Abomination VS Wonder Man

A short time later, Wonder Man got his big break when he got a lead role as the villain in the blockbuster movie Arkon 4. Due to his sudden thrust into stardom as an actor and his recent personal victories with the Avengers West Coast, Wonder Man began to get an over inflated ego and become selfish. Wonder Man started to show off during battles and try to handle situations his way rather than listen to the group's leader Hawkeye. Wonder Man also became jealous of Iron Man and began an escalating rivalry with his fellow Avenger. During a battle with armed soldiers while the Avengers West Coast were trapped in the past, Wonder Man's carelessness resulted in Hawkeye getting gravely injured and almost dying. This did little to deflate Wonder Man's already out of control ego.

When the Avengers West Coast returned from this mission, Wonder Man began to consider leaving the Avengers West Coast because he felt they were holding him back from becoming an even bigger star in Hollywood. Wonder Man made an appearance on the Tonight Show to promote Arkon 4, but was attacked by Tyrannus, who's conscience was trapped in the body of the gamma irradiated creature known as the Abomination.

Tyrannus was jealous at the attention that Wonder Man was receiving from his stardom, and irrationally decided that if he, Tyrannus, could not be handsome and rule the world again, neither would anyone else. Wonder Man fought against the Abomination and took a massive beating at his hands. Wonder Man realized during this that he wasn't as impervious or indestructible as he thought, and he could actually be killed by the Abomination if he let his fear of death scare him again. Wonder Man fought back and finally defeated the Abomination proving to himself that he was a hero.

Afterwards, Wonder Man was shocked when he found out that the people present thought that the whole fight was just a publicity stunt to gain more attention for his new movie. This made Wonder Man decide that he had been wrong to let his acting career take precedence over his being an Avenger. More importantly Wonder Man learned humility and made it clear to Hawkeye and the other members of the team that he would never let his career as an actor get in the way of him being a hero again.

A short time later, Wonder Man volunteered to undergo an experiment at the behest of Tony Stark to test his ionic energy powers. Encased inside a modified sensory deprivation tank, Wonder Man slept for thirty days.

During this time, Doctor Doom had kidnapped Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man and imprisoned him within a gigantic device called a Psycho-Prism he had constructed on Doom Island in the Caribbean. Doom magnified the Purple Man's will-sapping power through the Psycho-Prism and manipulated this power through this technological devise to make himself Emperor of Earth. Virtually everyone on the planet was compelled by the Purple Man's powers to obey Doom.

Wonder Man awoke from the deprivation tank only to find out that the world had been taken over by Doom and due to his unusual physiology, Wonder Man was unaffected by the Psycho-Prism. Wonder Man became a fugitive and went into hiding until a woman inspired him to find a way to defeat Doom. Wonder Man returned to the Avengers West Coast compound and succeeded in freeing Captain America from Doom's mental control, and together they likewise freed their fellow Avengers Iron Man, the Wasp and Hawkeye from Doom's mental domination.

The Avengers stormed Doom Island and during the melee, The Wasp caused a wave of water to submerge Namor the Sub-Mariner, whom Doom had made his personal servant, and freed him of being mind controlled. Enraged at having been enslaved by Doom, Namor smashed the Psycho-Prism, thereby both killing the Purple Man and freeing the world from Doom's control. Wonder Man and the Avengers pursued Doom, but he managed to escape them.

Sometime later, the Vision fell under control of the supercomputer known as ISAAC and he decided to take control of the world in order to usher in a new "golden age" of peace. The vision linked his mind to all of the Earth's major computer networks, including the defense systems of leading nations. Ultimately the Vision returned to normal after he broke free of ISAAC, which was causing him to act irrationally.

Regardless of his being back to normal again, governments of Earth's major nations still regarded the Vision as a threat to national security and had him abducted from the Avengers compound. The Vision was completely disassembled, and his memories were entirely erased. Wonder Man, and the Vision's wife the Scarlet Witch, along with the rest of the Avengers West Coast tracked down the Vision's captors and recovered the disassembled Vision.

Doctor Henry Pym, a member of the Avengers West Coast reassembled the Vision and programmed him with all of the records of the Avengers and their missions. However, Simon Williams refused to let Pym make a new record of his brain patterns with which to program the Vision. The Scarlet Witch approached Simon while he was sitting on the beach below the cliffs outside the Avengers West Compound to ask him why.

