Count Nefaria has a genius-level intellect. He is a versed scientist, inventor, theoretical physicist, adept strategist and organizational leader with deep ties to the underworld through his own crime family, the Maggia. Such a taciturn criminal mastermind is he that upon his first appearance he easily turned the American public and the world over against the Avengers in their first meeting. It was not until being subjected to a process perfected by one of Baron Heinrich Zemo's scientists, Dr. Kenneth Sturdy, that he was granted the combined powers of the villains the Living Laser, Power Man, and Whirlwind, amplified a hundredfold. Count Nefaria gained superhuman attributes in consequence. He has toppled a 40-story building with little effort, withstood a blow from Wonder Man without flinching, and fought an enraged Thor to a standstill with no apparent damage from strikes of his hammer, even stopping it with his bare hand.