Nemesis marks the third collaboration between writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven after Civil War and Old Man Logan, and posits the question; ‘What if Batman was the Joker?’
The titular character is the lone super villain of his world. He’s got the Dark Knight’s intellect, gadgets and skill but none of the moral qualms. He lives to feed his sense of superiority by targeting high profile police officers and destroying them definitively before actually killing them. After years of targeting Police Chiefs in the Pacific Rim, he turns his sights toward the Police Chief of his hometown of Washington, DC, whom he harbors a grudge against for the role he played in the death of his parents.
Myself, I don’t care much for Mark Millar, but he does come up with plenty of cool concepts and ideas that make up for his short comings. The main one for Nemesis is how it subverts villain popularity in the contemporary blockbuster. While the initial premise seems to be about depiction a villain who is badass beyond words, he more and more grows to appear endlessly pompous and childishly cruel, while boosting our own sympathy for the ‘antagonist’ character of the law enforcing good guy. I didn’t like Kick-Ass at all, but loved the film of it and I hope to see a similar distillation of the content in an adaptation of Nemesis. Nemesis has been picked up by
20th Century Fox with Tony Scott to direct.
Police Chief Blake Morrow is the Police Chief of Washington, D.C.. A devout Catholic, a devoted family man, a national celebrity hailed as an innovator of modern policing and a prime candidate for the position of Secretary of Homeland Security.
Being modeled after Commissioner Gordon of the Batman mythos, it is only proper that Quaid, who almost played Gordon in Nolan’s Batman franchise before Gary Oldman was cast.
Peggy Morrow is the Police Chief’s wife who becomes embroiled in his war with Nemesis.
Sgt. Stuart Lee is the Police Chief’s right hand man and adjutant in his war against Nemesis.
Howard Anderson a kind and saintly billionaire philanthropist and white sheep of the Anderson family. He tried to guide a young Mathew Anderson toward a good life, but it was too late by then.
The President of the United States’s abduction at the hands of Nemesis serves as his means of making his presence known in a most dramatic fashion.
Nemesis was once Matthew Anderson, the son of a wealthy, high society couple who ran a hunting club for their friends featuring teenage runaways as their choice of game. When then Detective Morrow managed to uncover their criminal conspiracy, it led to the blossoming of his career, the suicide of Mr. Anderson and the execution of Mrs. Anderson. Young Matthew Anderson was then remanded to his Uncle Howard’s custody, but his soul was already corrupted by then. He traveled the world and learned the skills it took to become the world’s first supervillain.
Bailey is best knows for playing Ivy Leaguer turned Paratrooper David Webster on HBO’s
Band of Brothers. He retains a low profile, which serves the character of nemesis a great deal, as the story is ultimately about Morrow. Quite appropriately, he was in the running to play Bruce Wayne before Christian Bale was cast.
The Man with No Description is a man I can’t describe for fear of spoiling the book for those who haven’t read it.