Wonder Man attempted to explain to her that when his mind was first used as the basis for the Vision's mind, he had no choice in the matter. Now that he did have a choice, he chose not to allow it this time. Wonder Man said this since he felt he couldn't tell the Scarlet Witch that it was his love for her that fueled the Vision's love towards her and that he, Wonder Man still loved the Scarlet Witch.

The Scarlet Witch was infuriated at Wonder Man's refusal to help restore the man she loved, and slapped him. Hurt more by the fact that she hit him than the actual force of the slap itself, Wonder Man tried again to explain to the Scarlet Witch why he couldn't let Pym use his brain patterns. But before he could, she unleashed a hex that caused the Cliffside to collapse and bury him. Wonder Man freed himself easily from the debris, but was crushed emotionally by the Scarlet Witch's anger toward him.

Wonder Man still harbored love for the Scarlet Witch, but kept it secret from her rather than upset her life anymore than it already was.

A short time later, Wonder Man was ensorceled and seduced by Amora the Enchantress. Using her magical abilities, the Enchantress sapped Wonder Man's will and took him as her new lover, since her former lover, Skurge the Executioner had been slain. The Enchantress had Wonder Man appear to have gone insane to his teammates by having him attack Iron Man to gain revenge for the part he played in Simon William's failure as a businessman.

Though he was defeated, Wonder Man was teleported away by the Enchantress, who then mystically disguised him as Hank Pym and had him kidnap the Wasp to use her as bait to lure the other Avengers into a trap. The Avengers Iron Man, Hank Pym and the Beast soon found the Enchantress and Wonder Man were using Baron Zemo's old hideout in the Amazon jungle as their base. The Avengers battled both her and Wonder Man and were defeated and shackled to a machine that would transfer their life forces into Wonder Man and transform him into a God, thus making him the Enchantresses equal.

The Enchantress teleported the injured Beast to Avengers Mansion in New York in order for him to relate what had befallen his comrades to Captain America and Thor. Thor and Captain America flew to Zemo's base and both were defeated by Wonder Man and the Enchantress and hooked up to the same machine as the other captive Avengers.

The Enchantress then transferred the captured Avengers life forces into Wonder Man and transformed him into a god on a cosmic level. With his new found powers; Wonder Man broke free of the Enchantress's spells. The Enchantress then revealed that she had truly fallen in love with him and pleaded for him to stay with her as a god. Wonder Man refused on the basis that he could never live with himself if he had killed his friends to gain his power and shunned the Enchantress. Broken hearted and in tears, the Enchantress teleported away before Wonder Man could capture her with Thor's hammer.

Wonder Man then used Thor's mystic hammer to destroy the machine, forfeiting his godhood and saving the Avengers lives in the process. Wonder Man recovered from this without having any ill side effects from this experience.

Soon afterward, Wonder Man moved into an apartment building in Los Angeles and began a romance with screenwriter Alex Flores. The Enchantress then made yet another attempt to gain Wonder Man as her lover by enchanting him and having him attack the studio he was working for and the Avengers West Coast. Wonder Man, with the help of his teammates broke free of the Enchantress's hold and scorned her yet again.

A few months later when the militaristic Kree Empire went to war with the star-spanning Shi'ar Empire, Earth found itself in the crossfire. The Avengers organized both East and West Coast branches journeyed to the opposing forces home planets in an effort to stop the war. But, ultimately, the Avengers failed to halt the hostilities and Wonder Man and the Vision attempted to disarm the Shi'ar built Nega-Bomb.

The Nega-Bomb, which could focus the power of the Negative Zone dimension into a destructive force, detonated inside the Kree Empire wiping out the Kree home-world and many of the surrounding planets killing billions in the blast and many more succumbed to radiation poisoning. Wonder Man and the Vision were caught at ground zero of the blast, but both survived due to their individual powers.

Shortly after returning to Earth, Wonder Man's powers had been changed by the blast, so that now he suffered from power fluctuations linked to his emotional states. The more Simon would doubt himself or what he was doing, the weaker he got, but the angrier he became the stronger he became. The power fluctuations put a tremendous strain on Wonder Man, and after a battle with the creature called Angkor, Wonder Man stumbled into his apartment building and had ionic energy explode from his body.

The blast bathed Alex Flores and seven of Wonder Man's friends and neighbors in ionic energy, which caused body-wide mutagenic changes within each, granting each a unique super power not common with those that have been exposed to ionic radiation. The eight formed a short-lived super team called the Crazy 8.

As time passed, Wonder Man's power fluctuations also put an amazing amount of strain on his mind, causing him to become increasingly wild and reckless, even causing him to attack his Avengers West Coast teammates when they tried to help him.

Wonder Man then quit the Avengers and decided to work full time on his acting career. While he was away on a movie set, the Crazy 8 went on their first mission and the mercenary Splice injured Alex Flores. The group managed to contact Wonder Man, who showed up in time to defeat Splice and his partner Rampage. Wonder Man then took Alex Flores to a nearby hospital where she lay in a coma.

During this time, The Grim Reaper and Blackheart showed up at the Los Angeles hospital where Wonder Man was visiting his then girlfriend, Alex Flores, who had been badly wounded during a battle between the Crazy 8 and the super mercenaries Splice and Rampage. Finding Wonder Man's clothing by a scorch mark on a wall, The Grim Reaper recognized from the smell and the remnants of the magic in the area, that Wonder Man had been taken to Mephisto's realm.

Mephisto, using magic and illusions to cloud Wonder Man's mind making him susceptible to his lies, claimed that he had Alex Flores' soul, and would take it into his realm permanently unless Wonder Man became his servant. Wonder Man felt that because he wasn't at there to prevent the fight that injured Alex, it was essentially his fault her soul was now in danger. Wonder Man agreed to serve Mephisto, but was stopped at the last minute by the arrival of Blackheart and the Grim Reaper.

Wonder Man defended Mephisto and began fighting his brother. Wonder Man stopped his attack when the Grim Reaper, using the same magic and illusions as Mephisto, produced the souls of their parents Sanford and Martha Williams. It was later revealed that these were not his parents but demons made to look and act like them. In fact, Martha Williams is still alive. But because of the vast power of the magic at their disposal, Mephisto and Blackheart's illusions and lies were totally believable to Wonder Man and even the Grim Reaper.

The Grim Reaper began torturing their "parents" and taunting Wonder Man. When he tried to pull his parents free of the mystical energies surrounding their forms, Wonder Man seemingly was infected by the evil which surrounded them and it got into his hand and made it disappear from his wrist. The Grim Reaper then told Simon that he must join with him and Blackheart in their attempt to destroy Mephisto. Thus Wonder Man changed sides and agreed to do the Grim Reaper's bidding in order to save their parents souls and to overthrow Mephisto to also save Alex Flores' soul.

Mephisto's demon army attacked the trio. The Grim Reaper then made Wonder Man believe that he had "fixed" Wonder Man's missing hand and replaced it with his own dead and withered hand. Wonder Man was horrified by what his brother had done, and before he could do anything else, Mephisto used his magic to teleport his enemies back where they came from, and Wonder Man ended up back in the hospital from which he was taken.

While Wonder Man was at the Avengers West Compound seeking help, the Grim Reaper and Blackheart showed up at the hospital again and the Grim Reaper then stole Alex Flores's true soul from her comatose body. They then disappeared leaving her body behind. After using more illusions to make Wonder Man think he had visited the Avengers West coast and spent the night with the Scarlet Witch, the Grim Reaper and Blackheart caught up with Wonder Man the next day. Convinced that there was nothing he or his friends could do to stop the events that were happening, Wonder Man joined with the Grim Reaper and Blackheart.

Wonder Man and the Grim Reaper then started to hunt down and kill all of the demons in the Los Angeles area that were working for Mephisto. During a battle with a huge demon, Wonder Man was injured and the Grim Reaper delivered the killing blow. When the Reaper began to taunt Wonder Man yet again, Wonder Man flew into a rage and began beating the Grim Reaper severely. The pair was then halted by the arrival of Blackheart and Simon and Eric's "parents." After arguing with the assembled group, Wonder Man took off in anger, determined to do something to set everything right.

