Nemesis #4 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer/creator), Steve McNiven (art/creator), Dave McCaig (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Nick Lowe (editor)

The Story: The final confrontation between DC police chief Morrow and cop-killer Nemesis.

What’s Good: Ummm… it sets up nicely for a sequel?  It does finally let the reader in on what the story is/was, but it’s a little annoying to have the twist right at the end.

A lot of McNiven’s art is quite good.  I still really enjoy the character design of Nemesis himself.  We don’t see a lot of white in comic books and it is a really powerful color.  In a lot of ways, white reminds me of vibrant red hair that some artists put on female characters.  Colorist Val Staples was kinda enough to enlighten me that part of the reason why white (or red) is so powerful is that we just don’t see it in nature.  We see a lot of off-white, but very little WHITE, so it really catches our eyes when we see it.  Gotta wonder how he keeps it clean though.

What’s Not So Good: Honestly, this issue was a huge anti-climax.  Last issue had a hugely bloody scene where Nemesis just destroys a squad of corrections officers with his bare hands.  It may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but you read it and said, “Whoa!  They’re not pulling any punches!”  Then you saw that when Nemesis kidnapped cop Morrow’s teenage kids, he artificially inseminated his daughter with his son’s seed and said, “Double Whoa!  Really not pulling any punches!” [Note: Although you do know that Millar toyed at least briefly with the idea of having the daughter get pregnant the old fashioned way and decided that was too icky.]

So, it was a huge disappointment that this issue didn’t have anything anywhere nearly that daring.  Morrow is given a kind of Sophie’s Choice moment, but that plays out pretty predictably and isn’t as shocking as what happened last issue.  And, then, I just wasn’t happy with the ending at all.  I won’t spoil it, but after building up Nemesis as a really cool villian, the ending turns this entire series into a long #0 issue that is just prologue to a longer story.  There is promise for the future, but I feel a little used buying 4 issues to get to this point.

Nemesis #3 – Review

By Mark Millar (writer), Steve McNiven (artist), Dave McCaig (colorist)

Reading Mark Millar’s Nemesis, I can’t help but fondly remember my own youth and those halcyon days of holding kittens underwater and giggling as they tried to claw their way to freedom, pushing cripples down stairs and savoring the fear in their eyes as they fell to their doom, and lighting homeless people on fire, drinking the glass of water that could have put them out, and pissing in the corner of the alley as they writhed and screamed in agony.

OH COME ON I’M KIDDING!!! What kind of sick fuck do you take me for!? Wait, don’t answer that. Where was I going with this? Oh, right: Nemsis is a comic that takes great pleasure in its own awful, Evil nature, and I love it dearly for that very simple reason. With this issue though… Uh, wow, this comic has gone Col. Kurtz on readers and truly fired with both barrels. And you know what? I still love it!!!

Nemsis is based on a basic, yet deeply disturbing premise: What if Batman was a Bad Guy? What if that Bruce Wayne archetype, that same young, wealthy, aristocratic kind of man about town saw his parents gunned down by lawmen and vowed to dedicate his life to destroying the forces of law and order? It’s not necessarily a new idea, I understand that, but Millar gives it a level of polish and gloss unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory and yet that is easily worth the price of admission.

In Nemesis, readers are rewarded with a character who is thoroughly evil, yet strangely alluring in his civility and demeanor. That is, until he’s putting a fucking baton through your eye! Utterly detestable, yet grotesquely irresistible, you can’t help but be immediately engaged in this villain’s murderous crusade against The Man, and it’s not often we find ourselves so enthusiastically rooting for the bad guy like this! Nemesis is that rare breed of villain who is so utterly convinced that his way of thinking is the Right Way that you are often inclined to believe him despite what your paltry sense of morality tells you to believe contrary to the fact. His every action is expertly calculated to achieve some elusive, yet clearly vindictive endgame against supercop Blake Morrow, a man who, while clearly being the prototypical Good Guy of this twisted tale, has yet to actually earn our respect or admiration.

Funny how Millar fucks with our expectations like that, isn’t it?

Wonder Woman #35 – Review

By Gail Simone (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciller), Matt Ryan (inker), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Black Canary and Wonder Woman are shopping in Tokyo, waiting for their next meta-human cage fight as they hunt their prey. Diana continues to struggle with balancing the Amazonian and human cultures through her observations of Dinah. When they go back to the fights, they find a trace of their quarry, realizing that they’ve become prey themselves. This throws a whole mess of danger their way as they become separated and square off against long, long odds.

What’s Good: This issue opens up in media res and whether it is the internal world of Diana or the external world of the underground meta-human cage matches, the action and pace never slows. A lot of this is exemplified by Black Canary, whom Simone portrays as a sort of party girl of substance. The external action of stealth, subterfuge, ploy and counter-ploy work well and keep the pages turning, even as the villains slowly come into focus.

Gail Simone also continues to excel at character work. Diana is troubled, and Dinah is a perfect foil. Not a lot of respect is given to Wonder Woman in terms of monthly sales. I have two theories about that. One is that boys/ men (the majority of the readers) aren’t buying a female-led book. I don’t think it’s sexism; a big part of comic books are about hero-fantasy and if you’re a guy, you aren’t going to have hero-fantasies about being Wonder Woman. My second theory is that creative teams haven’t really portrayed her in the stature she should have as a member of DC’s Trinity (Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman). At least that second point is ending with Gail Simone, who has found a way to make Wonder Woman more powerful at the same time as she’s found more and more dramatic ways to hurt her. The key to doing it right is to expose what is true inside of Diana, and no one seems to do this as well as Simone– from all the strength and through the pain. The writer simply knows how to paint the classic, essential Wonder Woman.

What’s Not So Good: Nothing. Neither Simone nor Lopresti hit a false note. This is a strong story.

Conclusion: Gail Simone is a writer to follow; and with one third of the Trinity in her hands she’s going to continue to make waves.

Grade: A-

-DS Arsenault

Wonder Woman #18 – Review

By Gail Simone (writer), Bernard Chang (art), I.L.L. (colors)  

When I initially flipped through this book at the store I thought I was going to hate this issue. Bernard Chang is no Terry Dodson, and his rendition of Wonder Woman has no resemblance of the strong, almost burly, Amazonian portrayed in Terry Dodson’s art. But when I actually started reading the book, it was almost as if Gail Simone tailored this book to Chang’s art style. Diana’s slender and innocently sweet look, matches her bedside manner as she visits Agent Tresser at the hospital.

From there, things get a little bizarre. The Khund come out of nowhere to kill her!  At first, it seems like she’s completely outnumbered. But panels later, we learn that she can completely own this “menacing, warmonger race”. It’s then revealed that instead of trying to defeat her, they’re paying tribute. Apparently, something’s happened to their home world. An alien only known as the “Ichor” has been drilling into their planet. Being one of the few that’s actually defeated the Khund, they tap Wonder Woman to save their planet. But as usual, not all is as it seems and Diana knows this (and yet does nothing about her suspicions). Instead, she lets things play out and we’re handed what’s supposed to be a twist of an ending (yet, why did I roll my eyes?).

I was really hoping for a leap into the unknown – something that would be ominous and challenging for Diana. Instead, I was given something familiar to her in an unfamiliar setting. There’s still an interest in where this story will go, but what could have been something great has severely diminished to near mediocrity. As sweet as Bernard Chang draws Wonder Woman, the rest of the art is a mixed bag; sometimes it looks great, other times a bit rough around the edges. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes