I've just finished reading the 'Complete Nemesis the Warlock', probably my favourite comic character. Having all the books and other tales collected is great, I've hugely enjoyed rediscovering them. However I'm disappointed by Book X: The Final Conflict. I stopped reading 2000AD sometime after Book Nine, which I thought was superb, in no small part due to Hicklentons' artwork, so missed X originally. A lot of X seems to be a recap of past Books, bringing (I presume) new readers at the time up to speed. This wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't cover old ground in a repetitive manner, some of it has a few nice nods to Nemesis' history, but I was thinking (too often) 'yes, I remember that, I know that already'. The ending of the Book, and the whole saga (which I won't spoil) was particulary disappointing to me, I thought it wasn't very original and seemed a bit rushed. Nemesis and Torquemada get in a fight, then The End. It wasn't very satisfying, although it was nice to O'Neill back for the final part. Anyone else feel the same way?
My recollection of Nemesis is very patchy. Which is the one which had some kind of Victorian thing going on, and had the whole thing about anti-"deviancy", but Torqemada was actually one himself? That was Kev O'Neill on art, i'm sure. I recently re-read the very first story arc, the Titan Books edition that also featured the original one-shot story. I must confess I didn't enjoy as much as i did first time round.. it was very "of it's time" I suppose! Still a great character tho.
The Victorian thing is Book 4, The Gothic Empire. I too thought it was O'Neill (one of my favourite artists), but on checking he just drew the first part, the rest was Bryan Talbot. I've still got the Titan edition of Book One, trying to decide whether to hold onto it, or off to ebay, it's redundant now I've got the collected 'phonebooks', but it's got some sentimental value. It does indeed, both of them are in second of the 'phonebook' style volumes, along with the Diceman game. From what I've read on the 'net (always a reliable source!!) the only thing missing is a poster comic which had a short strip in it. The two one-off strips pre-Nemesis, all ten Books, the various stand-alone strips, and the Nemesis and Deadlock stuff are all included. The only addition needed is the ABC Warriors Time Wastes story, which I'll be getting next. They're easy to find on ebay, Amazon, or the 2000AD site, depending on your location. I stumbled upon them by accident, very glad I did.
Black Hole is still beyond awesome today, it should be required reading for anyone interested in robots blowing shit up.
