Nemesis

• Title — Millar & McNiven's Nemesis • Limited — Yes • Superhero — Yes • Publisher — Marvel Comics • Startmo — May • Startyr — 2010 • Endmo — December • Endyr — 2010 • Issues — 4 • Main Char Team — Matthew Anderson / Nemesis • Writers — Mark Millar • Artists — Steve McNiven • Letterers — Chris Eliopoulos • Colorists — Dave McCaig • Editors — Dan Ketchum Nick Lowe • Creators — Mark Millar Steve McNiven • Tpb — Hardcover • Isbn — 0-7851-4865-5 • Subcat — Marvel Comics • Altcat — Image Comics • Sort — Nemesis • Addpubcat1 — Icon Comics titles

The publicity was launched in October 2009, with a teaser image containing the caption "What if Batman was the Joker?" and in a subsequent interview Millar revealed that it was only one of a number of possible lines they went with, his favourite being "What if Batman was a total cunt?" This caused concern at DC Comics, the publisher of Batman, but Millar denied there had been threats of legal action: The series also gained pre-publication attention when Millar auctioned the right to name the main policeman character, something he had done with Kick-Ass. The winning bid was $8,500 and, as with the previous auction, proceeds went to the charity run by Mark Millar's brother Dr. Bobby Millar which helps children with special needs. It proved so successful that the real name of the main supervillain character was also auctioned off, with the winner, Matthew Anderson, seeing Nemesis' civilian name be named after himself. In 2017, a one-shot, Nemesis: We are Nemesis, written by Steve Lawrence and illustrated by Marcelo Salazo, was published by Image Comics as part of the Millarworld New Talent Annual 2017, an anthology annual consisting of one-shot specials containing winning entries from the online contest for up-and-coming creators held by Millar in 2016. Set during the events of Nemesis, the story is told from the perspective of one of Nemesis' followers. A follow-up miniseries, titled Nemesis: Reloaded, launched in January 2023 with Jorge Jimenez serving as artist, with the series serving as a soft reboot of the character, helping to better integrate the character into the greater Millarworld shared universe, with a new Matthew "Nemesis" Anderson being trained by Wesley "The Killer II" Gibson. Following the conclusion of Reloaded, Nemesis then appeared in Big Game, a crossover with every Millarworld property illustrated by Pepe Larraz in July the same year. Two new Nemesis titles were published by Dark Horse Comics: Nemesis: Rogues' Gallery, written by Millar with Valerio Giangiordano serving as artist, was released from 2024 to 2025, and a fourth series written by Millar, Nemesis: Forever, was released from 2025 to 2026.

The supervillain Nemesis destroys a building in Tokyo, killing a SWAT team and a police inspector. In Washington, D.C., the FBI informs metro police Chief Inspector Blake Morrow that Nemesis is targeting him next. He is given a card reading "Blake Morrow, March 12th at midnight, Flatline still counts". Morrow has his family put in protective custody. Nemesis hijacks Air Force One over the District of Columbia, taking the United States president hostage and crashing the plane into Washington D.C., killing hundreds. Nemesis makes an international broadcast, revealing the President hostage in front of him. Nemesis reveals to his henchmen that his real name is Matt Anderson, and his father had committed suicide after Morrow tried to imprison him for hunting runaway teenagers with his rich friends. Bored of good behaviour and less excitement, Anderson travelled the world to learn the ways of crime, hoping to fulfil his mother's dying wish to have Morrow killed. Nemesis kills twenty-thousand people at the Pentagon using poison gas while Morrow is there but Morrow and his partner Stuart survive. Nemesis appears in front of them and Morrow and Stuart fire, but Nemesis is behind bullet-proof glass. He reveals he put the antidote in their morning coffee in order to taunt Morrow about the inspector's projected March 12 death. Police capture Nemesis, who claims he allowed himself to be caught. Nemesis' henchmen have already infiltrated the prison. Nemesis breaks free, kills 97 guards with his bare hands, and frees the inmates, and then destroys the prison. He kidnaps Morrow's children, forcing Morrow to reveal secrets: his wife had an affair; his son is gay; and his daughter had a secret abortion. All of these secrets were kept from him as Morrow is a devoted Catholic. Nemesis releases the children but he has artificially inseminated Morrow's daughter with the son's sperm, with her womb rigged to collapse if an abortion is attempted. An enraged Morrow eventually believes he has discovered Nemesis' hideout and arrives there with a police team, only to find it is a trap. The house explodes, knocking Morrow unconscious. When Morrow awakens, Nemesis reveals that Stuart has been working for him. Stuart reveals Nemesis promised to pay him $10 million for his work and tells Morrow that Nemesis' henchmen retire after every job. Nemesis shoots and kills Stuart and jokingly says: "Well, that's one way of putting it". Nemesis reveals that his "Matthew Anderson" story was made up: he is simply rich and bored, creating death and havoc for his own amusement. The real Matthew Anderson died in an Indian whorehouse, after squandering his inheritance. Nemesis reveals they are in the White House's Oval Office, where Morrow's wife Peggy and the U.S. president have bombs strapped to their chests. With the staff and Secret Service agents killed, and Nemesis gives Morrow a detonator and tells him he has thirty seconds to kill either the president or his family. With four seconds left, the president steps-up to Nemesis and tells Morrow to detonate his bomb, which he does. Nemesis survives the blast, and in a final confrontation, he and Morrow shoot each other. Morrow kills Nemesis with a headshot, but Morrow is injured from a shot to the stomach and is taken to a hospital. He flatlines during the surgery but survives, during the surgery Morrow's son goes through his wallet looking at family photos and finding the card from Nemesis, and the clock shows midnight. The scene ends with a dead Nemesis, with part of his head missing and a big smile. As the series concludes, Morrow is on a beach during a vacation with his family, including his newborn triplet granddaughters. There he is given a letter, ostensibly given to the waiter ten years earlier, congratulating Morrow and claiming to be from the head of a company that arranges for rich people to become supervillains. The comic ends with the owner of the company (revealed as an older Wesley Gibson in Nemesis: Reloaded) sitting on the beach, enjoying the sunset. Although Nemesis is dead, it is likely that a new supervillain will rise.