Retrospective: Nemesis The Warlock
The legend that is the number one British science fiction comic 2000AD is most famous for bringing the world the iconic figure of Judge Dredd, the grim, merciless lawman of a dystopian mega city. And he continues to be a firm favourite with readers... But, looking back, Dredd was not the character who stirred my imagination the most. That honour goes to an even more exotic champion...
Writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neil's Nemesis The Warlock first appeared in 2000AD in 1980, and even amongst all the other fantastic series there it immediately stood out.
This is the story of a very dark future thousands of years from now in which Earth (now called Termight) is the hub of a sprawling galactic empire which is dedicated to one burning goal: the eradication of all deviants. What is a deviant? Any form of alien life.
The soldiers of this empire, the Terminators, are led by the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada. The resistance to this xenocidal campaign of terror is the organisation Credo, led by the alien hero Nemesis, who battles the oppressors in his dynamic fighter ship the Blitzspear.
The role reversal - alien hero versus evil humans - is a fascinating angle which has not often been explored in most science fiction. Here it is exploited in full; the Terminators are dehumanised monsters who wear hideous metal masks (Torquemada keeps his on even in bed with his poor wife). Modelled on the witch-hunters and Spanish Inquisition of Earth's past, they are engaged in a perpetual crusade throughout space which they fulfil with brutal savagery and ideological fervour.
The Terminators' xenophobia is a compulsory religion. All human citizens are exhorted to "Be pure. Be vigilant. Behave!" should any notion of pity for aliens enter their thoughts. Cruelty to their own kind is just as common, with anyone suspected of blasphemous treachey subjected to medieval torture.
Torquemada is killed by Nemesis, but his spirit survives and animates host bodies as and when required, or sometimes just floating around as a ghastly spectre, becoming progressively less human and more demonic as the story unfolds.
Nemesis himself, despite sporting horns and cloven hooves, is most definitely the good guy. His adventures take him to many different planets where the humans threaten to exterminate the natives, often clashing with Torquemada himself.
It is a blend of the futuristic with the archaic, including many historical and occult references. The tone is also a mixture; gleeful gore and dark humour. The artwork is explosive; the fantastic designs of the warriors, the surreal, nightmarish architecture of Termight, the bizarre aliens and the epic battles all leap off the page. O'Neil contrasts sleek and shiny weapons and ships with the grotty, grungy peasant-like humans: primitive barbarians of the far future. In comparison, many of the aliens are very attractive, not least of them the consort of Nemesis who is a beautiful warrior centaur.
This is a fun-loving joyride that does not take itself at all seriously, yet nevertheless delivers serious messages about hatred and xenophobia. When Nemisis delivers captured Terminators to a prison planet run by intelligent spiders, the soldiers are stripped of their masks. This reveals what they have been hiding behind those masks all along: fear.
In contrast, children born on the idyllic prison planet have no horror of their kind captors and often pet the giant spiders. Fear and hatred of those different to us are learned responses, not natural instincts. Ideologies that paint outsiders as being unclean and unworthy are the root of much conflict and misery.
This is what makes Nemesis The Warlock a cut above, it delivers on all fronts, combining good old-fashioned 2000AD Thrillpower with heartening philosophical and ethical perspectives. The power of the story and artwork and the humour of the delivery balances these sober elements perfectly. War may be eternal, but overcoming the fear that drives the hate is also possible, if you can just believe...
Credo!
NEMESIS THE WARLOCK at 2000AD SHOP
Zak Webber
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