Comic Review: Nemesis #1

 

Nemesis #1 provides the outrageous entertainment we've come to expect from Mark Millar. We've got here the perfect superhero nightmare at play, a Batman-like character, all in white, bent on subverting law and order, much like the Joker. It's a bare-bones premise that Millar and artist, Steve McNiven, pursue with bone-crunching intensity. This is their first creator-owned project after working together on Civil War and Wolverine: Old Man Logan. It's nice to see them cut loose. 

If you're looking for a wow factor, this comic will do it for you. It's all in the execution, pardon the pun. No holding back for Millar and McNiven. The first victim we see gets it good in the end. Those first eight pages will leave you a little jittery. Did that just happen? Would the Joker be so cold-blooded? Sure he would, if Mark Millar were writing him. It's pretty gruesome, and appropriate for this comic, to find a blood-splattered Tokyo supertrain jackknifng into the rubble of a just blown up skyscraper.

But don't let that unsettle you too much because this joy ride into hell has just begun. Nemesis has become bored with his killing spree of prominent police officials throughout Asia. He has set his sights on Blake Morrow, the police chief of Washington, D.C., a supercop with near psychotic precision. It's nothing to him to step inside a convenience store and mow down a bunch of gunman on his way to play a game of baccarat. Apparently, Nemesis and Murrow make a perfect match. To what extent, and what that implies, is hinted at and suggests that there is more to this bloody tale than we may have thought.

 

But that's not all to this first issue. You also get a most spectacular attack on Air Force One. This is a showcase for McNiven's style which combines the precise line work of Frank Quitely with a raw energy all of his own. Every plane, train, car, building, man, woman and child is clearly trapped in a Millar/McNiven world. God help them all!

This new series from Marvel's Icon line is a must-see. Whatever you think of Mark Millar and the movie, "Wanted," and now "Kick-Ass," set it all aside and give this comic a try on its own terms. Will it also become a movie? Well, to our benefit, it really looks like Millar and McNiven are loving the comic first and foremost and creating a first-rate work.