Nemesis The Warlock #1 - Eagle Comics

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK No. 1, September 1984

The second of “Eagle Comics” thirty-two page Baxter titles, Issue One of “Nemesis The Warlock” not only colourfully delivers the extra-terrestrial freedom fighter’s prologue adventure entitled “The Terror Tune”, but also follows the rise of the “fire-breathing demonic alien” as he momentarily defeats the then Chief of the Tube Police, Torquemada, in the two-parter, “Killer Watt”. These bizarre tales, based upon Pat Mills’ premise that Mighty Terra’s teleport system utilises telephone lines and phenomenally drawn by Kevin O’Neill, really help bring the leader of “the underground resistance organisation sworn to destroy the tyranny of Termight” to life, and additionally provide plenty of opportunities for the “primary antagonist of the series” to show just how evil he is.

Indeed, in many ways the Ipswich-born writer’s early storylines seem to provide the “haughty tyrant” with far more ‘screen time’ than the “fiend from Hell”, and arguably delights in depicting the “fascist human supremacist” both consigning a young mother and her doting infant to being eaten alive by a Concord-like living machine, as well as later ordering “thousands of innocent travellers” to be fatally electrocuted on “a mere technicality!” Such chilling insights into the character's zeal for victory are disconcertingly enthralling, and strongly show just why "the godfather of British comics" would go on to develop a regular series of adventures featuring “The Grand Master Of The Terminators”, after his initial plans for some “one-offs inspired by popular music called Comic Rock” never got going. 

Ultimately however, this publication’s content does eventually steer away from the exploits of Torquemada, and the likes of Brother Behell’s murderous inquisition on the planet Thrum, by fully focusing upon Nemesis bravely battling against the forces of Termight singlehandedly. In fact, by the time this first in “a seven-issue Necro-series” concludes, and the cloven hooved creature has caused a butcher to chop his own hand off, had a robotsmith strangled by “the most dangerous snakes on this planet", and ensured an elderly widow has been smothered by flies, it is abundantly clear just why the horn-headed sorcerer would go on to be “one of England’s most popular and certainly weirdest science-fiction” comic book characters.

Script: Pat Mills, Artist: Kev O'Neill, and Colors: Kev O'Neill