Nemesis h/c back

"Holy shit. I'm covered in old person."

Like KICK-ASS this is set well clear of the Marvel Universe. There are no superheroes in this world, just one man in white with a great deal of money and time to kill. Time to kill people, specifically the finest Chiefs of police around the globe. He's an inverse Batman relishing the suffering and humiliation he inflicts on the mighty or noble with meticulous timing for maximum death and destruction by toppling over metaphorical dominoes of explosive set piece disasters set at precisely the right angle to each other. Here Tokyo is in for but a taster of what he has planned for America, its President and Washington DC's Chief Blake Morrow. Nevertheless it's a taster of the proportions compelling enough to convince Morrow to take him seriously, to take every conceivable precaution to outwit the man. Waste of time, actually.

A master strategist, every conceivable countermeasure has been anticipated days, months, years in advance, and every eventuality catered for. Everything they glean turns out to be fabrication, every hard-won advantage but a poisonous joker in Nemesis' perfectly played hand - or at least proof that he was right all along. It's relentless.

There is a tradition in superhero comics that the villain is unerringly outwitted by the hero of superior intellect, ingenuity or perspicacity, nowhere more so than in Batman's last minute fat/fryer extractions. But this is a Batman who in addition has the luxury of acting rather than reacting, and on plans made laid at leisure leaving others to repent their haste.

Truly I would advise you to steer clear of any other publicity concerning this title if you want to be surprised by the sheer scale of the spectacle ahead of you because even in the short space of the opening chapter your jaw will drop not once, not twice and not even thrice. It's an experience replicated by the number of reversals later on. Don't flick ahead, basically.

Is it over the top? Of course. There's more than a moment that's pure Frank Miller. Is it gratuitous? Umm, it's a superhero comic. Is it any good? Well, McNiven you may know as Millar's artist on CIVIL WAR and WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN. It's not a team generally known to disappoint.