Mark Mllar has become a comic writer superstar with runs on Ulitmate X-Men, The Ultimates, and Civil War. He’s also become synonymous with comic ultraviolence on the titles The Authority, Wanted, and Kick-Ass. This ultraviolence has arguably reached a peak that’s hard to top in his creator-owned title (with artist Steve McNiven) Nemesis which debuted in May 2010 and completed a four issue story arc in February 2011.
Nemesis is an extremely violent super-criminal who dresses in a completely white suit, cape and cowl. After terrorising and killing law officials in Korea, Singapore, and Japan, he turns his attention to America and supercop Blake Morrow who aspires to be head of America’s Homeland Security. Nemesis’s intentions are clear in sending Morrow a card which states precisely when Morrow will die by his hands – ‘March 12th at midnight Flatline still counts’. Nemesis’s first terrorist action in America is to hijack AirForce One and take the U.S. President hostage. He then kidnaps Morrow’s children and threatens to kill them unless Morrow reveals his three “dirty little secrets”. These secrets are Morrow’s wife had an affair with Morrow’s police partner because he was an inattentive husband and poor lover; his teenage son hid his homosexuality from him; and his daughter hid an abortion she had from him. Morrow reveals his secrets but while Nemesis keeps to his promise of not killing the children he instead artificially inseminates the daughter with the homosexual son’s sperm, and booby traps the daughter’s womb so a termination is impossible.
Rich and BoredWhy does Nemesis conduct his reign of terror? What is his driving force? The Nemesis narrative provides two reasons for Nemesis’s violent actions. Initially Nemesis says he targets people who are vain. This simple explanation doesn’t hold water and, like the majority of Nemesis’s explanations, is a lie. In his crisp white suit and magnificently muscled body, Nemesis is the epitome of vanity. Indeed the catch-cry on the cover of issue two: ‘Crime is awesome and so am I’ backs this claim. Later when pushed by Morrow for an explanation of his actions, Nemesis reveals, ‘I’m rich and I’m bored. What else do you need to know?’ (Millar 2011 8). It’s my contention that Nemesis’s actions are the result of a condition called anomie. This anomie drives Nemesis’s desire for an obscene and excessive self-obliteration; an egoistic suicide. Why else would he proclaim on the cover of issue four: ‘Shoot straight @*%hole!’? Witness also the array of dangerous situations he puts himself in – jumping onto an airborne aeroplane; allowing himself to be imprisoned and then escaping by fighting nearly 100 prison guards. Investigating why being rich and bored is the reason behind Nemesis’s actions begins with an understanding of anomie and how it relates to suicide.
For sociologist Emile Durkheim, society constrains individuals through integration (being attached to socially given purposes and ideals) and regulation (moderating potentially infinite desires and aspirations) (Taylor 11). These moral rules and constraints are tantamount to an imaginary wall around an individual containing their passions. When passions are contained or limited they can be satisfied. ‘Anomie’ which Durkheim he calls a ‘malady of infiniteness’, occurs
when the moral system... is shaken, and fails to respond to new conditions of human life, without any new system having yet been formed to replace that which has disappeared’ (Durkheim 174).Essentially there is a breakdown, a mismatch, of social and moral norms. That is, society’s integration and regulation is weak or missing, leaving individuals with a feeling of a lack of guiding principles in their lives. When a society’s moral boundaries are weakened leaving the individual less constrained or lacking in social norms, values or ideals, the individual’s desires and wants are no longer kept in check. Weakened or non-existent barriers permit the individual to ‘devote themselves, without hope of satisfaction, to the pursuit of an end that always eludes them’ (Durkheim 173). An individual’s desires thus become limitless and unable to be satisfied. An example is the accumulation of wealth – ‘it is possible that the more wealth he accumulates, the more dissatisfied he becomes, because the horizon of his ambitions expands’ (Giddens 15). I would argue this is the precise predicament in which Nemesis has found himself. Nemesis is extremely, even obscenely, wealthy. Evidence of this is all the cars he gives to prison inmates on escape from incarceration, the huge mound of drugs he offers his henchmen, and his secret high-tech lair. He doesn’t commit crime for money, he commits crime because he has money. As Durkheim describes ‘it is because morality has the function of limiting and containing that too much wealth so easily becomes a source of immorality. Through the power wealth confers on us, it actually diminishes the power of things to oppose us’ (173). Nemesis’s horizons have become limitless due to his wealth his wants and desires are unable to be satisfied. As the quote suggests, because of his wealth Nemesis has nothing and no-one to oppose him. He may be rich and bored, but he’s bored because he’s rich.
