Nemesis
Nemesis is written by Mark Millar. I’m a big fan of a lot of his stuff even if the comic book elitists think he’s simple-minded and a one-trick pony. The basic concept behind Nemesis is the angle, “What if Batman was the Joker?” Millar already had Wanted raped by film, and Kick-Ass was modified as well, so Millar claimed he was going to wait awhile until he let the Nemesis film rights out. Then Tony Scott said he wanted to direct it, and that promise went out the window.
Summary
Nemesis is in all white and owns a Japanese police chief. He then turns his attention towards Blake Morrow, the chief of Homeland Security. Nemesis always gives a card stating exactly when he will kill someone. In Morrow’s case, it is midnight, “flat line still counts.” We find that Morrow had busted Nemesis’s parents when he was a kid because they ran some human hunting thing. Nemesis gets himself captured on purpose to find the location of Morrow’s kids, one a gay son and the other a daughter who had an abortion. Nemesis invitros the daughter with the gay son’s sperm and gives her triplets. What a fucking dick. Morrow traces Nemesis down to his uncle, but it was a trap for Morrow. Nemesis tells Morrow the revenge angle was just for fun and not real. Morrow is then left with the choice of blowing up the president or his wife. The president says fuck it, runs towards Nemesis and tells Morrow to pull the detonator. This weakens Nemesis enough so that the fist fight is even. They both cap each other, Morrow to Nemesis’s head and Nemesis to Morrow’s stomach. Nemesis is dead, but Morrow flat lines at midnight exactly. Thereafter, Morrow gets a letter congratulating him for “winning” setting us the situation of a company that fulfills dreams, and that currently, the dream is for rich people to be super villains. The letter was sent 10 years ago, which I have no idea what that means. I’m guessing this company is the company that sets up all the heroes in Millar’s world: Nemesis, Superior, and Kick-Ass.
Bad Ass Moment
He beats up all the prison guards by himself.
I Kinda Wish
I’m a little disappointed with the ending. I also didn’t like that he spent a whole issue giving a backstory that was fake. I’m hoping the backstory was actually real, but for the person that set the games up.
Rating
***1/2. The first three issues are pretty good. Lots of action and hilarity. Nemesis is a real dick. Unfortunately, the series is set up like Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers where you have a suit and a different guy in it the whole time. Can’t have a consistent bad guy if the guy changes. This is more a Hollywood ending. I would have preferred to see Nemesis win and move on to Los Angeles like the story suggested.