Biography - page 8
On a plane ride to Los Angeles to wrap up the loose ends of his life there, Simon was happily surprised when his old friend Hank McCoy showed up for the trip. When the two heroes stopped a terrorist attack on the plane, Simon's old agent Neal Saroyan arranged a press junket to meet them at the airport, the last thing the self-doubting Wonder Man wanted at the moment. After avoiding the media, Neal informed Simon that Alex Flores had gotten remarried since his death. Simon and Alex reconnected, and were relieved to discover each of them had moved on after his death ended their engagement. Simon next tried to turn himself in the authorities, but they 
maintained that the deaths of Angkor and Freddie Munson were not criminal actions on his part. As Simon continued to feel unworthy of all the forgiveness he kept receiving (ruminating at the still burning Wonder Man Memorial created for him after he died), Beast brought a monk from Angkor's order and Munson's mother to meet Simon. Both told Simon their loved ones were lost long before he met them, and that they didn't want him to blame himself for those deaths any longer.
After an encounter with Lotus Newmark finally wrapped up her involvement with Armed Response and the other threats she initiated against Wonder Man during his Hollywood days, Simon met a young actress named Cindy Knutz. She told him the story of how he saved her life years ago in 
New York when Red Ronin was on a rampage and she had always admired him since then. Not because he was a perfect hero, but because he was an imperfect one who always tried to do better and came through when it was necessary. Inspired by Cindy, Wonder Man arranged through Neal to set up a Second Chances Foundation, funded by the re-release of his movies and other merchandise, to help people get back on their feet after adversity, so that others would have as many chances to start over as Simon did. [Avengers Two: Wonder Man & Beast #1-3]
On his way back to New York, however, Simon was intercepted and captured by Count Luchino Nefaria. Count Nefaria's own ionic powers gave him the ability to control anyone else who possessed those abilities, and he used the talent to brainwash Wonder Man into his service. Wonder Man soon recruited Atlas of the Thunderbolts (formerly the ionically enhanced Power Man or Goliath III) to become Nefaria's second henchman. The duo battled the Avengers and the 
Thunderbolts while helping Nefaria rein in his daughter, Madame Masque. Nefaria also created an ionic bomb that would saturate the world with ionic energy, killing many and mutating others, but leaving the surviving population of the planet under his mental domination. Ionic lock technology managed to free Wonder Man and Atlas from Nefaria's control, and they were left free to intercept the bomb as it reached the upper atmosphere while the other heroes entertained Nefaria himself. Uncomfortably reminded of his earlier death confronting the Kree Starstealth ionic cannon, Simon and Erik nevertheless stopped the ionic bomb by absorbing its ionic fallout into their own bodies. [Nefaria Protocols crossover] The resulting destabilization of Simon's ionic matrix forced him to remain in a nutrient bath for several weeks while recuperating. [Maximum Security #1]
Once he recovered, Simon became an active part of the Avengers again as the team expanded their mandate to include a larger roster and a more proactive stance. Wonder Man and Triathlon put Simon's acting talents to use infiltrating a series of Taskmaster's training academies. Their efforts helped the Avengers shut down a good portion of Taskmaster's operations. [Avengers (3rd series) #38] In time, however, Simon's manager wanted him to take on a larger role in the 
Second Chances Foundation, which would require him relocating to Los Angeles full time. He floated the idea to Wanda of them moving to Los Angeles together, but they both knew Wanda preferred her role as deputy leader of the Avengers, and couldn't relocate. Simon and Wanda half-heartedly agreed to continue a long-distance relationship, but Simon privately felt very little pain at their separation. Instead, he felt guilt at how comfortable he was pulling back from their relationship. Wanda brought him back to life with the power of her love, after all, and yet he wasn't fighting for them with that same amount of love. [Avengers (3rd series) #39, 41]
