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tawfek's review
3.0
3.5/5
I think i would have liked it a lot more if it was only Nemesis, and if he actually won at the end of the day.
But the alternative is still good, its good action packed thriller, not sure if i read a mark millar before, but it was a great experience, i sure as hell seen the movies though! they were pretty good.
I was rooting for Nemesis all the way through, never deviated from cheer leading him on lol
But i felt something is wrong when he said i am rich i can do whatever i want to do, we don't lose at this moment, i felt something was off about the character, but then the ending letter explained everything.
I think i would have liked it a lot more if it was only Nemesis, and if he actually won at the end of the day.
But the alternative is still good, its good action packed thriller, not sure if i read a mark millar before, but it was a great experience, i sure as hell seen the movies though! they were pretty good.
I was rooting for Nemesis all the way through, never deviated from cheer leading him on lol
But i felt something is wrong when he said i am rich i can do whatever i want to do, we don't lose at this moment, i felt something was off about the character, but then the ending letter explained everything.
kennisn's review
4.0
This comic is absolutely insane. In a good way mostly. It takes the idea of a super villain and blows it sky high! The only thing I couldn't get on behind were the character's motivations - Nemesis caused utter mayhem and chaos just because he was rich and bored... I don't buy it. I get it when the joker causes havoc because he's crazy and deranged and enjoys it. Other villains are out for revenge/retribution or even trying to improve the world in however sick and twisted manner. But just to do it out of boredom seems lacking. However, once I got over that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Nemesis. It's very fast paced and explosive. The storyline was could have used some meat but the artwork was absolutely gorgeous (and extremely and brutally graphic!). However, I am still unsure about the choice of a white costume. It looks cool when complimented with blood red stains, but it was fairly bland and lacking in texture and hue. Though I get the idea behind the choice in color - toying with themes of purity, innocence, righteousness, etc. If you are a fan of Batman but which that maybe the joker were the rich one you will definitely enjoy Nemesis.
Stray commentary: Is it possible to root for the bad guy? After playing Bio-Shock, I wondered if it were possible to be able to read a comic book and hope the bad guy would win... That was more what I was expecting from Nemesis but I don't think it turned out that way. You ended up cheering for the police chief. Just a thought I had - feel free to comment.
Stray commentary: Is it possible to root for the bad guy? After playing Bio-Shock, I wondered if it were possible to be able to read a comic book and hope the bad guy would win... That was more what I was expecting from Nemesis but I don't think it turned out that way. You ended up cheering for the police chief. Just a thought I had - feel free to comment.
wesleyboy's review
3.0
Fine, I guess. The art is better than the words. Kinda nonsensical, but if you want to see a bunch of violence and muscles you could do worse.
vigneswara_prabhu's review
1.0
Rating 1 out of 5 | Grade: F; Disappointing, Infuriating, Tiresome
Warning for expletives and a whole bunch of cursing. Read at your own peril.
Full Disclosure, the reviewer is a lifelong DC fan, and a hardcore Bat nerd. So, any biases that you may spot are intentional.
When the whole premise of your story can be summed up as 'Batman, but if he was an a**hole', you as a reader can be justified in the sense of apprehension that is building up within you.
And when you finish reading the story and realize that it is just as much of a shit stain that you surmised, you can breathe a sigh of relief at not being prejudiced at a story merely because they alluded to one of your favorite fictional characters in a negative light.
You see, unlike the dark, gritty, gratuitously violent and offensive works of Garth Ennis such as [b:The Boys|1214485|The Boys, Volume 1 The Name of the Game|Garth Ennis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1224646048l/1214485._SY75_.jpg|2642984], which also features a negative portrayal of the Justice league and Batman, Mark Millar's Nemesis is nothing more than a shallow sensationalist cash grab.
As unsavory as some of the things which Garth explores in the Boys is, they have a purpose. In that story, he has laid out a world, where there are superheroes, and unlike the glorified version portrayed in mainstream comics, he shows how beings with such superhuman powers can act, well, like f**king a**holes. And it's believable, how Absolute power corrupts, so Absolute superpowers would corrupt absolutely.
