Comic Book Review: Nemesis the Warlock Volume 1 written by Pat Mills, art by Kevin O’Neill and Jesus Redondo
In the distant future, the planet once called Earth is now Termight. Its surface is blasted and twisted, while the interior is hollowed out with an intricate network of tunnels that are home to the Termight Empire. It’s a religious empire that has turned xenophobia, fear of the alien, into its highest precept. The de facto ruler of this empire is Torquemada the Grand Master of the Terminators, who takes his name and cruelty from the notorious Tomás de Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition. Standing against him and his minions is the rebel organization Credo, led by the mysterious Nemesis!
This science-fantasy series from the pages of British comic weekly 2000 A.D. took a bit of development. The first story, “Terror Tube” has Torquemada “merely” being the top traffic cop of the travel tubes inside Termight, and Nemesis as an unseen presence inside a “Blitzspear” vehicle, a freedom fighter who is planning to free some political prisoners from a transport. This is done, but between the daredevil driving of Nemesis and his callous pursuers’ lack of concern about collateral damage, a lot of people die.
“Killer Watt” has Torquemada taking a commercial tube-liner when it’s snatched by “Goony Birds”, a cross between rocs and SST jets that plan to feed the passengers in their worm-like vehicle to their young. We quickly learn that Torquemada is self-important and values his own skin above all others, taking the only escape pod. He then bullies his way into commandeering a teleport vehicle, but the operator is secretly a rebel who lets Nemesis know that the Grand Master is coming.
The two vehicles clash, and Torquemada is apparently destroyed while the Blitzspear materializes safely in the dwelling of Nemesis’ friend Purity Brown. While Torquemada’s body was disintegrated, his powerful spirit lives on inside the teleportation matrix.
These stories got favorable buzz, so Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill developed their ideas into an ongoing series. First up, it’s established that the Termight Empire is human, originally from Earth before whatever happened, happened to make it Termight. The Terminators claim that their planet was invaded by aliens who enslaved them and wrecked the world, but they were able to overcome their oppressors and become their own starspanning empire. They’re dedicated to the extermination of all “deviant” lifeforms, and any traitors who side with them or even tolerate the aliens.
An elderly prisoner tells a tale of Osric, a humble herdsman who was tasked by Torquemada to find the one sword, Excessus, that could slay Nemesis. After a long and arduous journey filled with danger and excitement, Osric finally finds the sword…only to be killed by Nemesis, who we see for the first time. Turns out Excessus was Nemesis’ sword all along.
The story proper picks up six months after Torquemada vanished. Brother Behell purges another planet of shapeshifting plant aliens as part of his campaign to become the new Grand Master. He does not heed warnings that Torquemada would not be pleased until it is too late. As a spirit, Torquemada’s psychic powers are heightened, and Brother Behell suffers a terrible fate.
Silent no longer, Torquemada reveals himself to his followers and arranges for an ambush on Nemesis. Nemesis crash-lands on a remote human-occupied planet and is taken prisoner by some villagers who decide to hang him. One by one they suffer karmic deaths until Nemesis is recovered enough to leave.
Torquemada uses his new-found ability to hijack bodies to trick Purity Brown into leading him to the local headquarters of Credo. With so many resistance members captured, there’s going to be a great festival of torture and execution. Nemesis needs a plan!
Handily, Nemesis has learned that Brother Gogol, the Executioner of Terminus (the prison where the rebels and aliens are being held) is a “mandrake”, an alien/human crossbreed who’d managed to slip between the cracks and is just now in middle age beginning to show signs of his alien heritage (handily, he wears a full face mask 99% of the time for his job.) This allows Nemesis to extort certain actions from Gogol.
The second half of the plan involves getting a particular spell from Nemesis’ Uncle Baal, who’d been exiled years before due to unethical experimentation. Turns out that Nemesis is the leader of Credo as his faction which believes that humans are not inherently evil, but culturally poisoned, is currently in charge. Uncle Baal belongs to a faction that believes humans are both inherently and uniquely evil, and his experiments were to try to find the seat of evil within humans to see if it could be removed or modified. In the meantime, culling the humans would be okay by him.
Nemesis manages to outwit his uncle and escape safely with a mass teleportation spell. The storyline concludes with the escape plan mostly working and an epic battle between Nemesis and the zombie bodies Torquemada keeps possessing for another shot at him.
The eldest prisoner did not escape, and tells a story about Torquemada’s youth. He did not start the holy war, but as a child was fully indoctrinated in its propaganda and volunteered for a “children’s crusade.” Those of you familiar with history will guess what happened to those children. After some years of slavery, Torquemada escaped, returned to Termight, slew the merchant who’d sold him out, and redoubled his hatred, eventually rising to the position of Grand Master. So yes, not all aliens are innocent victims in this universe.
The next plotline concerns the prison planet for human prisoners of war run by Credo. It “disinherits” the humans of their material culture (loin cloths and breast covers are allowed) and they are otherwise well-fed and cared for. It mostly works, with many of the prisoners being happier there than in the cruel imperial society. But that’s only “mostly”, with certain incorrigibles in the population. Torquemada’s new plan is to get these die-hard supporters to stage an escape to allow the Grand Master a chance to sabotage the concept of human rehabilitation. Total war between Termight and the aliens suits him just fine!
In addition to several art pieces, the volume wraps up with a look at how Blitzspears are created, and a peek at Torquemada’s family life. It’s just as twisted as you’d expect.
The Kevin O’Neill art is what really sells this series. It’s grotesque and fascinatingly detailed with both fantastical demonic looking aliens, and the fearsome masks and costumes that the Terminators wear that make them look no more truly human. (Mr. O’Neill would go on to have the distinction of being the only artist specifically banned by the Comics Code Authority for having too disturbing a style.)
Though it’s clear which of the sides is worse, it’s a matter of black vs. dark grey. The Termight Empire is self-righteous, and has turned cruelty into a sacrament. It fails to recognize that it’s throwing its own humanity away in its total xenophobia. Comparisons to the worst stereotypes of the Spanish Inquisition are deliberate.
Nemesis likes individual humans, and is at least unlikely to horribly kill you if you don’t actively antagonize him. But he’s okay with killing as many of his enemies as it takes to achieve his goals, and he’s not going to cry over collateral damage. And if you’ve personally angered him, all bets are off. He’s the protagonist, not the hero.
Both sides use the foulest of dark magic, and Credo has internal political problems that sometimes get in the way.
The science fiction with magic setting has inventive moments. The prison planet with its horrific looking but kind jailers is a particularly nice concept.
One major issue with the series, though, is that Torquemada is such a central villain that he can’t permanently be written out. So as many times as he dies or discorporates or is sealed away, Torquemada will be back again and again. This eventually becomes tiresome.
Content note: Lots of lethal violence, often ludicrously gory or involving body horror. Genocide. Torture, execution by various means. Xenophobia. Peril to and death of children. Arachnophobes might want to skip the prison planet story. What little we see of Torquemada’s wife Candida makes it clear that she’s traumatized and is not now a willing partner, if she ever was. (Torquemada himself is oblivious to his effect on her.) While this series was originally written for teenage boys, younger or more sensitive readers might need adult guidance.
This series is a prime example of 2000 A.D.‘s potent combination of extreme violence, dark humor and unusual science fiction settings. It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste–consider reading this one through a library first to see if you like it. Highly recommended if you like 2000 A.D.‘s output in general.
