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.
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 them selves 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.
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.
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 weakened form was crushed and appeared to have died.
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. 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.
He again appeared to have been killed when the ionic bomb went off and only Wonder Man and Atlas remained. 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 superpowered criminals by Electro.
― Count Nefaria, Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)