Avengers Unplugged #1
Unchain My Heart
The Avengers — Giant-Man, Vision, Hercules, and the Black Widow — have successfully captured Nefarius, ironically outside of the Vault Prison in Colorado.[1] Although they have the criminal restrained, they need to keep him drugged because the Vault hasn’t found a way to neutralize his powers. Giant-Man promises to come up with a solution, however they are on a tight deadline because lawyers representing Nefarius are complaining that drugging their client is a violation of his civil rights. Pym understands how dangerous Nefarius is, having fought his predacessor Count Nefaria in the past.[2]
As the Guardsmen move Nefarius down into the cell block they make the mistake of bringing him past the cell of Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone. As it turns out, Moonstone was coming to the Vault to get revenge against Karla for stealing his Moon Stone a few years earlier.[3] Seeing his target, Nefarius is able to shake off the effects of the drugs and break free from his restraints. He then fights his way through the guards to get free.
When Nefarius breaks into Moonstone’s cell she tries to use her psychology skills to manipulate him, as she has done before, but this time it’s not working. By this time, the Avengers have reached the cell block. Hercules tries to force his way into Karla’s cell, but the bars are still electrified and he has to wait for them to be shut down. As the Avengers dog-pile onto Nefarius, Sofen tries to make her escape by leaping out of her cell through the hole Nefarius made to get in. This sends her falling down a shaft. Seeing this, the Vision leaps down after her. However, Karla has fallen deep enough to be out of range of the power dampeners in her cell. With her Moonstone powers back she uses them to create a new costume for herself and fly. She then attacks the Vision, sending him flying back up into her cell and causing him to slam into Giant-Man with enough force to knock the two out.
With the heavy hitters down, Nefarius deems the Black Widow beneath him and heads back out into the cell block to find Moonstone. When he passes the Grey Gargoyle’s cell, the villain offers to help if Nefarius frees him. However, Nefarius is uninterested in help and silences the Gargoyle with his eye blasts. Little does Nefarius realize that Moonstone is hiding in the ventilation system and is deciding to bug out of the prison before he can get to her. His fruitless search also gives the Avengers time to recover and renew their attack. Hercules manages to get on top of Nefarius and hammers into the villain only to realize that, at half of his usual strength, his blows have no effect on the villain.[4] Nefarius allows Hercules to pound at him for a bit before blasting him aside with another jolt of his eye beams.
When the Vision tries to stop their foe, he uses his density powers to become as hard as diamond. While this allows him to withstand Nefarius’ eye beams it causes his outer body to become red hot. Nefarius then punches the synthezoid with enough force that sends him smashing through all the upper levels of the Vault to the outside. While everyone is busy with Nefarius, Moonstone uses the hole in the ceiling as her means of escape. The Black Widow tries to stop her, but Moonstone is too powerful. While trying to escape, Moonstone runs into the Vision but is able to defeat him — even in his intangible form — with a blast of concentrated photons. Luckily, the Black Widow manages to hit her from behind with a widow’s bite, stunning her.
Meanwhile, Nefarius continues to brawl with both Hercules and Giant-Man. When the Vision recovers, he recalls that he defeated Count Nefaria by flying a mile up into the air and plummeting onto the villain. Since they don’t have that kind of room, Giant-Man picks up the Vision and hurls him at Nefarius with the equal amount of force that when the android strikes their foe, he is knocked out. With Nefarius down, the Guardsmen rush in to restrain him again.
At that same moment, the Black Widow has gotten to the surface where she and Moonstone are in a standoff. Natasha decides to reason with Karla, saying that if she escapes the Avengers will hunt her down and will make sure that she occupies a cell right next to Nefarius. The alternative is to surrender and Natasha will ensure that Karla can serve out the rest of her sentence in another part of the prison far away from Nefarius. Seeing this as reasonable, Moonstone surrenders, much to the surprise of the other Avengers.[5]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Giant-Man, Vision, Hercules, Black Widow), Moonstone, Nefarius, Grey Gargoyle, Guardsmen
Continuity Notes
The Avengers state here that they were tipped off that Nefarius was still on the loose by Captain America. That happened in Captain America #441.
Hank is referring to the time that the Avengers fought count Nefaria in Avengers #164-166. Nefaria was an ordinary person until he gained super-human abilities via ionic bombardment. Nefaria is referred to in the past tense because, at the time of this story, he was believed to have died in Iron Man #116. However, he’ll turn up alive again in Iron Man (vol. 3) #16. How he survived is explained in Iron Man Annual 1999.
Lloyd Bloch was the original Moonstone starting in Captain America #169-175. After he was apprehended Karla Sofen was assigned as his psychologist. Trained by the manipulative Doctor Faustus and craving power of her own, Sofen used her psychology skills to trick Bloch into giving her the Moon Stone. She then used it as the new criminal Moonstone, as seen in Incredible Hulk #229. Once Bloch was released from prison he under went the process that gave Count Nefaria his powers and sought revenge. See Captain America #379.
Prior to this story, Hercules was stripped of his immortality and half of his godly strength following a complex plot orchestrated by his father, Zeus. When Zeus’ wife Hera sought revenge against Hercules, she did so by making him fall in love with a mortal woman named Taylor Madison in Avengers #349. Madison was selected because she was dying of a terminal illness and her passing would break Hercules’ heart. However, it was later revealed that Madison was merely a mystical construct created by Zeus to catch his wife in the middle of her misdeeds in Avengers #384. Her purpose served, Madison ceased to exist, much to Hercules’ dismay. When Hercules a rightfully angry Hercules refused to return to Olympus after, Zeus punished him by stripping away most of his powers. This will remain the status quo for Hercules until Aries #1-5.
Indeed Moonstone stays true to her word and even wanted to serve out the rest of her sentence so future plans wouldn’t be hampered by being a wanted fugitive. These plans were ruined when Baron Zemo broke her out of prison and forced her to join his Masters of Evil in a plot that saw them pose as heroes. See Thunderbolts Annual 1997.
