What's the one thing that almost every science-fiction film you've seen, TV show you've watched or book you've read has had in common? With a very few exceptions, it would have to be that Earth and humanity are always the good guys, or at least that things are viewed through their eyes. Nemesis strove to change that. Originally conceived as nothing more than a short set of stories written to tie in with rock music, Nemesis the Warlock received such favourable attention from the readership that Pat Mills decided there was enough interest in it to go ahead with a full series. In the end, it turned out to be one of the star attractions of
2000AD.
Nemesis is an alien, a Warlock who fights for freedom from the tyranny of the Terran Empire (that's us) which is a xenophobic, totalitarian theocracy, founded on the principles of human superiority, prejudice and hatred of all other races. Its own people are ground under the heel of the Grand Master of Termight, Torquemada, who, along with his not-so-secret police keeps them in a constant state of fear, paranoia and unquestioning obedience. Earth has reached out to the stars, and finding non-human races there, has determined to destroy them all. Nemesis is the leader of the resistance, a fire-breathing demon to counter the Earth's religious zealot, and the two will cross swords --- literally --- many times.
Drawn in a strange, metallic, alien, angular style by Kevin O'Neill, everything in Nemesis, from the buildings to the people, is sharp and severe, and this carries through to the dialogue, which is some of the snappiest and cleverest in the magazine, and that's saying a lot! Mills references a lot of pop culture, and has some sharp and witty slants on everything from religion and politics to war and power.
Unlike the other strips I've focussed on up to now, which generally rotate about a single character or a team of two, Nemesis has a cast, which obligates me to talk about them. And so I will.
Nemesis the Warlock: hero/antihero of the series, he is a tall, fire-breathing alien, a demon and the very antithesis of Earth and Torquemada's beliefs and values. He fights against Earth's genocidal attitude towards aliens, becoming the focus for their resistance with his battlecry “Credo!”
Tomas de Torquemada: Like his namesake from the Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada is a rabid racist, supremacist and fascist, and he is the ultimate power on Earth. His police enforce his edicts, and as in this dimension Church and State are one, there is literally no limit to his power. He has a fanatical hatred of all aliens, and is on a mission to destroy them all. He calls everyone who is not human, or who fails to live up to his standards of what it means to be a human, impure.
Purity Brown: The only human who is sympathetic to Nemesis and his cause, she becomes his ally and helper.
Candida de Torquemada: Wife of Tomas and mother of his two children. If anything can soften and make the evil tyrant seem human, she is the one thing in his life he cares about more than his holy cause.
Grobbendonk: Nemesis's alien pet, Grobbendonk can speak Gibberish, a fringe world dialect, which gives rise to some mighty hilairous sayings.
Chira: Nemesis's first wife, and mother to his son Thoth
Thoth: Nemesis's only son.
Great Uncle Baal: A scientist who performed controversial and horrible experiments on captured humans, Baal is Nemesis's uncle but has been banished from the kingdom.
The ABC Warriors: Massive armoured fighting robots (who later got their own series and featured in the first
Judge Dredd movie) who are allies to Nemesis.