After fighting off Mephisto's version of the Masters of Evil, Wonder Man was transported back to Mephisto's realm. Mephisto again used his powers and lies to trick Wonder Man into believing he was immortal and that the crime lord Lotus was his human lover and that she was behind all of the events that lead to his becoming corrupt enough to become Mephisto's slave. Lotus was yet another demon made to look like the real Lotus, but Wonder Man was unaware of this at the time. The demon lord then captured Wonder Man and a demon disguised as his friend the Beast near his throne.

Tiring of waiting for Wonder Man to return, Blackheart, the Reaper and his "parents" made their way back to Mephisto's realm for a final assault upon the demon lord. Mephisto then sent Wonder Man into battle to defend him, but Wonder Man rebelled. Mephisto then had the Black Talon defend him. The Black Talon then sacrificed the fake Lotus in a ceremony to gain more power in order to combat Wonder Man, but it wasn't enough. Before he could grab the Black Talon, Wonder Man was approached by Jamie Flores in her astral form, who told him where her mother's soul was. When Wonder Man demanded that Mephisto release Alex, he was shocked to learn that Blackheart and not Mephisto had captured her soul.

The Grim Reaper then revealed that he took Alex's soul on orders from Blackheart. The two brothers began fighting and arguing over the roles the Reaper thought they were destined to remain in forever. Eric would always be evil and Simon would always be good and there was no choice in the matter. Wonder Man convinced Eric that he was wrong and that he could choose to be good. The Grim Reaper saw over his brother's shoulder that Mephisto was about to blast Wonder Man with a bolt of hellfire. The Grim Reaper vaulted over his brother and took the full brunt of the blast. Wonder Man then held hi s fatally wounded brother in his arms. Eric said that he wanted to know how to choose to be good. Wonder Man told him that he just did, but whether or not Eric Williams heard this is unknown since he expired quickly after his last words.

Wonder Man's "parents" were then set upon by demons. Blackheart told Wonder Man to save them, but he refused and let them get consumed by Mephisto's demons. He then told Blackheart that he would fight for him if he released Alex Flores's soul. Blackheart then gave Alex Flores's soul to Wonder Man. Blackheart then explained that because Mephisto thought Wonder Man had abandoned his love for Alex, Mephisto felt she wasn't important enough to use. Blackheart knew Wonder Man still loved her and took advantage of this fact to get Wonder Man on his side. To Blackheart, this proved that even though he wasn't as powerful as Mephisto, he was smarter and this would insure his victory.

Afterwards Wonder Man used the Black Talon to send him and his friends' back to Earth while Mephisto and Blackheart battled on. Wonder Man also took his brother's body and flew off to bury it. Presumably back in the grave Nekra had resurrected him from previously.

Some weeks later, the Avengers West Coast was dismantled by the East Coast branch, which deemed it as a failure. Iron Man then took the former West Coast Avenger and formed the short-lived team called Force Works. On the team's first Mission, Wonder Man was killed when his body was disintegrated by an explosion of pure ionic force from a Kree Ion Cannon exploding in outer space. Unknown to his teammates, or anyone else, Wonder Man's soul hovered just beyond Earth's realm refusing to go on into the afterlife because of his love for the Scarlet Witch.

related to his home of Asgard which was now in ruins and told that an even greater threat was coming that would threaten the universe and all reality. Nearly all-available Avengers were called into service to combat this threat.

The Avengers quickly discovered that it was the evil sorceress Morgan LeFay who had gained possession of the Asgardian Norn Stones and the Twilight Sword, which are objects of immense mystical power. Using the Scarlet Witch's probability altering powers as the last piece of her plan, Morgan drastically altered the fabric of reality and transported everything, including the Avengers, to medieval times. In this new reality, Morgan is sovereign, and the Avengers became her elite guard, the Queen's Vengeance.

The Scarlet Witch trapped in a dungeon beneath Morgan LeFay's castle, sent forth a mystical call for the Avengers to assemble once more. Captain America, with Hawkeye, started breaking Morgan's enchantment on those who had the strongest sense of the spirit of the team. The freethinking Avengers then faced impossible odds as their brainwashed allies confronted them. When the battle seemed to be lost, The thunder god Thor arrived just in time to turn the tide of battle just enough for the free thinking Avengers to escape.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet Witch's psychic summons reached Wonder Man's soul, which had been hovering between life and death. Feeling the great need in her call, Wonder Man's soul was latched onto by her call and pulled to her. Wonder Man's body, which was now entirely composed of ionic energy, burst forth from the Scarlet Witch's eyes and reformed in front of her. Wonder Man then broke the Scarlet Witch out of the dungeon and flew her to a safe place near the coast. After recovering, the Scarlet Witch made her way To Morgan LeFay's castle, freed the Avengers from Morgan's spell and defeated her by funneling all of her energy, and that of the Avengers, into Wonder Man causing him to explode with magical energy and break Morgan's spell.

