Nemesis the Warlock: Eps 16 & 17
As a boy I would make up satirical stories about the overwhelming and unhealthy love that I saw the parishioners – men and women – had for their priests.
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.
Episode Sixteen: The Final Battle
The most remarkable element for me, reading this chapter again, is the deep love the Terminators have for Torquemada. The Vestal Vampires will willingly give up their lives for the Grand Master. Brother Mikron says, ‘Grand Master… please… life without you would be hollow emptiness.’ It’s comparable to the love the Nazis had for their Fuhrer and other followers have for their dictators. But in fictional terms, there’s no one in quite the same league as Torquemada. I don’t recall Sax Rohmer’s acolytes of Fu Manchu having that much love for him. This is because I was drawing on the awe that congregations once had – and some still have – for their parish priests. As a child, I would watch parishioners averting their eyes, bowing their heads, beating their chests and proclaiming, ‘Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault,’ as signs of how lowly, blameworthy and inferior they were and how superior their priest was, a conduit for God to manifest on Earth.
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