‘The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 2’ – Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, John Hicklenton, Tony Luke

Thousands of years from now, humanity has reconciled all it’s differences and has found a new target to unleash its rampant xenophobia upon. The rest of the galaxy… The venom filled sermons of the tyrant Torquemada exhort his Terminators to more and more atrocities across the galaxy and all seems lost for the peace loving aliens of the outer planets. Or is it? Nemesis the Warlock still fights for freedom, from the tube lines of Termight itself all the way across the weirdness of the Time Wastes…



‘Nemesis the Warlock Volume 2’ collects books five to seven of the series, chronicling Nemesis’ attempts to find his son Thoth and how this all ends in a race to save the galaxy. The ABC warriors are on hand to lend a hand and this adds an element of humour to the madness of Torquemada’s totalitarian regime and the madness of the Time Wastes themselves. There really is something for everyone in the ‘Nemesis the Warlock’ series and Volume 2 is no exception. Books Five and Six, ‘Vengeance of Thoth’ and ‘Torquemurder’, are my favourites this time round; purely because of how utterly surreal it all is. Anything can happen and somehow it’s still surprising when it does. ‘The Two Torquemadas’ wasn’t so good though, tracking back through Torquemada’s past lives led to somewhat predictable results. Think of a tyrant from Earth’s past. Thought of one? More likely than not it was one of Torquemada’s past lives. Even Pat Mills himself hints at this predictability in the book and while I love it when writers mock themselves I still felt that I’d read all this before.

Having said this though, Mills’ plots are more often than not never anything short of gripping just through the fact that you have to see where the madness ends. The artwork complements the madness of the script in the best possible way. Kevin O’Neill and Bryan Talbot are the artists I’ll always think of when I see Nemesis; the others are good but these two are the best in this story.

Roll on Volume 3!