Nemesis

Millar and McViven’s Nemesis is based around the realisation that, actually, being the bad guy has a not-so-subtle attraction. Good guys? They have morals and qualms. Bad guys have none of these things. They blow things up and maim and kill people in spectacular fashion, which is much more enjoyable in a trash aesthetic sort of way.

Collecting the first four issues, this tells the story of Blake Morrow, an outwardly moralistic, ambitious, and highly regarded cop who has been targeted by Nemesis, a costumed villain who makes a hobby out of killing cops just like him. Along the way, Morrow and his family face a number of ordeals that reveal they are not the perfect, close-knit unit the media depicts them to be. There’s also a huge amount of violence and blackly scathing humour.

This is done with pleasing amounts of inventiveness and relies on the shock appeal that Millar, along with other like-minded comics writers of his generation (Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis) have made their stock in trade. Take a familiar situation (cop vs. baddy), pump it up to the max with gore filled action scenes, enjoyably degrading situations and throw in a few unexpected twists along the way.

It’s told with absolute clarity throughout. Millar knows what he wants to say, and how to say it, as does Steve McNiven, who contributes stripped back art that straddles a divide between photo real and a style reminiscent of European comics art. It’s told in a very cinematic fashion, almost like a series of storyboards, and it’s no surprise to learn that the comic has been optioned to adapt into a film.

Substance-wise, this may seem as light as air. Beneath the violence and the shock values, there is a serious undertone here, which is all about moral choices and how they impact on your life, and the lives of those around you. There’s a teasing anti-Catholic rhetoric that, by the end, may not be as anti-Catholic as you might imagine. Ironically, after the trauma he and his family have endured, Morrow emerges a better person, his family stronger for having their secrets flushed out. Yes, Millar can have his cake and eat it.

This comic wasn’t well-received when it first came out: Miller had fallen into self-parody, it was said. It was shock for the sake of shock. The art was overly minimal. It’s nothing of the kind. This is a fine, well-executed comic that won’t change the world, but which is told with wit and intelligence, and which is well worth reading.