Avengers #13

AVENGERS #13 (1965)
by Stan Lee & Don Heck
cover by Jack Kirby

Despite the cover, Count Nefaria is not a pianist.

Also WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIS HANDS!?

The Avengers are not typically considered “street heroes”, meaning they typically fight supervillains and world conquerors. But here they are are on a crusade against the underworld!

They are so effective, in fact, that they are considered the worst threat to the Maggia, the crime syndicate also known as I-Can’t-Believe-They’re-Not-The-Mafia.

This is the first appearance of the Maggia, which is the Mafia stand-in for the Marvel Universe.
Funnily enough, the Mafia DOES exist at Marvel as well… but the writers tend to use the Maggia when they need to give ordinary criminals absurd technology.

Its leader is Count Nefaria, who has some rather cool technology and a monocle.

He’s an actual Count, complete with his own castle…

…but keep in mind that he’s from Italy, where titles of nobility have been completely useless since the monarchy was abolished in 1946.

Nefaria is so stupidly rich that he can afford to SHIP HIS CASTLE TO AMERICA.

Not to mention doing it in WEEKS.

Since Nefaria plans to open the castle to the public for charity (or so he says, who wants to bet it’s to get a tax refund?), he invites the Avengers and the Teen Brigade (WTF!?) for a tour.

I guess the Avengers don’t talk often to the Fantastic Four in this period, otherwise they’d know that trusting someone who wears a cape and owns a castle is a very bad idea.

The purpose of the trap is to expose the Avengers to his Time Transcender Beams™.

Please tell me he’s not yet another version of Kang or Immortus.

Nah, nothing that far-fetched. Instead Count Nefaria has basically invented the holograms from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Kind of impressive considering the hardware he’s dealing with!!!

And then the holograms DECLARE WAR ON THE UNITED STATES.

Even General “Thunderbolt” Ross Impersonator is worried!

“This looks like a job for the Teen Brigade”, said nobody ever.
Also, it took only HOURS for all of that to happen!?!?

Aaaand the Teen Brigade is IMMEDIATELY thrown into the castle’s dungeon. Why do we keep these guys around again!?

I’m pretty sure Nefaria also subjected the Avengers to some rays that make them stupid, because HOW ARE YOU NOT SUSPICIOUS!?!?

Not long after, the Avengers end up fighting the military.

Call me crazy, but I think Count Nefaria might be *gasp* a bad guy!

Wait so they DID call the Fantastic Four!? Why didn’t THEY show up to fight!?!?

Okay, so let me get this straight: you have a team of superhumans declaring war on the United States, and you don’t want the ONLY other team of superhumans known at the time to intervene… because you’re afraid people would be scared!?

That is so unbelievably stupid I thought for a second Pentagon Guy was another hologram.
But nope, he’s real. And despite the fact Nick Fury has already been introduced, he gets the typical Nick Fury job.

Meanwhile, the Teen Brigade… continues to be completely useless.

The Avengers reach Nefaria’s castle, where Thor is paralyzed by a chemical agent… which works on him even when he’s supposed to be protected against any “physical force”.
This panel showed up in Marvel’s No-Prize Book as one of the Silver Age goofs, but Thor’s invulnerability is so inconsistent that it was a rather forced inclusion.

Captain America manages to infiltrate the castle, and we discover there’s a reason the Maggia are never a big deal for A-listers when they’re not using fancy tech.

Cap then frees the Teen Brigade, which conveniently has the antidote for Nefaria’s paralyzing chemicals because… well, basically because Nefaria is a complete idiot.

Nefaria gets one chance to play supervillain…

…only to be humiliated when the Avengers, now freed by the Teen Brigade, show up.

And so we end with Nefaria being arrested and deported back to Italy…

…and the cliffhanger of Wasp being mortally wounded off-panel.

Don’t worry, she’ll be fine by the end of next issue.

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Historical significance: 6/10
The Maggia constantly pops up in the most unlikely places of the Marvel Universe, though quite rarely as a big threat. Nefaria is significant mostly for Iron Man, but little introduced here about him really matters.

Silver Age-ness: 9/10
On the DC scale this would barely be a blip, but at Marvel this is almost top Silver Age.

 Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This was nowhere as idiotic as the Immortus issue, but still pretty bad. The basic plot isn’t bad at all: a rich guy who is secretly a mob boss traps the heroes and creates holograms that ruin their reputation. That COULD work, and Nefaria while generic isn’t a bad villain.
But the execution is atrocious. The Avengers are unbelievably naïve, the Teen Brigade has no business being here, and the whole “military vs heroes” part is extremely rushed.

Thirsty Wasp moment of the day

How close is this to the modern character? 7/10
The focus on Nefaria’s technology will slowly fade out. Which is kind of strange since, in addition to being an Avengers villain, Nefaria is also a major Iron Man character because he’s the father of Tony Stark’s supervillain love interest, Madame Masque.

He also has a bit of history with the X-Men, both from a couple of very lame 60s stories and more importantly the first mission of the new 1975 team, being the one to cause the death of the original Thunderbird.

Despite that, Count Nefaria wasn’t considered a big threat until he received a MASSIVE power boost in one of the best Avengers storylines, where he basically gained pseudo-Superman abilities.

He was presumed dead for several years, but has since returned to his schemes. He rarely returns to his full power, but whenever he does he’s able to fight multiple superhero teams at once.

These days, Nefaria is rarely used as a mob boss and more like a supervillain who powers himself by stealing energy from other super-beings.
Which is fine by me: the “supervillain mob boss” position is firmly the domain of Kingpin anyway.

And if he ever wants to get back to being the caped European supervillain with a castle, well…