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 2010 – present
Number of issues	4 (as of December 2010)
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mark Millar
Artist(s)	Steve McNiven
Letterer(s)	Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist(s)	Dave McCaig
Creator(s)	Mark Millar Steve McNiven
Editor(s)	Daniel Ketchum Nick Lowe
Collected editions
Hardcover	ISBN 0-7851-4865-5

Millar & McNiven's Nemesis^[1] 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.^[2]

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?"^[3] 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.^[4]

The series also gained pre-publication attention when Millar auctioned the right to name the main policeman character,^[5] something he had done with Kick-Ass.^[6] The winning bid was $8,500^[7] 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.^[8]

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. Nemesis soon hijacks Air Force One over the District of Columbia, taking the United States president hostage and crashing the plane, killing hundreds.^[9]

Nemesis tells the story of Matt Anderson, whose father had committed suicide after Officer Blake Morrow tried to imprison the father for hunting runaway teenagers with his rich friends. Anderson travelled the world to learn the ways of crime, hoping to fulfil his mother's dying wish to have Morrow killed.^[10]

Nemesis kills twenty-thousand people at the Pentagon using poison gas, allowing Morrow and his aide de camp Stuart 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.^[10] Nemesis breaks out of prison, killing scores of guards and freeing 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. Nemesis releases the children but Morrow's daughter has been impregnated by his son, with her womb rigged to collapse if an abortion is attempted, preventing her from ever again having children.^[11] 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. Nemesis kills Stuart, and tells Morrow that his "Matthew Anderson" story was made up: He is simply rich and bored, creating death and havoc for his own amusement.

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 the president or his wife. 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, and himself is taken to emergency surgery. He flatlines during surgery but survives, and as the series concludes is 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.^[12]

Reception

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."^[13]

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

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."^[16]

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 have been optioned by 20th Century Fox, with Tony Scott set to direct it, in conjunction with his Scott Free production company.^[17]

Notes

1. ^ The series' full title appears in each issue's copyright indicia
2. ^ Renaud, Jeffrey (December 4, 2009). ""Nemesis" Asks: What if Batman was The Joker?". Comic Book Resources. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23934. Retrieved December 6, 2009. 
3. ^ Phegley, Kiel (October 30, 2009). "Millar & McNiven Tease 'Nemesis'". Comic Book Resources. http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23524. Retrieved March 6, 2010. 
4. ^ Johnston, Rich (January 6, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: DC Comics Makes Legal Move Over Mark Millar’s Nemesis". Bleeding Cool. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/01/05/dc-comics-makes-legal-move-over-mark-millars-nemesis/. Retrieved March 6, 2010. 
5. ^ "Millar Announces "Nemesis" Benefit Auction" (Press release). Comic Book Resources. January 26, 2010. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24572. Retrieved March 6, 2010. 
6. ^ Brady, Matt (April 16, 2008). "Talking to Dave Lizewski & a Preview of Kick-Ass #3". Newsarama. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153926. Retrieved May 14, 2008. 
7. ^ Newsarama Staff (February 10, 2010). "Name Millar's NEMESIS, Help a School". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Nemesis-Auction-2-100210.html. Retrieved March 6, 2010. 
8. ^ Parkin, JK (February 10, 2010). "Second "Nemesis" name auction over $4,600". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/02/second-nemesis-name-auction-over-4600/. Retrieved March 6, 2010. 
9. ^ Nemesis #1
10. ^ ^{a b} Nemesis #2
11. ^ Nemesis #3
12. ^ Nemesis #4
13. ^ McElhatton, Greg (March 24, 2010). "Review: Nemesis #1". Comic Book Resources. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=2033. Retrieved March 25, 2010. 
14. ^ Dan Phillips (March 24, 2010). "Nemesis #1 Review. Millar and McNiven's evil Batman comes up lame.". IGN. News Corporation. http://comics.ign.com/articles/107/1079769p1.html. 
15. ^ Dan Phillips (September 22, 2010). "Nemesis #3 Review. Millar and McNiven up the violence of their Batman riff.". IGN. News Corporation. http://comics.ign.com/articles/112/1122892p1.html. 
16. ^ Nicholas Yanes (March 30, 2010). "This Week in Spandex - Nemesis". SciFiPulse.net. http://scifipulse.net/?p=23232. 
17. ^ Fleming, Mike (August 6, 2010). "Fox and Tony Scott Plot Movie Version of Millar & McNiven's 'Nemesis'". Deadline.com. http://www.deadline.com/2010/08/fox-and-tony-scott-plot-movie-version-of-mark-millars-nemesis/. Retrieved August 6, 2010. 

References

• Nemesis at the Grand Comics Database

External links

• Nemesis at the Comic Book DB
• MacLennan, Michael (March 5, 2010). "Kick-Ass creator reveals how Nemesis will 'invert' superhero mythos". STV. http://entertainment.stv.tv/film/161633-kick-ass-creator-reveals-how-nemesis-will-invert-superhero-mythos/. Retrieved March 6, 2010.