Nemesis (Icon Comics)

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

Millar & McNiven's Nemesis
Nemesis #2. Art by Steve McNiven
Publication information
Publisher	Icon Comics
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	May – December 2010
No. of issues	4
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
Collected editions
Hardcover	ISBN 0-7851-4865-5

Millar & McNiven's Nemesis 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 synopsis

The supervillain Nemesis blows up a building in Tokyo, killing a SWAT team, and later kills a police inspector. In Washington, D.C., the FBI informs metro police Chief Inspector Blake Morrow that Nemesis is targeting him next. He is given a card reading "Blake Morrow, March 12th at midnight, Flatline still counts". Morrow has his family put in protective custody. Later, Nemesis soon hijacks Air Force One over the District of Columbia, taking the United States president hostage and crashing the plane into Washington D.C., killing hundreds. Nemesis makes an international broadcast, revealing the President hostage in front of him, and finishing it by saying: "It's time you hail your new fucking Chief".

Nemesis reveals to his henchmen that his real name is Matt Anderson, and his father had committed suicide after Officer Blake Morrow tried to imprison him, for hunting runaway teenagers with his rich friends. Matt was later adopted by his uncle. Bored of well-behaviour and less excitement, Anderson travelled the world to learn the ways of crime, hoping to fulfil his mother's dying wish to have Morrow killed. Morrow has a conversation with Nemesis' uncle Howard Anderson. Howard says to Morrow, that he would be more happy to have Nemesis arrested and brought to justice.

Nemesis kills twenty-thousand people at the Pentagon using poison gas, somehow Morrow and his partner Stuart are still alive. Nemesis appears in front of them and Morrow and Stuart fire at him, but he is behind bullet-proof glass. He reveals he put the antidote in their morning coffee, to survive in order to taunt Morrow about the inspector's projected March 12 death. Local police eventually capture Nemesis, who claims he allowed himself to be caught. It is shown to be true; Nemesis' henchmen have already infiltrated the prison. Nemesis breaks free, kills 97 guards with his bare hands, and frees the inmates, and then blowing it up. He kidnaps Morrow's children, forcing Morrow to reveal family secrets: his wife had an affair; his son is gay; and his daughter had a secret abortion. All of these secrets were kept from him as Morrow is a devoted Catholic. Nemesis releases the children but he has artificially inseminated Morrow's daughter with his son's sperm, with her womb rigged to collapse if an abortion is attempted, preventing her from ever again having children. An enraged Morrow eventually believes he has discovered Nemesis' hideout, and arrives there with a police team only to find it is a trap. The house explodes, knocking Morrow unconscious. When Morrow awakens, a taunting Nemesis reveals that Stuart has been working for Nemesis for the past eight years. Stuart reveals Nemesis promised to pay him $10 million for his work, and tells Morrow that his henchmen retired after every job. But, however, Nemesis shoots and kills Stuart and jokingly says: "Well, that's one way of putting it". It is hinted that Nemesis murdered everyone of his henchmen, despite promising to pay them a reward. Nemesis reveals that his "Matthew Anderson" story was made up: He is simply rich and bored, creating death and havoc for his own amusement. It turns out that the real Matthew Anderson died in an Indian whorehouse, after squandering his inheritance.

Nemesis then reveals they are in the White House's Oval Office, where Morrow's wife Peggy and the U.S. president have bombs strapped to their chests. The staff and Secret Service agents have all been killed, and Nemesis gives Morrow a detonator and tells him he has thirty seconds to kill either his career or his family. With four seconds left, the president steps-up to Nemesis and tells Morrow to detonate his bomb. Nemesis survives the blast, and in a final confrontation, he and Morrow each shoot each other. Morrow kills Nemesis with a head shot, but Morrow is injured from a gunshot to the stomach and is taken to emergency surgery. He flatlines during the surgery but survives, during the surgery Blake's son goes through his wallet looking at family photos and finding the card given to him by the FBI, which reads "Blake Morrow, March 12th at midnight, Flatline still counts". The son looks at the clock and it is midnight. The scene ends with a dead Nemesis, with part of his head missing and a big smile on him. As the series concludes, Blake on a beach vacation with his family, including his newborn triplet granddaughters. There he is given a letter, ostensibly given to the waiter ten years earlier, congratulating Morrow and claiming to be from the head of a company that arranges for rich people to become supervillains. The comic ends with the owner of the company sitting on the beach, enjoying the sunset. Although Nemesis is dead, it is likely that a new supervillain will rise.

Reception

Writer Mark Millar signing a copy of the book during an appearance at Midtown Comics in Manhattan.

Greg McElhatton of Comic Book Resources gave the first issue a 1 out of 5. He said Millar's script "feels stale from start to finish ... 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 [it's] 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." He found artist McNiven's work uninteresting and McCaig's colors "muted and slightly dull."

Dan Phillips of IGN gave the premiere issue an "Okay" score of 6 out of 10. He was disappointed by the artwork, saying it accentuates the shortcomings of Millar's script, finding McNiven's minimalistic style less impressive than his work on Old Man Logan. Phillips gave issue #3 the same score, describing the comic as "somewhat entertaining" but "not the least bit clever, witty, tasteful, sophisticated or original". He complains about the lack of depth to this high concept story, seeing it only as an excuse for the next violent spectacle. He concludes that readers should skip the series unless they are die-hard fans of Millar's work.

Nicholas Yanes of SciFiPulse.net called the premiere issue "fantastic" and argued that while the series lacked heart in comparison with Millar's Kick-Ass, "this works to point out that the real world is not run by good intentions, but by selfish motivations, ego, and pride. Moreover, the stability that people apply to modern society is as much a construct as the buildings that [a] terrorist can so easily bring down."

Collected editions

The series has been collected into the single volume Nemesis (112 pages, hardcover, February 2011, ISBN 0-7851-4865-5)

Film

The rights to make a Nemesis film were optioned by 20th Century Fox. Tony Scott was set to direct it before his death, in conjunction with his Scott Free production company. In 2010 it was reported that Joe Carnahan was working on the screenplay for the film. On March 6, 2012, Carnahan was confirmed as the director, and will be writing the script with his brother Matthew Carnahan. In December 2012, Carnahan announced via Twitter that he is indeed working on the screenplay for the film. On October 4, 2013, Deadline reported that Mark Millar has seen the script for Nemesis and has given praise to Joe and Matthew's take on his comic book character, stating the film is going to be "massive".

References

• Nemesis at the Grand Comics Database

External links

• Nemesis at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• MacLennan, Michael (March 5, 2010). "Kick-Ass creator reveals how Nemesis will 'invert' superhero mythos". STV. Retrieved March 6, 2010.