| Character: | Nemesis the Warlock |
| Debut: | 2000 AD No. 167 |
| Debutmo: | July |
| Debutyr: | 1980 |
| Alliances: | Credo, the Cabal |
| Powers: | Extensive magical powers, powerful psionic, alien anatomy |
| Schedule: | Weekly |
| Scifi: | y |
| Publisher: | IPC Media |
| Startmo: | July |
| Startyr: | 1980 |
| Endmo: | December |
| Endyr: | 1999 |
| Writers: | Pat Mills |
| Nonus: | y |
| Tpb: | The Complete Nemesis the Warlock |
| Isbn: | 1-905437-11-0 |
| Subcat: | 2000 AD |
| Sort: | Nemesis the Warlock |
| Charsort: | Nemesis the Warlock |
Nemesis the Warlock is a comic series created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the British weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant future, and his attempts to exterminate all alien life.
The series began in 1980, in prog 167 of 2000 AD, with a story called Comic Rock "The Terror Tube", in which a freedom fighter called Nemesis escaped from Torquemada, the chief of the Tube Police, after a protracted chase through a complex travel-tube system on a planet called Termight, later revealed to be Earth ("Mighty Terra"). All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his streamlined organic spaceship, the Blitzspear. In "Terror Tube" the police were portrayed as a cross between the Spanish Inquisition (Torquemada is named after the notorious inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada) and the Ku Klux Klan (or from Spanish Easter penitents), making it easier to position them as the villains.
"Terror Tube" was the first of a planned series of one-offs inspired by popular music, called "Comic Rock" – in this case The Jam's "Going Underground". The series never got going, but did produce a second Nemesis story, a two-parter called "Killer Watt", in which Torquemada chased Nemesis through a bizarre teleport system based on telephone lines.
These stories proved popular, prompting Mills and O'Neill to develop a regular series, Nemesis the Warlock, which combined the early high-concept science fiction with fantasy in the "sword and sorcery" mould.[1] Torquemada was promoted from chief of the Tube Police to Grand Master of Termight. Nemesis was revealed as a demonic alien with a horned dragon-like head based on the finned nose of his Blitzspear, fighting to protect aliens from Torquemada's genocidal tyranny, although his inhuman attitude and anarchic "Khaos" philosophy gave him an ambiguous morality; for example, in Book Five, "The Vengeance of Thoth", Nemesis is forced to hijack a bus full of children, which he then deliberately crashes, killing all on board as he escapes.
Book Nine concluded in 1989, and the character barely appeared for ten years. Finally, in 1999, Mills and artists Henry Flint and O'Neill wrapped up the series with Book Ten: The Final Conflict, and an epilogue of sorts, Deadlock, which explored the political state of Termight in the aftermath of Nemesis' and Torquemada's deaths.
O'Neill's imaginative, grotesque art helped to establish the popularity of the series, but the efforts he put into creating it led to a low rate of productivity. There were a number of delays in the publication of Book One, and a second book was drawn by Jesus Redondo. This and the higher rates of pay available in America led O'Neill to leave the series prior to Book Four - although a handful of episodes he had drawn just after "Killer Watt" introduced the fourth book. O'Neill was replaced by Bryan Talbot. Other artists to draw the series include John Hicklenton, David Roach, Clint Langley and Henry Flint. O'Neill returned to the strip to illustrate its intended last-ever episode and later for a special anniversary story.
Warlocks are a sexually dimorphic species of aliens who are capable of sorcery. Both males and females are horned, fire-breathing and of demonic appearance; females have a centaur-like quadrupedal morphology while males are bipedal but have unusual combination plantigrade / digitigrade leg joints, somewhat resembling satyrs.
Most of the saga was told in 'books' of between 9 and 20 episodes, with additional stories told in one-offs, which appeared in annuals, specials, or in the weekly comic.There are a number of collections of the original instalments available, which roughly follow the books as they were originally published. The earlier books were not given individual titles upon their original publication.
