Nemesis #3

"That All You Got?" by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Rating: multiple reads, as a single and a series

Millar and McNiven have created a masterpiece of grade B ultraviolence. In Nemesis, Millar and McNiven raise the stakes to beyond Jack Bauer territory, beyond Sarah Palin ridiculousness, beyond common sense and reality and possibility. It's wonderful and joyful and scary and gross and disturbing and utterly thrilling and compelling.

The only drawback? It's a quick read, and it's a long time (a month or so) before issue four and tge temporary conclusion happens. That makes me sad.

The titular character is a nasty little supervillain with a Joker-level love of killing and a Christopher Priest-style T'Challa level of planning. What's not to love? His choice of colleagues and methods are ingenious, although the scenes of him dismantling and killing a battalion of prison guards. I know that prison guards might not necessarily be the highest trained people in hand to hand combat, but... it did take me out of the moment for a brief second. Brief. Because, the scenes of the fight were some of the most shocking things I've seen in a comic book since Kick-Ass. I think I've read that part about ten times since then. The convicts escaping in a fleet of white Lambourginis was a Badass touch, even though that was also a little bit too much over the top.

Nemesis the man did an amazing job of raising the stakes with his final attack on Blake's family, in a set of confessions and responses that might stand alone in comics history. As a father, I felt myself getting agitated and indignant and horrified; very few things could possibly put Nemesis in the evil camp so thoroughly. Bravo, gentlemen. I only cringe at the thought of what happens in your sick little psyche.

Kudos for the extra feature pencils page at the end, too. It was cool.


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