It serves to give us an alternative narrative, as well as holding a mirror to the borderline fetishism that we as readers and fans have towards these characters, with, arguably no accountability for their actions, other than their own moral conscience.
While in this case, Nemesis, doesn't really contribute anything to this school of discussion, other than maybe, 'Uber rich dudes who're bored, engage in homicidal destructive hobbies with human lives at stake'. Which is something that a lot of horror movies have already explored in a much better man. Squid game as a most recent and popular example.
But when the whole hook, line and sinker of your story, is that this A**hole who is your titular character, goes around killing innocent people and cops, all to get some sort of kicks out of it, is lazy and boring as a character motivation.
Coming back to the boys, what makes a villain like homelander so compelling, is not just that he's a psychotic version of Superman, it's also that his sense of entitlement, narcissism combined with the screwed-up upbringing he had, combined with the perpetual high that invincibility grants him, makes the worst part of his already bad personality to manifest in violent and disturbing manner.
Like a child throwing a tantrum when they don't get what he wants. There is a method to his madness.
As opposed to Nemesis, who is shrouded in mystery, and other than doing a whole bunch of stunts and gymnastics, we never get to know what this guy's deal is. What happened in his life, that he became such an a**hole? Or was he this homicidal to begin with.
When you don't have a solid base with which your readers can relate to the characters, even negative ones, the whole story amounts to nothing more than a bunch of lightshow and fireworks, much like the mediocre content that Disney-Marvel seems to pump out these days.
In closing statements, I'm really miffed that I had to close out the final days of 2022 with this heap of garbage, pardon my French, and go read something else.
Warning for expletives and a whole bunch of cursing. Read at your own peril.
Full Disclosure, the reviewer is a lifelong DC fan, and a hardcore Bat nerd. So, any biases that you may spot are intentional.
When the whole premise of your story can be summed up as 'Batman, but if he was an a**hole', you as a reader can be justified in the sense of apprehension that is building up within you.
And when you finish reading the story and realize that it is just as much of a shit stain that you surmised, you can breathe a sigh of relief at not being prejudiced at a story merely because they alluded to one of your favorite fictional characters in a negative light.
You see, unlike the dark, gritty, gratuitously violent and offensive works of Garth Ennis such as [b:The Boys|1214485|The Boys, Volume 1 The Name of the Game|Garth Ennis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1224646048l/1214485._SY75_.jpg|2642984], which also features a negative portrayal of the Justice league and Batman, Mark Millar's Nemesis is nothing more than a shallow sensationalist cash grab.
As unsavory as some of the things which Garth explores in the Boys is, they have a purpose. In that story, he has laid out a world, where there are superheroes, and unlike the glorified version portrayed in mainstream comics, he shows how beings with such superhuman powers can act, well, like f**king a**holes. And it's believable, how Absolute power corrupts, so Absolute superpowers would corrupt absolutely.
It serves to give us an alternative narrative, as well as holding a mirror to the borderline fetishism that we as readers and fans have towards these characters, with, arguably no accountability for their actions, other than their own moral conscience.
While in this case, Nemesis, doesn't really contribute anything to this school of discussion, other than maybe, 'Uber rich dudes who're bored, engage in homicidal destructive hobbies with human lives at stake'. Which is something that a lot of horror movies have already explored in a much better man. Squid game as a most recent and popular example.
But when the whole hook, line and sinker of your story, is that this A**hole who is your titular character, goes around killing innocent people and cops, all to get some sort of kicks out of it, is lazy and boring as a character motivation.
Coming back to the boys, what makes a villain like homelander so compelling, is not just that he's a psychotic version of Superman, it's also that his sense of entitlement, narcissism combined with the screwed-up upbringing he had, combined with the perpetual high that invincibility grants him, makes the worst part of his already bad personality to manifest in violent and disturbing manner.
Like a child throwing a tantrum when they don't get what he wants. There is a method to his madness.
As opposed to Nemesis, who is shrouded in mystery, and other than doing a whole bunch of stunts and gymnastics, we never get to know what this guy's deal is. What happened in his life, that he became such an a**hole? Or was he this homicidal to begin with.
