Nemesis The Warlock: Eps 9-12

We’re all familiar with and identify with the secret lost worlds of feral childhood.

I’m blown away by Nemesis the Warlock: the Definitive Edition. My compliments to the publishers, Rebellion, and especially their designer Gemma Sheldrake for the truly inspired front and back covers.

Such a Definitive Edition requires a Definitive Commentary, a companion piece for when you’re looking at the beautiful art by art-creator Kevin O’Neill and the other talented artists that followed him. So it’s time for The Secret History of Nemesis the Warlock, an episode by episode revelation of what really went on behind the scenes.

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Bryan Talbot’s wonderfully grotesque Nostradamus, Torquemada’s secret older brother

Episode 9 – Death to Science

I enjoyed this episode because it gave the history of Termight and especially the negative role of science.

‘Science, as well as alien life, was blamed for the disasters that had befallen the Earth. Books were burnt, laboratories and computers smashed, thousands of boffins were butchered in anti-scientist riots.’

I have some sympathy with an anti-scientist perspective. We all too willingly assume because some guy is wearing a white coat or has a degree that he is somehow superior to the rest of us and we should take heed of them.

The crimes of Big Pharma, Bill Gates and Oppenheimer spring immediately to mind. And in the world of psychiatry, scientists undoubtedly had many criminals in their ranks with vile procedures and drugs that left their victims as zombies. Yet they can never be called to account because they wear white coats, which means they are as revered as priests in their ‘holy’ vestments. It’s a big subject, but I didn’t want to take my eye off the ball which is the serial’s theme of ‘Death to aliens’ so I had to leave it there. But it explains the decadent approach of the Terminators because they are wary of science for all the harm it has caused. I pursue this theme further in Requiem Vampire Knight, where the role of the Archeologists is to actually bury the latest inventions because decadence is preferred to ‘progress’.

The Arch Hierophant (the head Archaeologist) protests his innocence. From Requiem Vampire Knight 12: The Fall of Dracula

Episode 10 – The Lonely Child

This episode focuses on Thoth and I found it very moving – the story of a lonely alien and his pet, Satanus.