2000 AD: The Ultimate Collection #22. Originally serialised in 2000 AD Progs 700, 723-729, 901-903, 1165-1173, 1212-1222 and 2000, 2000 AD Annual Prog 2000, 2000 AD Annuals 1984 & 1988, 2000 AD Poster Prog Nemesis 1 & 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1987.
It’s August 1994. “The one who waits on the edge of your dreams… Nemesis!” So we reach the end of one of 2000 AD‘s must out-there and alienating series to date. The final Nemesis the Warlock collection ends up being a bit of a strange grab-bag, including both the final couple of ongoing stories before devoting the remainder of the page count to specials, spin-offs and other curios. It’s a strangely fitting final Volume for a series that has been so expansive and insane.
All in all, it’s been quite a while since Volume Three. The series lay fallow after Deathbringer (1988), with only a bunch of one-off specials or spin-offs keeping things going (these are collected in this and the previous Volume). Hammer of Warlocks (1994) keeps things ticking over with three episodes devoted mainly to reminding everyone what the hell is going on with the ongoing story (which made it very welcome to me!). It also provides some moody and atmospheric painted art from Clint Langley, demonstrating that not even Nemesis was immune to the influence of Simon Bisley’s work on The Horned God (1989).
It’s another full five five years before we get to the end of the epic saga with Book X: The Final Conflict (1999). It’s a strange feeling coming to the end of this story, that has sprawled out from the far-future of the Earth to alien worlds, the Spanish Inquisition and an alternative 1980s Earth. Writer Pat Mills makes the very writerly decision to bring everything back to the beginning, with a stronger focus on Termight, the travel tubes and a much simpler Nemesis vs. Torquemada plot. Parts of this do feel a bit obvious and unsurprising, which is certainly unusual for Mills, who usually determinedly goes in strange directions. The final ending itself, as the two main characters are merged together in an endless and eternal loop around the Earth, is somehow both thematically appropriate and a little disappointing when it’s actually present to us.
But I’m being unfair, as there’s still plenty of good individual moments and approaches here that make this great stuff. It’s nice to finally see Purity taking the lead as a character, even if that obviously can’t last. The trial of Torquemada is utterly hilarious, as members of the jury (and even the Judge!) suffer a series of unfortunate “accidents”. The battle scenes, while hardly unique in terms of this series, are suitably epic as Torquemada uses the Malleus Mallificarum, the Hammer of Warlocks, to even the scales between himself and the demonic Nemesis.
My favourite part of this finale might be the new artist, Henry Flint. I think this is his first major work for the Prog in terms of this blog, but I’ve already seen a lot of his later Dredd work and been impressed. He’s great with Nemesis, as his scratchy linework was already a fairly good fit with quintessential Nemesis artist Kevin O’Neill. It’s amazing this is so early on in Flint’s career, as it’s already so confident and assured. Flint is pretty hard on himself in the behind-the-scenes interview as trying too hard to mimic O’Neill’s style, but I think this is unfair. As Nemesis‘s last bow, it would have been too jarring to have a massively different drawing style than we’ve had before – and the work is definitely more homage to me than direct copy. Interestingly, O’Neill does come back to draw the very final episode which is a nice touch. He’s continued to move away from his more detailed style and is much looser, and (possibly sacrilegiously) I actually prefer Flint’s work in the story.
So it’s a complete (maybe a little too complete?) ending for this saga, but Pat Mills found some time tell more stories in this sprawling universe that includes many of his other creations. The story technically continues (and ends again) in the celebratory 2000th issue of 2000 AD with Tubular Hells (2016), which reunites Mills and O’Neill again. This one is pretty odd and mostly serves to undo the bleaker end of The Final Conflict to deliver a clearer defeat to Torquemada (a very strange choice), but as a one-off celebration it’s fine. (There is some great comedy – Nemesis defiling Torquemada’s Crown Jewels is both hilarious and perfect for both characters.)
The real continuation is in the much-more-interesting Deadlock (2000), which sees the titular ABC Warrior running around a post-Torquemada Termight and causing lots of headaches for President Purity Brown. Flint is back to provide the art, which helps to solidify this as a direct continuation of the Nemesis story. Mills embraces the complicated aftermath of the end of a tyrant’s rule as Purity ends up having to make a lot of compromises to keep order – setting her up against Deadlock and his alliance with Khaos. There’s a lot here that’s really great, although I wish Mills had given Purity centre-stage rather than a Nemesis-a-like with Deadlock. I’m surprised there wasn’t more of this story as I found it a complex take on the insanity that Mills had created with this universe.
The rest of the collection features stuff that’s much more in the miscellaneous category, all set before The Final Conflict while Mills was stalling for time. Nemesis and Deadlock team up for Warlocks & Wizards (1990) and The Enigmass Variations (1991). It’s basically an excuse for these two characters to banter away at each other while Carl Critchlow provides some more atmospheric painted art. They’re OK and fairly entertaining, but feel very 90s now (the techno mage babbling on about laptops and hard drives is hilarious today).
The rest are all one-shots from different points in the series’s publication history. A Day in the Death of Torquemada (1983) feels like a very last-minute creation with basically zero plot; The Tomb of Torquemada (1984) leans more heavily on comedy with Torquemada’s struggles with the cost-cutting builder of his mausoleum, and some knowing jokes about yet another battle to the death with Nemesis; Torquemada’s Second Honeymoon (1987) piles yet more suffering upon Candida; and Forbidden Planet (1987) is another of the bizarre photo-comics that are either completely outré or utterly embarrassing.
With that, we reach the end of one of the big successes of the early era of 2000 AD. It was an absolutely wild ride, and almost single-handedly makes the case for why the Prog is so important. What other publication could tell this mad a story, over so long a time (1980-1999), in such visually inventive ways? Credo!
Next time: We’re heading back to Brit-Cit for Armitage: City of the Dead.
THRILLSHOTS! 