Egoistic Behaviour, Anomie, and Suicide
Durkheim positioned anomie as explaining four kinds of suicide – egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic. Egoistic suicide results when the individual has become detached from his community leading to an excess of individualism and this is strongly depicted in Nemesis. But you may well exclaim, “Nemesis doesn’t commit suicide! Morrow kills him!” True, but this is ‘Suicide by Cop’. Suicide by Cop describes an ‘incident whereby the suicidal subject engages in a consciously, life-threatening behaviour to the degree that it compels a police officer to respond with deadly force' (Stincelli).
Durkheim states that “Man is the more vulnerable to self-destruction the more he is detached from any collectivity, that is to say, the more he lives as an egoist” (Durkheim 113). Egoists are more likely to commit suicide because ‘they think primarily of their own interests and desires and are not sufficiently integrated into social groups around them’ (Taylor 14). The characteristics of ‘egoistic’ or ‘excessive individualism’ are ‘hedonistic self-fulfilment instead of social solidarity; ruthless pursuit of one’s own interests while using others as a mere “means” in strategic actions’ (Mesner, Thome and Rosenfeld 172). Nemesis exhibits all the traits of an egoist. His wealth is the source of his anomie and seen him become detached from society. He has no social bonds to keep him in check– no partner (sexual or otherwise) –and no family. He doesn’t even have a permanent “gang”, employing new henchmen in every city and then murdering them once he’s finished.
So how does Nemesis go about achieving his desire of an excessive self-obliteration? Well, Nemesis isn’t the criminal terrorist mastermind we’ve been led to believe. In a neat piece of outsourcing Nemesis buys the role of super-criminal in an elaborately designed real-life roleplaying game. Buying and “acting out” the role of super-criminal is an instance of egoistic behaviour, a ruthless pursuit of his own interests to allay his boredom. Not only is he rich and bored but he’s also devoid of ideas paying a secret organisation that has created the Nemesis super-criminal persona and meticulously planned the campaign of terror, all years in advance. As the letter which Morrow receives at the end of the story states: ‘I run a business, you see, where the rich and the bored can savor adventure for a few short weeks of every year’ (Millar 2011 6). The whole thing resembles an adventure holiday. Graham Dann writes–
related to anomie, the fantasy world of travel seeks to overcome the humdrum, the normlessness and meaninglessness of life, with more satisfying experiences. As regards ego-enhancement, travel presents the tourist with the opportunity to boost his ego in acting out an alien personality (188).But this isn’t any holiday–it’s a holiday from himself (whoever that was before becoming Nemesis), acting out the alien super-criminal personality, which like a pre-rolled roleplaying game character, was ready to go!
