BIOGRAPHY - page 2
Count Nefaria eventually escaped from prison, and set about to redeem his reputation. He recruited a group of criminals called the Ani-Men and subjected them to scientific experiments, apparently against their will. Whereas previously the group were only an animal-themed group of costumed criminals, Nefaria had them mutated into true man-animal hybrids. This gave him a more powerful group of henchmen, while also ensuring their loyalty if they ever wanted to be returned to their human forms.
Escalating his schemes even further to regain notoriety and respect, Count Nefaria and the Ani-Men planned an attack on Cheyenne Mountain, home of the North American Air Defense 
Command. After a surprise infiltration of the NORAD facility using teleportation, Nefaria incapacitated the staff and armed forces, seizing control of America's nuclear missile arsenal. He activated the Doomsmith Scenario and prepared to launch the missiles unless every single nation on Earth paid him a ransom, adjusted for their individual ability to pay. The American government contacted the Avengers, but they were unavailable to intervene and so Beast contacted Professor Xavier and the X-Men to act in their stead.
The original X-Men had departed only weeks earlier, leaving Xavier and Cyclops to train an all-new, all-different team of mutant heroes. As the approached, Nefaria destroyed their Blackbird using NORAD's defensive missiles and sonic disruptors, but the X-Men nevertheless survived and gained access to the mountain anyway. During the battle with the Ani-Men, Banshee and Thunderbird were stunned, forcing the X-Men to proceed without them. Nefaria saw his minions defeated and abandoned the control room before Cyclops and his team reached him. The spiteful 
count set the nuclear arsenal to detonate as he escaped in a Harrier jet. As the X-Men fought to regain control of the missiles, Banshee and Thunderbird spotted Nefaria and pursued the villain. The impulsive Thunderbird felt he had something to prove and jumped aboard the Harrier as it took off, instead of letting Banshee hit it from a distance with his sonic scream. Thunderbird began disabling the jet with his strength, but he ultimately caused an explosion that consumed the vehicle entirely, killing the X-Man as the wreckage crashed into the Rocky Mountains. [X-Men (1st series) #94-95]
John Proudstar's sacrifice was in vain, for Count Nefaria used teleportation technology to whisk himself to safety at the last moment. However, the count was at the end of his rope. His continuing failures had depleted his fortune, the loyalty of the Maggia and the respect he thought he was due by birthright. He even had to drive his own limousine, like a commoner! Still, he managed to scrape together enough capital to rehire Kenneth Sturdy and the team of scientists who helped him create the Ani-Men. Nefaria then recruited a Lethal Legion, including Whirlwind, Living Laser and the former Power Man to steal money in order to pay the scientists for their work. Nefaria promised his minions that Sturdy's people would be able to increase their powers enough to challenge anyone.
Which was somewhat true. Count Nefaria had commissioned Sturdy to initiate Project N, the means by which Nefaria would give himself super-powers, so he no longer needed to rely upon the services of others. Sturdy had previously worked with Baron Zemo on the ionic bombardment 
process that created Wonder Man and Power Man. The Lethal Legion were supercharged temporarily and sent out to battle the Avengers, but their power was secretly linked to Project N and being fed back into Count Nefaria himself. After a few hours, the Legion's extra power left them and Nefaria received all the power of the Lethal Legion, a hundredfold. Blessed with strength, speed, invulnerability and "laser vision," Luchino Nefaria was now some sort of super-man.
Eager to test his powers, Count Nefaria destroyed the laboratory in an effort to kill Sturdy and his research team so they could never replicate the process. He then assailed the Avengers, following up on the Lethal Legion's attack. Nefaria proved strong enough to battle the likes of 
Wonder Man, Iron Man and even the Mighty Thor without suffering injury. It was the Whizzer of all Avengers, however, who gave Nefaria pause. When Count Nefaria mocked the veteran crime-fighter, Whizzer rebuked the count by pointing out Nefaria was already past his prime. In a few decades, Nefaria would be dead and his power would be meaningless.
Count Nefaria was struck by the idea of his own mortality, and thought he could steal Thor's hammer to possibly gain godhood. His concerns grew when it became clear Nefaria was not just aging, but aging prematurely by the hour. Kenneth Sturdy, battered and bruised, arrived from the demolished laboratory in time mock Nefaria. Sturdy was no fool and had learned from Zemo's procedure on Wonder Man not to create a powerful being he could not control. Sturdy told Nefaria that he would age away into nothing in a matter of days. The process could have been arrested and controlled by Professor Sturdy, but Nefaria had lashed out before he could be told, and now Sturdy was minutes from death himself.
Nefaria panicked at the idea of his impending death, and began lashing out at the city. The Avengers rallied to defeat him, with Thor battering him senseless and the Scarlet Witch dropping entire buildings upon him. Finally, the Vision rose high over the city before converting to his maximum density over Nefaria. He plummeted to the Earth like a meteor with over 90 tons of mass, finally striking Count Nefaria hard enough to render him unconscious. In the aftermath, 
Yellowjacket conferred with Sturdy just before he died and learned the aging was only a temporary side effect intended to scare Nefaria into capitulating to Sturdy. In fact, the ionic based process would likely have made him immortal if it continued. The Avengers hoped to reverse the Sturdy process on Nefaria, returning him to his natural age, but powerless and mortal. [Avengers (1st series) #164-166]
Nefaria indeed soon reached a wizened and weakened state, appearing nearly a hundred years old. The Avengers held Nefaria in a life-preserving ultra-protein bath at Avengers Mansion, hoping to find a way to arrest his degradation without unleashing the super-powerful Count Nefaria on the world again. During radiation treatments on another prisoner, the Unicorn, that super-villain escaped in an explosion which released Nefaria as well. Deeply atrophied, Nefaria nevertheless managed to crawl to freedom in the confusion.
Count Nefaria reached out to the Ani-Men and compelled them to help him regain his might. They made contact with his daughter Whitney, now a reformed super-villain named Madame Masque in a relationship with Iron Man. Masque agreed to help restore her father in exchange for him leaving Tony Stark alone. When Stark arrived at the penthouse he shared with Madame Masque, however, Nefaria turned the Ani-Men on him anyway. An explosion followed at the building, which killed all the Ani-Men, but Madame Masque and Count Nefaria escaped. They traveled to Stark International on Long Island, where Whitney planned to rejuvenate her father. Iron Man followed 
them and argued with Madame Masque, claiming the Avengers wanted to save Nefaria too, but only if they could remove his powers in the process. Whitney refused to wait and turned a reprogrammed Jupiter Landing Vehicle on Iron Man as a distraction. In the struggle, the Armored Avenger tossed the vehicle away from Stark security guards... accidentally on top of Nefaria's life support equipment. Count Nefaria seemingly died in the devastation, with nothing working any longer to preserve his life signs. [Iron Man (1st series) #114-116]