolts

Vision

Wasp
(Janet Van Dyne)

Wonder Man
(Simon Williams)

Yellowjacket
(Hank Pym)

Plus: Charcoal, Goliath (Hank Pym), Mach-2, Masque, Triathlon (Delroy Garrett Jr.), Warbird (Carol Danvers).

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