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“Nemesis makes Kick-Ass look like ****!” That’s a hell of a marketing campaign for Mark Millers’s new book and follow-up to Kick-Ass. Essentially, Nemesis is a story that asks the question “What if Batman was the Joker?” That sound’s pretty cool to me. Most people who know me know that I’m no fan of Batman. I think the majority of his Rogues Gallery is pretty cool, but on the hero side of things, Batman doesn’t rank very high on my list. That’s not to say that I think he’s a stupid character, I just feel that there are some things missing in his character that keep me from enjoying his adventures… And to clarify, I’m speaking on Bruce Wayne, not Dick Grayson. But this conversation is for another time. What I want to focus on here, is why this type of “Batman” is interesting to me.

To begin, let me state that this isn’t actually a Batman book. Nemesis is a product of Icon, an imprint of Marvel, that deals with a very bored and very smart billionaire who just happens to be a douche. The idea is that this villain goes around terrorizing cops for fun. He picks a very prominent “best of the best” type of cop and makes there life a living hell for a year, then he kills them. It starts with the delivery of a funeral wreath that has a future date and time of the cop’s death. Then… When that day and time comes, the cop is dead. The villain keeps his promise, then he moves on to his next target. The starting point for the bulk of the Nemesis story deals with the villain dispatching a big-time Japanese officer and moving on to America to do his “battle of the wits” with what is essentially Commissioner Gordon. This cop character is described as a young Clint Eastwood type. In the pencils that I’ve seen of the cop, he looks to be a mix between Gordon and Dirty Harry. He’s a good cop, and it would seem that he tends to get the job done. And I would imagine that he keeps the collateral damage down to a minimum.

Up until last week, the names of the main characters, Nemesis and the cop, were left up to the public to decide. Just like how Kick-Ass’ alter-ego was named, Dave Lizewski, through the efforts of a charity auction for a school for handicapped children, another auction was held to name the new villain and hero. $16,900 was raised in this current auction, and as a result, the cop’s name is Blake Morrow. I’ve gotta be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of that name, but in the name of a good cause, I’ll not whine. As for the alter-ego of Nemesis? That’s still being kept a secret. Which is going with the in-comics perspective of not immediately knowing who Nemesis is. Which, I’ve just realized that I have yet to really give a good description of who or what this character is. As you may have noticed, Nemesis is the anti-Batman in just about every way, save for superpowers. Keeping in line with Kick-Ass, there are no super powers here. Nemesis is dressed in all white, a very sleek looking costume with no kind of armor or design. The only thing his costume has in common with Batman’s is that he has a cape. Nemesis also uses guns. Let’s hope that Nemesis gets better results than Batman when he uses a gun*.

Nemesis also seems to be a complete psychopath. The first few pictures of the character that I saw were of him drenched in blood. It’s a good thing he’s a billionaire, because his dry cleaning must cost a fortune. lol. But seriously, This is one of the coolest designs for a character that I’ve seen in quite some time. Steve McNiven has done an excellent job in the design of this character and I look forward to seeing where his art will take us in this new book. So please, keep an eye out for this book on March 3rd. The only other thing that I would ask of this comic is that maybe Hollywood could leave the property alone long enough for a few issues to come out. Kick-Ass took a really long time to finish it’s run. 8 issues in 2 years isn’t something that I’d want to see happen with this book. The Kick-Ass movie really took a toll on the release dates for its own comic. No one wants to go through that again… But other than that, I can’t wait for Nemesis.

* In DC’s Final Crisis, Batman breaks his “No Guns” rule in an attempt to kill Darkseid with some sort of God bullet. While Batman succeeds in wounding Darkseid, it is at the cost of his life, as he was hit with Darkseid’s Omega Sanction attack. Although, if Batman had just stayed in the shadows (like any other time) and fired the gun, his skull probably wouldn’t be in a constant state of being licked by Black Hand…

-Fleet

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