Comic Review: Nemesis

Mark Millar, in Huck, showed his own take on the Superman story of the benevolent altruistic superhero.

Nemesis shows Millar doing something similar with the Batman concept, but this time around, the character is a villain.

Nemesis is the story of Nemesis, a master planner whose billionaire parents died in prison for various crimes that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Millar-penned comic.  After a stop in Tokyo where he killed the police chief and a whole lot of other people, he’s set his target for the chief of Washington D.C., one Blake Morrow.  For his first act, Nemesis kidnaps the president of the United States…off Air Force One…in mid-air.

Truth be told, this was a rather shallow story.  One interesting final plot twist in the end about Nemesis’ true identity doesn’t really add to much.  The story seems to exist so Nemesis can commit hyperviolent acts against as many people as he can.  Morrow as the more heroic figure is little better than a cypher, and while Millar’s Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven created some beautiful artwork, there really isn’t anything here but spectacle, and that doesn’t amount to much for this story, especially if you want more than just some guy running around killing everyone who gets in his path.  Six out of ten riot police massacres.