| Book number | Title | Progs | Artist(s) | Summary | Collected editions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan (1980s) | Complete (2007) | |||||
| 1 | The World of Termight | 222 - 233, 238 - 240, 243 - 244 | Kevin O'Neill | Nemesis had previously appeared in the stories "Terror Tube" (prog 167), "Killer Watt" (progs 178 - 179) and "Olric's Great Quest" aka "The Sword Sinister" (Sci-Fi Special 1981). | Book 1 | Volume 1 |
| 2 | The Alien Alliance | 246 - 257 | Jesus Redondo | Takes the war to a variety of planets throughout the galaxy and features a plot by Torquemada to destroy the alien resistance. | Not reprinted | |
| 3 | The World of Nemesis | 335 - 349 | Kevin O'Neill | Features Chira, Nemesis' mate and the birth of Thoth, son of Nemesis. Chira is killed by imperial assassins and Thoth is adopted by Sir Hargan, his mother's killer. | Book 2 | |
| 4 | The Gothic Empire | 387 - 406 | Kevin O'Neill (first two episodes), Bryan Talbot | Originally intended to be the first full-length Nemesis story, other stories were written as an introduction to the character and his world(s), ballooning into the preceding three books. Torquemada is killed at the end of this book. Thoth, growing in power, is still in the 'care' of Sir Hargan and his wife. | Book 3 | |
| 5 | The Vengeance of Thoth | 435 - 445 | Bryan Talbot | Starting ten years after the end of Book Four, an earlier version of Torquemada is brought through time by Thoth, so that he can punish his mother's murderer. Nemesis ends up causing the deaths of Barbarossa de Torquemada and Pandora de Torquemada; offspring of Candida & Tomas. Satanus re-appears. | Book 4 | Volume 2 |
| 6 | Torquemurder! | 482 - 487, 500 - 504 | Bryan Talbot | The introduction of the Monad. This book also gives the explanation for Torquemada's "grandfather" Nostradamus' words in the previous book about Termight ending in "a sea of fire and blood". | Book 5 | |
| Torquemada the God | 520 - 524 | Kevin O'Neill | A five-part story not run under the Nemesis banner. Torquemada consolidates his power on Terra, but is affected by a curious malady, which is eventually revealed to be a plot by Thoth to punish Tomas further, by killing his former incarnations. | Book 6 | ||
| 7 | The Two Torquemadas | 546 - 557 | John Hicklenton | Nemesis and Purity go back in time to 15th-century Spain to retrieve Thoth. Torquemada goes back in time to kill Thoth and prevent his degradation. Tomas de Torquemada meets his namesake. | Book 7 | |
| 8 | Purity's Story | 558 - 566 | David Roach | During an interlude Purity recalls how she first met Nemesis, remembering details that had previously been blocked from her. | Book 8 | Volume 3 |
| 9 | Deathbringer | 586 - 593, 605 - 608 | John Hicklenton | Tomas escapes the time wastes into 1980s Britain, leaking time radiation as he does so. Subsequent side effects of the radiation leak create upheaval, and Tomas seizes on this to become variously a slum landlord and chief of police. | Book 9 | |
| 10 | The Final Conflict | 1165 - 1173 and Prog 2000 | Henry Flint (all except for last episode), Kevin O'Neill | The last series-length Nemesis story, after more than a decade of appearing only in shorter episodes, as well as "The Hammer of Warlocks", an 18-page series intended as a prelude to this book, telling the story so far and Torquemada's intentions of finding this ultimate weapon against the Warlock. The series ends with Nemesis and Torquemada both destroyed, yet occasionally haunting Earth in spectral forms, tied to the Warlock's "Blitzspear". Purity Brown takes over as leader (president) of Termight, renaming it Terra. | n/a | |
a. This Prog 2000 was a special edition outside the comic's normal numbering scheme released to mark the year 2000. Another issue numbered 2000 was published within the comic's normal numbering scheme in 2016.
The series Deadlock, by Pat Mills and Henry Flint, was a direct sequel to Nemesis. Prog 2000 (20 September 2016) featured a follow-up Nemesis story (written by Mills and once more drawn by O'Neill) 'Tubular Hells' which reversed the destruction of Nemesis but it has to this point not led to further exploration of the character.
The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks, including:
Nemesis the Warlock
The Death of Torquemada was released as a game made for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. The C64 version of this game was made by Martech in 1987, programmer Michael J. Archer, musician Rob Hubbard
The video for Shriekback's 1985 single "Nemesis" from the album Oil & Gold features Nemesis the Warlock.[2]
Wizkids / NECA have released three figures of Nemesis the Warlock as part of their Heroclix collectable miniatures game (Rookie, Experienced and Veteran versions). These were only released in the United Kingdom, alongside other 2000AD related figures, as part of the "Indy" expansion to the game. This led to something of an outcry from the American fans of both the game and the character, and this style of "regional" figure-release was not continued in later sets of Heroclix.