‘The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 1’ – Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Jesus Redondo, Bryan Talbot (Rebellion)

When I was a lot younger, science fiction (at least the stuff that I saw and read) seemed to be very much about the threat from outer space. If there was anything living out there then more than likely it was holding a ray gun pointed firmly in our direction! That’s a very one sided view though isn’t it (which is reasonable, to an extent, seeing as we don’t know for certain whether we’re alone in the universe or not…)? Who’s to say that there isn’t a planet out there where the inhabitants are wondering just what might come out of that small blue green planet in the night sky…?
Things don’t seem to be too bad these days, we will at least talk to aliens first before we get the big guns out! What would have happened though if that fear and resentment were allowed to grow and fester until inevitable day of first contact? Pat Mills offers us a possible vision of that future with his tales of Nemesis the Warlock…

Tens of thousands of years from now Earth is now Termight, a radioactive wasteland where the inhabitants are forced to live underground in tunnels and vast caverns. Life is cruel as well as hard with any signs of deviancy being rooted out by the sadistic Torquemada and his Terminators. Torquemada’s ultimate ambition is to expand the Terran empire into the stars, purging the galaxy of all alien life regardless of it’s intentions towards Termight. With the Terran populace cowed and alien technology that is no match for the fire power that Torquemada the galaxy has never been a more fearful place to live. There’s only one threat to Torquemada’s ascendancy, the most unlikely hero you will ever meet…

‘The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 1’ collects the first four books in the series, introducing us to the world of Termight and the main players in the struggle that engulfs this world and those beyond. The first couple of stories (‘Terror Tube’ and ‘Killer Watt’) are more about how weird this strange new world of the future is; it’s very weird and Kevin O’Neill’s very detailed art leaves us in no doubt of this. This approach does mean that any story takes a back seat though, this is pure scene setting.

We really get a taste of what the story is all about over the course of the first three books (‘Book 1’, ‘The Alien Alliance’ and ‘The World of Nemesis’) where plots are set in motion and we’re introduced to a far wider cast of characters. The stories themselves are very entertaining and fun to read, again in no small part due to Kevin O’Neill’s evocative artwork (although Jesus Redondo also does a good job when he steps up to the plate) but I found that this was one of those occasions where transferring ‘comic serials’ to a collected format didn’t quite work for me. These tales are very formulaic in their structure, snappy pieces that are designed to come to a conclusion very quickly. This works when you’re picking up a comic every week but in a larger collection I found myself wanting more from them, something that they couldn’t do. I got into the groove of reading short snappy stories but I wanted something with a little more bite to it…
Luckily that’s just what I got with Book Four, ‘The Gothic Empire’… Here’s the book that originally got me interested in Nemesis way back in the day (although it took me a long time before I finally got round to reading it all…) Have you ever wondered where all those radio signals go when they shoot off into space? Is anyone else listening to them? The Gothic race picked up signals from the earliest days of radio and modelled their resulting empire on the greatest one of all. The problem is that if there’s one thing that Torquemada hates more than aliens it’s aliens pretending to be human, Can Nemesis save an entire race from extinction?

I’m not going to tell you how it ends, only that it’s a hell of a ride to the finish line. Here’s a story that breathes the history that I was craving from the earlier books as well as delivering fantastic action sequences. It also draws on the wider universe of 2000AD by roping in the ABC warriors (robots who have only ever known war) to help Nemesis and the Goths. At the risk of repeating myself, Pat Mills’ artwork is superb and Bryan Talbot also weighs in with art that is reminiscent of Victorian England yet utterly alien at the same time. For my money, the collection as a whole is worth it just for this story. ‘The Gothic Empire’ hits the spot on all levels.

One book down, two more to go…

Eight and a Half out of Ten