Books: Nemesis

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Nemesis
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Steve McNiven
2011




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

One of the things about working in a library that nobody tells you about is the long 11-hour days. And the thing it really taxes isn't your body (shock horror: you don't have to be that fit to work in a library) but your brain. Doing those last few hours and it feels like your brain has been swirled round a bag of fuzz.

I was in the middle of re-reading Stray Toasters: but sitting down with a cup of tea and a sandwich and I realised that the abstract wierdness was going to be too much for my poor battered mind to handle: and so - I picked up this instead. Something all you really want is stuff exploding, people spitting out snide one-liners and lots and lots of gratuitous violence. And if that's all you need: then Nemesis knows how to deliver all of that stuff straight into the lizard-part at the back of your brain. But (most importantly) never actually insults your intelligence. It's dumb-smart but not dumb-dumb.

In terms of describing this book - I don't know if I can do much better than the teaser tagline: "What if Batman was the Joker?" It's pretty obvious (from this and his other works) that Mark Millar loves writing bad guys and Nemesis may be his best yet: super-rich, hyper-intelligent and totally insane: committed outrageous acts of evil and chaos seemingly just for the hell of it. Feeling like it was written with pure adrenaline: this is a comic that will shock, thrill and entertain you throughly - all the way to the bitter end.

Mindless - yes - but what's your point? Sometimes that's all you need. 

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Links: Comics Alliance Review, Comic Book Resources Review of #1 / #2 / #3, Primary Ignition Review, Tearoom of Despair Article: Vulgar Distractions.

Further reading: Superior, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Preacher, Wanted, The Ultimates, Ultimate Comics: Avengers.

Profiles: Mark Millar.

All comments welcome.