"To Fall by Treachery!" The Avengers 164 (October 1977)
"Hammer of Vengeance!" The Avengers 165 (November 1977)
"Day of the Godslayer!" The Avengers 166 (December 1977)
(1977/10/01)

Reader Rating: Average; Thunderbolts Interest: Medium

Summary: Count Nefaria hires Power Man, Whirlwind and the Living Laser then, after scientifically boosting their power, sends them to attack The Avengers. But the villains soon discover that Nefaria has used them as he applies templates of their powers to himself, increased a hundredfold, to became the strongest and fastest man on Earth. This Nefaria battles a cartload of Avengers – Captain America, the Black Panther, Yellowjacket, Iron Man, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, Thor, the Beast and Wonder Man.

Continuity: Nefaria finds Erik working on the docks and lures him into one last appearance as Power Man (in a bland one-time costume). Power Man meets his counterpart, the reborn Wonder Man, who suggests that Erik is less powerful because "Zemo’s machine was designed for [Wonder Man]! It couldn’t work as well on [Erik]!" Nefaria temporarily boosts Power Man’s strength, then steals it away for his own use.

Erik escapes, builds a small criminal organization, and eventually takes a new name (source: "To Save the Smuggler", 1981/05/01).

Comments: The high profile team of Jim Shooter and John Byrne turns out a really sloppy story. There is a huge amount of exposition required because the layouts keep skipping details. Where is the Panther in the third installment, and why isn’t anyone worried about him? If Nefaria can be made stronger than Thor, why can’t anyone? The subplots are more effective than the main story which can be summed up as: Nefaria gets real strong and attacks the Avengers, who whup him. Erik gets very little to do. Oddball bonus: the debut of Peter Gyrich.

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This page was revised on March 4, 2002