Nemesis (Icon Comics)

For other uses of "nemesis" in comics, see Nemesis (comics).

Millar & McNiven's Nemesis
Cover to Nemesis #2. Art by Steve McNiven
Publication information
Publisher	Icon Comics
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	March 2010 – present
Creative team
Created by	Mark Millar Steve McNiven
Written by	Mark Millar
Artist(s)	Steve McNiven
Letterer(s)	Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist(s)	Dave McCaig
Editor(s)	Daniel Ketchum Nick Lowe

Millar & NcNiven's Nemesis, as the series' full title appears in each issue's copyright indicia, is a creator-owned comic book limited series written by Mark Millar, drawn by Steve McNiven and published by the Icon Comics imprint of Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The publicity was launched in October 2009, with a teaser image containing the caption "What if Batman was the Joker?" and in a subsequent interview Millar revealed that was only one of a number of possible lines they went with, his favourite being "What if Batman was a total cunt?" This caused concern at DC Comics, the publisher of Batman, but Millar denied there had been threats of legal action saying:

One of my friends at DC legal dropped me an informal email back in December saying that someone in editorial was a bit worried by the Batman and Joker mentions in an interview to promote a creator-owned book. They politely asked if I could avoid using those names as it was creating a bit of grief for them and I agreed, saying that’s absolutely fine. Steve and I chatted after, wondering if the cover was a little too much too and we decided to ditch it and do another one. It was entirely our decision and a gesture of goodwill, which the lads at DC appreciated. This has never been anything beyond a couple of friendly, informal emails.

The series also gained pre-publication attention when Millar auctioned the right to name the main policeman character, something he had done with Kick-Ass. The winning bid was $8,500 and, as with the previous auction, proceeds went to the charity run by Mark Millar's brother Dr. Bobby Millar which helps handicapped children. It proved so successful that the real name of the main supervillain character was also auctioned off.

Plot

Nemesis starts in Tokyo as Nemesis blows up a building with a SWAT team in it. He insults the city Inspector saying that "For a man with a an impressive reputation, you've got quite a list of failures." He then lets the Inspector get hit by an oncoming train and then crashes the train to increase the death-toll. When asked by his henchmen "What's next", Nemesis replies by saying that his next target is going to be America.

Meanwhile in Washington DC, Chief Inspector Blake Morrow takes down a group of thugs in a supermarket by pretending to be a Hostage. Blake Morrow is then approached by the FBI who tell him that Nemesis is going to target him next. Blake thinks it's a joke at first until he sees the card Nemesis sent the FBI with the time of his death placed on it.

Nemesis eventually hijacks a plane with the US president in it and crashes it into the middle of Washington DC, killing hundreds. Nemesis then publicly tells the world over TV that he wishes to kill Blake Morrow and that he has taken the President hostage saying that "it's time you hailed your new fucking chief"

Reception

Greg McElhatton reviewed the first issue for Comic Book Resources and gave it 1 out of 5. He liked neither the art or the writing, about McNiven's work he said it was "some of the least interesting work I've seen of his" and describing McCaig's colors as "muted and slightly dull." On the writing front McElhatton thought "Millar's script ... feels stale from start to finish. ... It's a predictable and surprisingly boring comic, moving through the paces at a plodding speed with nothing out of the ordinary. I wish I could say it was because Millar had tried to trade in over-the-top antics for subtlety, but that's not even present. It's just old hat, almost like someone else was trying to figure out what made Millar's comics popular and then throwing most of the tricks out without bothering to replace them with anything else."

However, Nicholas Yanes, from scifipulse.net, felt that "Nemesis #1 was a fantastic issue." Yanes argued that while this title has been criticized "because it lacks the ‘heart’ Kick-Ass had" it is because "while Nemesis does lack the emotional resonance that Kick-Ass had this works to point out that the real world is not run by good intentions, but by selfish motivations, ego, and pride. More over, the stability that people apply to modern society is as much a construct as the buildings that terrorist can so easily bring down."

References

• Nemesis at the Grand Comics Database
• Nemesis at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

External links

• MacLennan (March 5, 2010). "Kick-Ass creator reveals how Nemesis will 'invert' superhero mythos". STV. Retrieved March 6, 2010. {{cite news}}: Text "Michael" ignored (help)