—Captain America (Steve Rogers)You'll never succeed, Nefaria! You'll never rule the world! There'll always be resistance -- ALWAYS! And it'll find a way -- a way to TAKE YOU DOWN!
Appearing in "The Nefaria Protocols"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- ⏴ Captain America (Steve Rogers) ⏵
- Thunderbolts
- ⏴ Songbird (Melissa Gold) ⏵
- ⏴ Hawkeye (Clint Barton) ⏵
- Mach-2 ("Matt Davis") (Main story and recap)
- Charcoal (Charlie Burlingame)
- Atlas (Erik Josten) (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) ⏵
- Madame Masque (Whitney Frost) (Main story and recap)
- Masque (Whitney Frost bio-duplicate) (Death)
- ⏴ Wonder Man (Simon Williams) ⏵ (Main story and recap)
Antagonists:
- Count Nefaria (Luchino Nefaria) (Main story and recap)
Other Characters:
- Grim Reaper (Eric Williams) (Only in recap)
- Madame Masque (Only in recap) (5th bio-duplicate)
- Nefertiti (Mentioned)
- Lord (Yahweh) (Invoked)
- Andrew Rasmussen (First appearance)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Mentioned)
- Jasper Sitwell (Appears on screen)
- Yellowjacket (Henry Pym)
- Pete
Races and Species:
Locations:
Items:
- Hawkeye's Suit, Bow & Trick Arrows
- Iron Man Armor MK V
- Mobile Armored Cyber-Harness
- Black Widow's Gauntlets
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield
- Avengers Identicard
- Grim Reaper's Scythe (Only in flashback)
- Ionic Bomb (Main story and recap)
- Ionic Lock (Main story and recap)
Synopsis for "The Nefaria Protocols"
The Avengers and Thunderbolts engage Nefaria in hopes of preventing the detonation of his ionic bomb, which would irradiate the Earth with ionic energy and allow Nefaria to control every living thing on it. Nefaria fights dirty and takes their battle into a neighboring small town where the Avengers and Thunderbolts are forced into damage control mode. However, Madame Masque, with the complete Ionic Lock weapon, is confronted by her bio-duplicate, who was once an Avenger. Nefaria kills the bio-duplicate, but Madame Masque unleashes the full power of the Ionic Lock on Nefaria. Meanwhile, Wonder Man and Atlas absorb the energy of the ionic bomb and foil Nefaria's plans. Nefaria, enraged at his defeat, loses control of his ionic self and explodes.
Notes
- Last issue of Avengers (Vol. 3) from artist George Pérez. He writes a brief goodbye on the last story page.
- This issue features a letters page, Avengers Assemble. Letters are published from Lloyde A. Grant, Jeff Stoltman, Chris Taylor, Ronnie Dingman, and Brendan Walsh.