Wonder Man then began appearing whenever the Scarlet Witch needed him and disappearing whenever she didn't. Eventually, The Scarlet Witch visited her teacher and friend, the master of witchcraft Agatha Harkness, in order to find out why her powers had grown so powerful that she could summon Wonder Man from the dead. Agatha Harkness revealed that Wonder Man's love for the Scarlet Witch more than life itself and that the Scarlet Witch was his anchor to the living world. Harkness told the Scarlet Witch that all she had to do to bring him back permanently to life was to return that love to him.

Because of Wonder Man shifting between the realms of life and death so often, he weakened them enough for his brother, who's soul was apparently trapped in Mephisto's realm, to escape and attack the Avengers during the annual Avengers Day celebration being held in Central Park. Now able to command vast magical energies, The Grim Reaper trapped the Avengers in an impenetrable dome and resurrected the dead bodies of the original Captain Marvel, Doctor Druid, Hellcat, Mocking bird, the first Swordsman, Thunderstrike, and the ionic form of Wonder Man. The Reaper controlled and corrupted the souls of these dead Avengers and made them attack their former teammates. The Reaper's dead Avengers made short work of the living Avengers and defeated them all.

The Grim Reaper started transforming the piece of Central Park inside the dome into a version of Hell he felt he had suffered all his life. The Grim Reaper revealed to the captured Avengers that his power was now being fueled by the despair of the people watching the events in the park in person and on television. The more despair and hopelessness the people felt, the stronger the Reaper became and the larger his version of Hell would grow as the impenetrable dome expanded across the Earth.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet Witch had returned to Avengers Mansion only to find the Avengers butler Jarvis had been captured by the Dead Avengers who had also laid waste to the mansion's interior. The Dead Avengers attacked and captured the Scarlet Witch. The Dead Avengers told the Scarlet Witch how they were brought back by the Grim Reaper and how they were going to murder millions of people, ravage cities and destroy monuments in order to spread the Reaper's despair. Before doing this, the Dead Avengers planned on killing the Scarlet Witch and put her body on display for the crowd outside to see. The Scarlet Witch used her magical powers to reach the Dead Avengers true personalities and freed them from the Reaper's control. The Dead Avengers then returned to the Reaper's dome and freed the living Avengers and started to fight the Grim Reaper. The Reaper then created an army of demons from the environment using his vast power and fought back.

While this battle was raging on, The Scarlet Witch began using her powers fueled by her love for Simon Williams to reach out to Wonder Man and pull him through the portal she created to return him back to life. In doing this, the Dead Avengers then returned back to where the Grim Reaper had gotten them from. The Grim Reaper was now so powerful from the despair being generated that he was now fighting Thor one on one. The Grim Reaper knocked Thor down and began to taunt the Thunder God when Wonder Man reached through the portal the Scarlet Witch made and grabbed the Reaper in a choke-hold dragging him through. Wonder Man then made the Grim Reaper admit that it has always been his love and not his hate that fueled him throughout the years. The Grim Reaper admitted that he loved his brother and was thus brought back to true life once again.

Wonder Man had his brother committed to a mental hospital in order to help him deal with the mental trauma he had endured. The Grim Reaper had been bitter and withdrawn after he was brought back to the real world, and didn't respond to his brother's visits. On one of these visits, Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch found the hospital had been attacked by robots that abducted the Grim Reaper.

The robots turned out to be the minions of the mad robot Ultron, who took the Grim Reaper to the nation of Slorenia after Ultron wiped out all life in the tiny country and made it his base of power. Ultron then captured Doctor Henry Pym and later captured the Wasp, the Vision, Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch. Ultron told his captives that he needed to use their brain patterns as raw material to make his society of robots have many minds instead of just his one, and Ultron could think of no one better to use than his "family" as the basis for this civilization. Ultron then scanned and recorded their brain patterns.

