Wonder Man Fact — November 3, 2026

Today's Fact

Being made of ionic energy gave Simon Williams one weakness no punch could exploit — somebody else who spoke the same energy's language.

COUNT NEFARIA ONCE SEIZED CONTROL OF WONDER MAN'S OWN BODY — AND AIMED HIM AT THE AVENGERS!

The Featured Fact

By 2000, Count Nefaria had remade himself into a being of ionic energy who needed to feed on other ionic sources just to hold himself together. In Avengers Vol. 3 #32–34 (2000) he revealed the ugliest trick that shared physiology allowed: he could reach into other ionic beings and run them like puppets. Wonder Man and the Thunderbolt called Atlas — Erik Josten, whose own powers came from the same ionic process — were seized outright and turned against their own teammates.

Simon's hijacking was only the rehearsal. Nefaria was charging an ionic bomb designed to transform millions of ordinary people into ionic beings like himself, every one of them a battery he could drain and a soldier he could steer. A world remade in his own substance would leave him permanently fed, permanently obeyed, and very nearly impossible to starve out.

Freeing Simon took an enemy's daughter and an invention built for exactly this family emergency. Madame Masque, Nefaria's own daughter, helped the Avengers and the Thunderbolts build an ionic lock — a weapon she had conceived in case her father ever returned. Fired at Wonder Man and Atlas, it shut down and rebooted their energy, handing both men back control of themselves, weakened but their own again.

Why It's Obscure

Most mind-control stories need a psychic; this one only needed two heroes built from the villain's favourite fuel.

2000

A three-issue takeover — Avengers Vol. 3 #32–34 stages the seizure, with the fight spilling into the Thunderbolts' own title as both teams besiege Nefaria's castle.

Atlas

The other puppet — Erik Josten received an ionic treatment years before Simon ever met the Thunderbolts, which is precisely why Nefaria could grab them both with the same hand.

The bomb

Conversion as conquest — The planned detonation was never just a weapon; every transformed survivor would have joined the list of ionic beings Nefaria could command.

Masque

Insurance against dad — Madame Masque had designed the ionic lock long before this crisis, purely as a contingency for her father's return.

Gallery

The puppet, the puppeteer, and the second puppet — Simon Williams, Count Nefaria, and Atlas, the three ionic players in the 2000 takeover.

Wonder Man Simon Williams in costume seated in a director's chair on a comic cover — **The seized Avenger**Wonder Man on a later Marvel cover, seated in a chair lettered with his own name — the man Nefaria briefly borrowed in 2000.

Count Nefaria in cape and costume standing over fallen Avengers in a classic comic panel — **Count Nefaria**The ionic count standing over fallen Avengers in a classic panel — by 2000 his hunger for ionic energy had grown into outright remote control.

Atlas Erik Josten as a giant in red and gold costume in comic art — **Atlas, the other puppet**Erik Josten at giant size — his ionic powers share Simon's source, so Nefaria's grip closed around him in the same moment.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Count Nefaria — WikipediaSummary of the 2000 arc: Nefaria in ionic form planning the ionic bomb, gaining control of Wonder Man and Atlas to use against the Avengers, and Madame Masque's weapon disrupting his energy.
Count Nefaria Biography — Mighty AvengersDetailed biography: Nefaria feeding on ionic beings, the castle siege by Avengers and Thunderbolts, and the ionic lock rebooting Wonder Man and Atlas and restoring their self-determination.
Count Nefaria — Comic VineCharacter history confirming Nefaria discovered he could control ionic-powered beings mentally and used Atlas and Wonder Man as puppets in his scheme to mutate humanity with ionic energy.