When you don't have a solid base with which your readers can relate to the characters, even negative ones, the whole story amounts to nothing more than a bunch of lightshow and fireworks, much like the mediocre content that Disney-Marvel seems to pump out these days.
In closing statements, I'm really miffed that I had to close out the final days of 2022 with this heap of garbage, pardon my French, and go read something else.
shane_tiernan's review
5.0
This really was amazing. Brutal, suspenseful, creative and the ending was really cool. You could say it was over the top on how perfectly things worked out for the bad guy and how bad ass he was but that only added to the suspense. So many surprises and gut wrenching moments.
Waiting for the movie.
Waiting for the movie.
ebil's review
2.0
The premise is interesting, but the plot, action, and characters all fail to impress. None of the various cartoonishly two-dimensional characters elicit a reaction from the reader or give us a reason to be invested in the story's outcome; maybe the appeal is supposed to be like that of a plotless bloody horror movie, and yet the oh-so-shocking destruction and violence feel rote, procedural, somehow flat. Even as a satire or deconstruction of the excessively-gritty comic story, it fails; satire, too, requires some reason for the reader to care how the story turns out and keep reading. The art is good, so two stars for that, but otherwise you're better off giving this a pass; there are far better villain-centric stories out there.
jekutree's review
1.0
I can’t believe what I just read. I’m not the biggest Mark Millar fan, the only thing I’ve enjoyed by him is Superman Red Son and that’s pretty much it. Old Man Logan and Civil War are both pretty meh (McNiven KILLS the art in those books though) and this is worse than meh.
Millar’s writing and dialogue in this book are downright atrocious. The dialogue took me out of the story multiple times because of how awful it is. There’s a scene where Nemesis takes out guards in a prison and a prisoner in the background says “Fuck AND shit!” Literally who talks like that? I had to put the book down and laugh after reading that and a few other speech bubbles.
A lot of the action set pieces are cool if you turn your brain off. But there are some ridiculous things in this book that made audibly say WTF. The whole part where Nemesis gets the chief to share 3 family secrets might’ve been the pinnacle of everything that’s wrong with this book.
The violence in the book never really bothered me mainly because McNiven is a talented artist. He does a decent job on this book but I found it to be the weakest I’ve seen his art. However, I think that’s because of the coloring which isn’t very good. McNiven’s pencils don’t like well with the flatter colors used for this book.
To be fair, this book made me laugh a good chunk of times and it was fun to read despite there being a significant lack of quality.
I’d give this book a 2/10
EDIT: I forgot about the ending. Actually horrendous ending, it takes away everything that made the book Nemesis. There’s an evil rich guy that ISNT nemesis orchestrating the whole event? What the fuck?
Millar’s writing and dialogue in this book are downright atrocious. The dialogue took me out of the story multiple times because of how awful it is. There’s a scene where Nemesis takes out guards in a prison and a prisoner in the background says “Fuck AND shit!” Literally who talks like that? I had to put the book down and laugh after reading that and a few other speech bubbles.
A lot of the action set pieces are cool if you turn your brain off. But there are some ridiculous things in this book that made audibly say WTF. The whole part where Nemesis gets the chief to share 3 family secrets might’ve been the pinnacle of everything that’s wrong with this book.
The violence in the book never really bothered me mainly because McNiven is a talented artist. He does a decent job on this book but I found it to be the weakest I’ve seen his art. However, I think that’s because of the coloring which isn’t very good. McNiven’s pencils don’t like well with the flatter colors used for this book.
To be fair, this book made me laugh a good chunk of times and it was fun to read despite there being a significant lack of quality.
I’d give this book a 2/10
EDIT: I forgot about the ending. Actually horrendous ending, it takes away everything that made the book Nemesis. There’s an evil rich guy that ISNT nemesis orchestrating the whole event? What the fuck?
deepfreezebatman's review
4.0
It’s nice to see that there are comic writers and artists that still have the balls to go against the grain, take major risks, and create original characters (and be super successful at it!).