Ultron was confronted by the Vision who escaped his shackles and distracted Ultron while he infiltrated Ultron's computer systems and then freed the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper then grabbed a laser torch and freed the other captives just as the rest of the Avengers broke into Ultron's stronghold and began to battle the robot. The Grim Reaper then escaped in the confusion of battle before the Avengers finally defeated Ultron.

Afterwards, the Vision, who had his human personality returned to him upon returning from the Heroes Reborn universe, had been aloof and un-talkative when around Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch. Both Simon and Wanda felt that the Vision might be jealous over their being together. The Scarlet Witch talked to the Vision about her suspicions and Wonder Man even offered to step aside and let the Vision try to re-start his relationship with Wanda. The Vision refused and began to point out the similarities that he and Wonder Man shared. Wonder Man misunderstood what the Vision was trying to explain to him, and the Vision lost his temper, punched Wonder Man and then flew off to be alone. Wonder Man, shocked at the Vision's outburst, pursued him in the sky over Manhattan in order to find out what was bothering him.

Confronting the Vision, Wonder Man found out that the Vision felt his existence was reduced to a mockery by Wonder Man's return to life. The Vision pointed out that since his mind was based on Wonder Man's brain patterns, that everything in his personality wasn't his own since it all came from Simon Williams. The Vision also revealed that he had not tried to re-kindle his romance with the Scarlet Witch, since he felt their romance had only caused her pain and misery and he couldn't bring himself to put her through anything like that again.

The Vision felt that when the Scarlet Witch fell in love with Wonder Man, it only proved further that his attraction for her came from Wonder Man.

Wonder Man countered by pointing out that even though their minds had been the same at the Vision's creation and Wonder Man's mind at that point, both had grown and gone in different directions as people, much like twins shaped by different life experiences, thus making them individuals. The Vision felt these were mere technicalities and that he was just a reflection of Wonder Man. The Vision then felt that everyone must laugh at his attempts to be a human and that they must feel pity towards him.

Wonder Man surprised the Vision when he told him that he never pitied him at all, but envied him. Wonder Man explained that shame and failure had defined his whole life, and that no matter how bad he messed up, he would always be forgiven. Wonder Man pointed out that the Vision got a chance to start over from scratch and be the person Wonder Man felt he could have been if his life was without the shame and failures he had suffered.

The Vision was still shocked by this revelation and told Wonder Man he had much to think about after what he had just been told. The Vision flew off to be alone again.

Depressed, Wonder Man felt he was unworthy of the second chance he had been given by the Scarlet Witch and the breaks he had been given since then. Wonder Man flew back out to Los Angeles to put his affairs in order from before the Kree Ion Cannon killed him. Unbeknownst to him, Wonder Man's old friend and teammate the Beast tagged along and revealed himself when they were in mid-flight. Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, the crime-lord Lotus decided to take her revenge against Wonder Man for spoiling her previous plans before he died. During his stay, Wonder Man discovered that many of the events in the months before his death had been complex illusions planted in his mind by Mephisto and Mephisto's son, Blackheart.

With this revelation, Wonder Man then put his affairs in order, such as checking up on his friends from the Crazy 8, his former girlfriend Alex Flores and answering for the murders he thought he was responsible for during his bout with mental instability. Wonder Man was cleared of any wrongdoing by the police months ago and was forgiven by the people closest to the people he felt he murdered. This made Wonder Man feel that he was again being forgiven for something he should be punished for.

Wonder Man then saw Lotus and confronted her at a benefit he was attending. Lotus then used her mental domination of Bob O' Bryan and used his control over It the Living Colossus to attack Wonder Man. Wonder Man and the Beast defeated Lotus and helped O' Bryan regain control over himself and It.

After the battle was over, Beast and Cindy Knutz, a fan of Wonder Man, helped Simon realize that he had been too hard on himself, Cindy explained that everyone makes mistakes and that Wonder Man had certainly always made up for the ones he made. She then told Simon that all anyone can do is learn from their mistakes so that they can make a better future for themselves.

Inspired by Cindy's speech, Wonder Man created the Second Chances Foundation. A non-profit organization funded by Wonder Man's various movies being re-released on tape and any future projects that will provide help for people who have been overwhelmed by forces beyond their control.

