Review by Ian Keogh

Nemesis is a seemingly infallible villain who schemes in intricate precision, and likes to challenge police chiefs who’ve dropped crime levels in their cities. Notorious throughout Asia, his last project left thousands dead in Tokyo and he’s now turned his attention to Washington, where the crime rate has dropped 60% since Chief Blake Morrow took charge. Additionally Nemesis likes to show off by setting an exact date and time for the occasional specifically targeted death, such as that of a police chief.

The reason so many of Mark Millar’s early series working entirely with his own concepts are so great is the sheer verve with which he joyously applies destruction on an unimaginable scale as if a supervillain himself. An opening chapter showing Nemesis going about his business, which is Steve McNiven’s department, delivers terror and awe along with the question Millar wants readers to ask, which is how on Earth can anyone stop a villain who operates at that level? Of course, switch out the white costume for black and it’s obvious that Nemesis is an evil reflection of Batman, applying his meticulous precision and learning to ending lives rather than saving them. Just like Batman, there’s family wealth and pedigree.

Pedigree applies to McNiven also. He takes Millar’s relatively straightforward plot and inflates it into something unmistakeably cinematic. There’s no pretending any of this could be real, the joke being someone as hands-on as Nemesis only ever taints his immaculately white costume with a smear of blood, but McNiven delivers devastation and violence on an industrial scale. However, as good as the art is, it’s just too clean for what’s going on.

For all the bangs and flashes and the undoubted entertainment to be had, Nemesis doesn’t rank among Millar’s best. Nemesis himself is a little too glib and arch, while Millar often sells his surprises short, leaving readers able to predict when things are going to go wrong. However, with what’s dropped in the final chapter Millar has the last laugh. It’s a bravura revelation and leaves the door open for a sequel.

That never arrived. Although Nemesis proved successful, Millar believed he could improve on the concept and Nemesis Reloaded manifested in 2023.