However, being a super-criminal in an elaborate game is a waste of time if you have no-one to play with. Playing a game involves a goal: to win. Without competition there can be no definitive “winner”. Nemesis must have an opponent. Luckily the organisation Nemesis has paid has also handpicked his target/opponent, and that someone is Blake Morrow. Nemesis has no grudge (except spurious, invented ones for the game) against Morrow. He’s simply someone to ‘play’ with, in an elaborate, high-stakes game.[i]
The question then must be asked – if it’s all a game, what constitutes Nemesis winning? On the surface it would appear the killing of Morrow would be the answer, but I am arguing that as a sufferer of anomie, his own death constitutes him winning. The card Nemesis sends to Morrow reads, ‘flatline still counts’. This short statement constitutes a “rule” of the game, a technicality that means ultimately it doesn’t matter if Morrow doesn’t remain dead. That Morrow dies and is resuscitated, means Nemesis still “wins” the game for which he’s paid. On the other hand because Nemesis’s real goal is pursuing an egoistic suicide, if he is killed, he also wins. When Nemesis states: ‘I’ve beaten all of my opponents...’ (Millar 2011 7) this in fact means his suicide attempt has been “defeated”. In issue four Nemesis proclaims –‘I’m too rich to fail. Don’t you understand? People like me never lose!’ (Millar 2011 16) Why? Because either way his underlying desire to die will be achieved. He’s too rich to fail because even if Nemesis had killed Morrow and survived we can safely assume he would continue his reign of terror against another hand-picked opponent, and this would continue until he was killed. Standing trial and incarceration is not an option considering the scale of carnage he has caused. However, the more he “wins” the more he loses. With limitless horizons, Nemesis is unlikely to retire, so like in his rich and bored life, his anomie can’t be excised by killing an ongoing succession of opponents, whoever they may be. If Nemesis keeps “winning” this twisted game can only regress to the level of everything else in his life–a bore. His excessive individualism due to wealth means the only limit, the only goal left, is excessive self-obliteration: death. In death Nemesis is finally “cured” of his anomie, making him eternally happy, evidenced by his grinning “death mask”. Before this he only exhibits the pretence of happiness as shown by his smearing of a massive red grin over his mouth and cheeks. Why doesn’t Nemesis just let himself be shot? The game gives his death meaning. He will be remembered. In the end he has bought himself a legacy.
So why at this particular time does Nemesis decide it’s time to go? The answer lies in the unknown mastermind’s letter to Morrow explaining: ‘my client-list has been growing healthily even in the current financial crisis’ (Millar 2011 23). This is because ‘economic booms or depressions undercut the predictable material goals from which individuals would ordinarily derive satisfaction’ (Orcutt). Thus in times of economic crises the prevalence of anomie increases and suicide rates rise (Taylor 15). In fact it is because of the financial crisis that the client list has been growing. To a different degree Nemesis’s rampage has also taught Morrow to have limits. Morrow’s family has suffered due to his constant desire for “more”; placing career before his family. By the end of the story he no longer seeks to be the head of Homeland Security and is contented being a father and grandfather. In an ironic twist Nemesis has saved Morrow from anomie.
In conclusion, Nemesis’s excessive wealth has seen him lose sight of any horizon, any goal, and become dissatisfied suffering from anomie. His desires become limitless and thus can never be satisfied. The result of his pursuit of excessive wealth is a detachment from society, and thus Nemesis suffers from an excess of individualism. This leads him down the path of committing egoistic suicide which he achieves by buying the Nemesis character in an elaborately planned “game”. Nemesis’s personal goal is death which ultimately, is the only thing which can “cure” his anomie and make him happy.
Reference
Dann, Graham. “Anomie, Ego-enhancement, and Fantasy.” Annals of Tourism Research 4.4 (1977): 184-94.
Durkheim, Emile. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings. Ed. Anthony Giddens. Trans. Anthony Giddens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Giddens, Anthony. “Introduction.” Durkheim, Emile. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings. Ed. Anthony Giddens. Trans. Anthony Giddens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Mesner, Steven F., Helmut Thome and Richard Rosenfeld. “Institutions, Anomie, and Violent Crime: Clarifying and Elaborating Institutional-Anomie Theory.” International Journal of Conflict and Violence 2.2 (2008): 163-181.
Millar, Mark (w) and McNiven, Steve (art). Nemesis. Vol. 1 #4 (Feb 2011). New York: Marvel Worldwide, 2011.
—. Nemesis. Vol. 1 #1 (May 2010). New York: Marvel Worldwide, 2010.
Orcutt, James D. “The Anomie Tradition: Explaining Rates of Deviant Behavior.” <http://deviance.socprobs.net/Unit_3/Theory/Anomie.htm>.
Stincelli, Rebecca. “Suicide by Cop Defined.” 2008. Suicide by Cop: Victims from Both Sides of the Badge. <http://www.suicidebycop.com/7922.html>.
Taylor, Steve. Durkheim and the Study of Suicide. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1982.
Footnotes
[i] Supporting that the whole thing is a kind of game is shown in issue one where Nemesis is introduced as ‘Player one’ and Morrow as ‘Player two’.
[i] Supporting that the whole thing is a kind of game is shown in issue one where Nemesis is introduced as ‘Player one’ and Morrow as ‘Player two’.
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