Writer: Kurt Busiek
Nefaria hears of Masque's orders and tells the mind controlled Atlas and Wonderman to destroy the butte that is Masque's base. They destroy the base in under a minute and Nefaria finds Masque's escape route and captures her. The Avengers provide a distraction, while Triathlon tries to run away with Masque and bring her somewhere safe. Wonderman and Atlas follow but are stopped by the Vision as he increases his density to maximum and drops on them.
Nefaria is annoyed that Triathlon got away with Masque and punches the Vision. Nefaria takes Atlas and Wonderman with him and leaves not wanting to prolong the battle as he looks to his future plans. The Grim Reaper tries to escape the battle as well only to be knocked out by Warbird.
At Avengers mansion the Avengers leave Iron Man alone with Madame Masque to try to get her to help them. Iron Man finds out that his identity, as Tony Stark wasn't erased from Masque's mind when he did that to the world before. Iron Man gets Masque to go see what the Avengers are doing and that they are only working to stop Nefaria.
The other Avengers report from Nefaria's estate on the New Jersey palisades and find out that the whole castle as been taken out of the ground. Then another priority call comes in from the Thunderbolts with the Black Widow. Hawkeye and the Black Widow explain that they have been investigating Nefaria's activities and he's building a humongous ionic bomb to irradiate the world.
Masque deludes herself into thinking everything is still a trick and that this was all planned out until giving in and saying she will help them and rebuild the Nefaria protocols.
In Nevada the site of Masque's old base a figure appears from out of the ground and walks away.
Comments: This is turning out just the way I like it even though it is a little odd that the Thunderbolts and Avengers haven't even met each other yet.
I'm really enjoying Madame Masque as a paranoid person, questioning every action, thinking everything has been planned, and then saying how she's been tricked. The last two issues have really presented her as an interesting character. She seems unable to trust anyone due to what happened in her past and when she sees that Tony closes his faceplate as they go to see the Avengers and she wonders about his trust is just great stuff. It's so freaky that Masque would record her memories nightly in case someone would want to tamper with her mind.
I find it funny that we find out about all these people that were not affecting by what Tony did to protect his identity from the world, this time with Madame Masque. Its a logical explanation and better than what happened in Iron Man but I still find it funny.
Nefaria presents himself as a great threat here but I still don't like seeing his costume much. Usually characters returning to their original costumes or variants of them make me happy but this one just looks dated.
During the battle the Goliath gets a little focus as he feels like they have no chance in the battle and he gets out a miniature gun that grows into normal size. Triathlon also shows his use running off with Madame Masque, with every appearance and him showing up with the Avengers in Deadpool the character seems better to me than he ever did before.
Nefaria gets to explain what was basically assumed when he told control of Wonderman, which was alright but seemed like a explanation that had to fit in somewhere so it wasn't like someone would actually say something like that in battle. The Vision shows his use since he's come back to the team by dropping on Atlas and Wonderman and I couldn't be happier, even better that Nefaria was angered.
Nefaria's castle has been taken out of the ground at the end I guess he wanted it some he could live somewhere that wasn't destroyed in the world or he has a few items of value in it, unless its part of the launching ground for his attack.
The Thunderbolts and the BlackWidow finally contact the Avengers maybe they will actually meet up next issue to confront the threat of Nefaria together. I think Bagley did a better job with the Thunderbolts and Black Widow than what is done here. Charcoal looks particularly odd, Black Widow looks all right but there's just something extra about her look in Thunderbolts.
As for the mysterious figure walking away at the end I'm guessing its going to be bio-duplicate of Madame Masque that was with the Avengers for a brief time.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.