The bad man with anarchy and havoc in his soul has no plans to hand himself over to the authorities. While the first issue showed Nemesis hadn’t skipped a beat since his last outing in the comics world, Image Comics’ Nemesis: Reloaded #2 — by writer Mark Millar, artist Jorge Jiménez, colorist Giovanna Niro, and letterer Clem Robins — pumps the brakes on the violence. This issue is about unpacking who Nemesis is, and what led to him becoming a villain with an insatiable thirst for blood.
The City of Angels is in peril. Thanks to Nemesis’ devious plan to offer financial rewards to anyone who takes out the police, citizens begin a violent uprising, creating a mass panic. Mayor Joe Costello tries to find a solution for the whole city. In the distance, Nemesis watches Costello, revealing they’re hiding something that the troubled mayor is unaware of. The issue uses this as the perfect segue to uncover the history of the man behind the mask.
Nemesis: Reloaded #2 is all about providing answers and diving deeper into the depraved character’s backstory. While the writer does give a definitive origin for the villain in this issue, there’s still a gap in his history that looks likely to be addressed later. Millar knows how to create an exposition-heavy story without it feeling convoluted. He describes past events while balancing two relevant events in modern times, allowing for a smooth and natural transition. As mentioned before, Millar deliberately leaves out finer details to keep a few questions in the air.
Jiménez painted the town red in the first issue and receives ample opportunity to do the same here. While there are a few pages of fast and furious action, the artist spends most of Nemesis: Reloaded #2 taking the reader on a journey through the villain’s life. There are different scenes, scenarios and settings for Jiménez to play with, and he demonstrates the aptitude to handle the quieter moments with the same energy.
Niro expands on the color palettes from the first issue. The colorist’s work in the flashback sequences has a retro cinema quality, with a clever shift in colors to indicate the passage of time. Due to the decrease in action, Robins’ lettering isn’t as excitable as before. Instead, the letterer focuses on delivering digestible dialogue.
Nemesis: Reloaded #2 was never going to be as explosive as its predecessor. It builds on the core narrative, and focuses more on the issue’s characters. Even so, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that Millar and his collaborators have something up their sleeve, and this installment is nothing more than a diversion.