Review - Nemesis #4 by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Millar gives us the final installment (for now) of his twisted supervillain comic Nemesis.

WARNING: Some Spoilers Ahead

With supercop Blake Morrow believing he's found out the identity of the despicable Nemesis, he closes in. Unfortunately it's just another trap in a long line of traps. Morrow finds himself captured alongside his wife and the President of the United States and forced to choose which one to kill. The reason why he's doing all this? Nemesis provides no in-depth reasons. No big statements. No revenge tale. He’s just rich and bored.

Fed up, the President volunteers his life and ends up as human meat all over Nemesis. A knock-down, kick-out the jams fight ensues between Nemesis and Morrow with Morrow coming out the winner. Or does he? As with each issue of this macabre and dirty tale (sometimes dirty enough to make you want to wash your hands after reading) Millar has a wicked sting in the tail.

The Nemesis saga is far from finished.

 

Unlike the previous three issues there’s actually a bit of meat (not just human) to this issue, which for a climax issue there should be. The story is far-fetched, that’s hardly worth saying, but it is done very well. The time frame and planning of the events in the story would be impossible to carry out successfully, but who cares? We’re on a wild ride, we paid our ticket, so let’s scream till we’re hoarse. As usual McNiven’s artwork is outstanding. There’s not much more I can say than what I already have in previous reviews (#1, #2, #3). His depiction of action and carnage is quite stunning. Only familiar with his previous work on Civil War McNiven has become one of my favourite artists.

I mentioned in my review of Nemesis #1 that the trick would be in how Millar would handle who the reader would be cheering for. In other words who holds the moral centre? Initially it’s family man Morrow but as Nemesis extracts his secrets we find Morrow isn’t as pure as we might believe. In fact he’s really just a fallible man who’s made mistakes albeit one who is very good at his job. Nemesis is the bringer of chaos of almost unstoppable force. His attraction lies is in the pure escapist power fantasy he represents.

Cleverly Millar gives both up and downbeat endings to satisfy both parties. Morrow 'wins' in the sense that he defeats and kills Nemesis and unlike normal superhero comics he’s promised he won't be targeted again. He also wins in the idea that he now values his family over his career (a hard lesson taught by Nemesis). Yet he loses as Nemesis managed to kill him - 'flatline still counts'. Nemesis loses - he's killed, but 'wins' because he did manage to kill Morrow. Ultimately it is Morrow who is the hero as he opts to (finally) choose family over career and good-heartedly deal with the lifelong consequences of Nemesis’ actions against his family. Morrow's conundrum is does he go up against the 'next batch of supervillains' armed with the knowledge he's been given? Or is this just further bait? A little knowledge can be dangerous. Let’s wait and see…

This: Most excellent.

Forthcoming: Don’t know when, but I’m in.