Still, Simon remained available to the Avengers, especially after Kang the Conqueror declared war on the 21st century. Wonder Man was on hand in Los Angeles when the Master of the World encircled the city in his own protective ring as a counter-move against Kang's occupation. [Avengers (3rd series) #46] When the Avengers launched a failed assault on Kang's orbital Damocles Base, the Conqueror staged a retaliation strike against Washington D.C. Wonder Man arrived to assist Thor, Firebird and Wasp in defending the capital against Kang and his commandeered fleet of American Sentinels. They failed. Damocles Base devastated the landscape and Kang unleashed a future-tech neutron bomb that wiped out nearly all life in the city. Thor teleported away Wasp, Firebird and the president, but he and Wonder Man felt the full devastation of Kang's attack. America and many of the nations opposing Kang soon surrendered to his control. [Avengers (3rd series) #49]
Simon continued to work against Kang's forces, assisting rebel groups in the country for weeks before his capture. He was brought to a prison camp where Wanda was also in residence. The 
two of them worked to assist the other prisoners, provided medical care and finally stopped to talk about their relationship. Wanda, it seemed, had been just as ambivalent as Simon about their separation. The initial passion they felt after reuniting from the afterlife through the power of love had cooled, and both were comfortable settling back into just being good friends. Through Wanda's hex power, they were able to engineer Simon's escape from the camp by faking his death while making him temporarily invisible to Kang's security. [Avengers (3rd series) #51] Wonder Man rejoined the Avengers' effort to stop Kang, and participated in the final struggle defeating the conqueror before returning to his life in Los Angeles. [Avengers (3rd series) #52-55]
Wonder Man remained largely dedicated to his Second Chance efforts in California for months, operating apart from the Avengers. He made himself available during the crisis caused by Wanda's increasing powers and insanity, and attended the final dissolution of the Avengers at the mansion afterwards. [Avengers (1st series) #500-503, Avengers Finale #1] The Avengers inevitably reformed, but Simon remained active in Los Angeles rather than rejoining them, appearing only when further concerns over Wanda's fate were discussed. [House of M crossover]
While meeting with his old agent Neal Saroyan, Simon got to talking about Wanda's breakdown. Neal suggested she was just bad from birth due to being Magneto's daughter and one of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but Simon insisted people could change and become something better. When an assassin named Ladykiller suddenly broke into the restaurant to kill a producer, only to be stopped by Simon, Neal announced that it was the perfect opportunity. Now a documentary filmmaker, Neal proposed a "My Fair Superhero" series starring Wonder Man and Ladykiller, as Simon attempted to prove his point and redeem Ladykiller from her wicked ways. Pushed into it by his feelings about Wanda and his own reformation, Simon reluctantly accepted.
Simon recruited Beast and Ms. Marvel to help him with Ladykiller's rehabilitation. She was fitted with a control collar that shocked her into submission if she took aggressive action, and isolated with the trio in a home in the mountains of California. Over time, they managed to wear down her 
defenses and learn the story of how Huan was sold into slavery by her parents before being chosen by the Mandarin to become an assassin and Ladykiller. Simon's relentless attention (not unlike brainwashing) got Ladykiller to accept the idea of reforming and convinced her she was in love with Wonder Man. When Simon deactivated her collar as a gesture of trust, she went out into Los Angeles and defused a gang hostage situation to show him that she cared about doing things his way.
As he worked on defining his own feelings for Ladykiller (now Ladyfair), Wonder Man prepared to present her to the Avengers at the anniversary celebration of Captain America's revival in New York. Unfortunately, this had all been part of Neal Saroyan's plan. Somehow, Neal had gained mind control powers and risen to the leadership of a group of assassins called the Nobility, which included Ladykiller. He orchestrated the entire situation with Wonder Man to position Huan into 
eliminating all the Avengers at once with a slow-acting poison in the party's punch. Although she initially delivered the poison, Huan rejected Saroyan's control and stopped Captain America from drinking the poison. When Neal attempted to force her further, she stabbed herself in the heart, rather than revert back to what she was. Wonder Man held Huan in his arms as she died and learned of Saroyan's involvement. He flew cross-country at top speed to confront his friend-turned-villain, but failed to even reach that closure. The Nobility turned on Saroyan when Ladykiller failed, and they all killed each other before Simon arrived. Everyone was dead and Simon had no one to vent his grief on but himself. [Wonder Man (2nd series) #1-5]