Written by Mark Millar
Art by Matteo Scalera and Giovanna Niro
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Writer Mark Millar returns with more Nemesis.
Nemesis Forever can basically be described as “What if Elon Musk were not just the world’s richest man but also the evilest man in the world?”
Of course, he’s not called Elon Musk herein, but there’s no doubt as to who the inspiration for Hans Berg is.
And Hans Berg, as he says himself, is only one of a number of false identities for the super criminal known as Nemesis.
Nemesis, if you’ve not encountered him before, looks a lot like Marvel’s Moon Knight, who also has—or at least had in the beginning— multiple identities, one of which just happened to be a billionaire. Moon Knight was often said to be Marvel’s version of Batman—another billionaire.
So, essentially, Nemesis is also Millar’s take on what one of the world’s smartest, sharpest, most athletic, geniuses would be like if he had chosen to be a relentless bad guy rather than a relentless good guy.
There really isn’t much of a plot, just 140 pages or so of explosions, blood, torture, and murder as the title character travels all over the world committing mayhem in segments in large cities, killing thousands of innocent people per day, while the agents hunting him attempt to figure out what his master plan is.
These agents include a female operative who has gone deep undercover—so deep that she had to lose an eye and commit murder in order to convince the bad guys that she really is the ruthless explosives expert she’s pretending to be. In an extra kick to the backstory, she turns out to be pregnant, with no way to even tell her husband, who didn’t want her to take the job in the first place.
The cover of the book is striking, with Nemesis all in white standing high above a large city burning to the ground, proudly surveying his work. It’s symbolic, but his ultimate plan isn’t much different than burning all the great cities to the ground.
The character is, in fact, striking and cool-looking whenever he appears and he so rarely fails in his plans that at times you almost find yourself rooting for him!
Nemesis Forever is pretty self-contained. One doesn’t really need to have read the previous appearances to “enjoy” this volume—if enjoyment of this much mindless violence is the right word. There are some satirical points made, and an unlikely—but not unexpected—ending, but yeah, mainly it’s a story about a cool-looking character committing ever-increasing atrocities with no one to stop him.
Oh, there are superheroes in Millar World, but we’re told they’re off on other missions. Missions more important than the Big Bad murdering thousands of folks every day all over the world? Okay, so one has to suspend one’s disbelief there. The superheroes only end up showing up for a cameo toward the end.
Millar keeps Nemesis Forever interesting and flowing nicely, despite a lack of any real depth. The art is likewise riveting, from Matteo Scalera, a new to me artist but whose credits include work for Marvel, DC, Image, and Boom. The color is as much a part of the success of this art as anything else and that’s due to Italian colorist Giovanna Niro.
The book is described as the last of the Nemesis trilogy but there’s a clear set-up for more at the conclusion.
Hopefully, Mark Millar can resist that temptation as this one just doesn’t quite live up to the monster’s earlier appearances.
Still, Nemesis Forever looks great visually, is a quick read, and likely a must for fans of Millar’s violent, action-packed comics.
Booksteve recommends.