Feeling better about himself from what he had learned in Los Angeles, Wonder Man returned to New York, but was abducted by Count Nefaria shortly after disembarking.

Nefaria, who is an ionic vampire, took enough of Wonder Man's ionic energy to bond him to Nefaria and make him a slave to Nefaria's will. With Wonder Man in his thrall, Nefaria sent him after Erik Josten, the ionic size-changer now known as Atlas, and kidnapped him and placing him in Nefaria's thrall as well.

Meanwhile, the Vision had trailed the Grim Reaper to Chicago where he was holding a meeting between the American and European leaders of the Maggia. The Grim Reaper's purpose for this meeting was to ferret out Madam Masque, kidnap her and deliver her to her father, Count Nefaria. This attempt failed and the Reaper escaped.

The Grim Reaper soon reappeared at the stronghold of Madam Masque in the Nevada Desert South of Las Vegas, but was interrupted by the Avengers before he could actually attack. The Grim Reaper and his army called the Steelskulls fought the Avengers, but both were defeated.

The Avengers then fought Count Nefaria and the mind controlled Wonder Man and Atlas, The Avengers managed to save Madam Masque from her father Count Nefaria, who retreated, but not without taking Wonder Man and Atlas with him again.

Iron Man then convinced Madam Masque, his former lover, that she could trust him and the Avengers and that they needed her help in apprehending her father and saving their teammates. Madam Masque agreed and built a gun called the Ionic Lock. This device fired a beam that halted the flow of ionic energy being produced in an ionic being's body, thus rendering them a normal human being.

The Avengers and Atlas's teammates in the Thunderbolts then teamed up and went after Count Nefaria. During the battle, the Thunderbolt known as Mach 2 used the Ionic Lock device on Wonder Man and Atlas, returning them to normal and knocking them unconscious.

It was at this point that Count Nefaria revealed his plan. Nefaria planned to use an ionic bomb designed to give most of the world's populace ionic powers, thus making them his slaves and a constant source of energy for him. While the people not genetically able to take the ionic process would be killed from ionic radiation poisoning.

Mach 2 blasted Count Nefaria with the Ionic Lock gun, but Nefaria was completely un-affected. The Avengers and Thunderbolts fought against Nefaria in a last-ditch effort to stop Nefaria from launching the Ion Bomb into orbit. Nefaria then caused an avalanche to head towards the town below his castle to distract the Avengers and Thunderbolts from stopping the bomb's launch.

When they managed to stop the avalanche, Nefaria then began destroying the town with random acts of mass destruction to keep both teams busy while the Ionic Bomb launched. Wonder Man and Atlas then awoke from the temporary effects of the Ionic Lock and flew after the bomb as it made it's way into orbit above the Earth.

Nefaria spotted the two ionic powerhouses chasing the bomb and before he could fly after them, was blinded by a flare arrow shot by Hawkeye. The Avengers and Thunderbolts managed to keep Nefaria on the ground to give their two team's members a chance to stop the bomb. During the melee, Madam Masque blasted Count Nefaria with the Ionic Lock gun again at full energy, and caused Count Nefaria's body to begin leaking ionic energy which Nefaria stopped with sheer force of will.

Wonder Man and Atlas caught up with the bomb in orbit and both felt their ionic energies within themselves harmonizing with the energy within the bomb. Wonder Man attempted to disarm the bomb, but his engineering skills were too far out of date to be of any use. Wonder Man and Atlas then used their wills and bodies to contain the blast from the ion bomb and then absorbed the massive amounts of ionic energies within themselves, thus ending the threat of the bomb's blast.

Upon seeing the blast disappear into nothing, Nefaria went crazy and broke free of the heroes and making him lose his concentration on his energies. Nefaria flew up towards where the blast had been at full speed, causing him to leak ionic energy at an alarming rate. Before he could reach outer space, Count Nefaria exploded and disappeared.

Wonder Man and Atlas survived absorbing the ion bomb blast, but were knocked out from absorbing the tremendous amounts of ionic energy it expended. Wonder Man recovered from this trauma with no ill effects and went back to helping the Avengers on their missions.

Recently, Wonder Man has stated that he must leave for the West Coast to work on the projects he had planned to do to fund his Second Chances Foundation, but is worried about leaving the Scarlet Witch behind after all she has done for him. What will happen next remains to be seen.