Nemesis The Warlock #3 - Eagle Comics

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK No. 3, November 1984

Featuring some truly formidable-looking extra-terrestrials and a swashbuckling sword fight which would have tested even the silver screen fencing skills of Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn, Issue Three of “Nemesis The Warlock” brings the “revolutionary” freedom fighter’s fiendish infiltration of the Feast of Zamarkland to a corking conclusion with the rescue of numerous aliens through a dimensional portal, and the apparent final demise of Termight’s phantom Grandmaster. In fact, apart from the narrative’s final few panels, which rather hurriedly ‘skip over’ a “badly wounded” Nemesis’ recovery, and the occupation of “the Forbidden Level” as a resistance base, this particular thirty-two page anthology book is arguably definitive; “Ya fooped out! No bar trogging and trugging. Hip for a snip!” 

Admittedly, Pat Mills’ desire for Torquemada to “always [be] the arch villain” does mean that the titular character occasionally takes a bit of a back seat as “the Godfather of British Comics” focuses much of his creative energies upon having Nostradamus’ grandson phase from corpse to corpse in an attempt to become his fire-breathing foe’s “grim reaper!” But these oft-times gruesome body-swaps genuinely help demonstrate that there is simply no sacrilege imaginable which the determined dictator won’t stoop to in order to defeat the Blitzspear’s owner.

Indeed, the Ipswich-born editor’s carousel of different vessels for the evil “waning” spirit to inhabit is probably what makes this storyline such an enthralling read, especially when it’s set against a backdrop of collapsing architecture, splintering statues, and Terminators being mutilated by all sorts of heavily-armed and viciously-toothed aliens. Certainly, this book's contents makes it crystal clear just why readers regularly voted Torquemada as their favourite villain, and “Eagle Comics” decided to ‘spotlight’ the former leader of The Tube Police even further by including his 1984 “2000 A.D.” Annual appearance “A Day In The Death Of Torquemada” within this tome.  

Equally as successful as the comic’s plot, are Kevin O’Neill’s incredibly-detailed breakdowns. These drawings genuinely capture the sheer grandeur of Termight’s structural design, the frenzied brutality of N’Kognito, Kremlin and Ragnar, as well as the bloodthirstiness of Torquemada as he rejoices “at my own destruction”, and it should therefore come as little wonder that in a 2015 interview with “Big Glasgow Comic.com” Pat Mills stated that the English Illustrator was his favourite artist.

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